Press Action ::: Animal Rights, Ecofeminism and Rooster Rehab: Mickey Z. Interviews pattrice jones

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Humans vs. Oceans (a reprise)

Let’s go to ScienceDaily.com for the chemistry: “Ocean acidification is linearly related to the amount of CO2 we produce. CO2 dissolves in the ocean, reacts with seawater and decreases the pH. Since the industrial revolution, the oceans have become 30 percent more acidic (from 8.2 pH to 8.1 pH).”

Ocean-Acidification.net adds: “The ocean absorbs approximately 1/3rd of the CO2 emitted to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. However, this valuable service comes at a steep ecological cost - the acidification of the ocean. As CO2 dissolves in seawater, the pH of the water decreases, which is called ‘acidification.’”

This increase in ocean acidification has prompted some dire predictions. “Ocean acidification is more rapid than ever in the history of the earth and if you look at the pCO2 (partial pressure of carbon dioxide) levels we have reached now, you have to go back 35 million years in time to find the equivalents” said Jelle Bijma, chair of the EuroCLIMATE programme Scientific Committee and a biogeochemist at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute Bremerhaven.

Richard Marcus sez: “Even if every single person in the United States were to change all their light-bulbs to fluorescent, cut the amount they drive in half, recycle half of their household waste, inflate their tire pressure to increase gas mileage, use low flow shower heads and wash clothes in lower temperature water, adjusts their thermostats two degrees up or down depending on the season, and plant a tree, it would result in a one time, 21 percent reduction in carbon emissions.”

So, um...where’s the urgency among activists?

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Poetic angst?

Comments (16)

Can anyone say Ben Tre?

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Wiped out

While working out in a gym in Texas during my recent visit, I noticed a container of Clorox disinfectant wipes attached to the wall. The idea was to give us gym patrons a way to wipe down machines after use and disinfect our hands while we we at it.

In case you think there’s nothing unusual about using Clorox in a “health” club, dig this: Just above the Clorox container, there was a small spot of white on the wall. It seems that every time a wipe is pulled from the container, it scrapes the wall at that point and thus, slowly eats away the brown paint.

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Travel poem

Comments (13)

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Becoming the Media

I’ve known Jen Angel for years. She and fellow Clamor Magazine founder, Jason Kucsma, appeared in my book, The Murdering of My Years: Artists and Activists Making Ends Meet and I wrote for Clamor on occasion. None of these facts, however, explain why I read and appreciated Jen’s 44-page chapbook, Becoming the Media: A Critical History of Clamor Magazine (from PM Press which yes, is publishing a book of mine soon). Simply put, it’s right down my proverbial alley. I’ve written about corporate media propaganda for decades and never fail to include a spiel like this in my public talks:

“Whether you label them liberal or conservative, most major media outlets are large corporations owned by or aligned with even larger corporations, and they share a common goal: to make a profit by selling a product—an affluent audience—to a given market: advertisers. Therefore, we shouldn’t find it too shocking that the image of the world being presented by a corporate-owned press very much reflects the biased interests of the elite players involved in this sordid little love triangle. That’s why every major daily newspaper has a business section, but not a labor section. Why at least once a week those same newspapers run an automobile section, but no bicycle section. This is why when the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops, it makes headlines. But if the global infant mortality rate rises, it’s questionable if it will even make the papers—and if it does, it’ll be buried on page 23. In other words, if you created a blueprint for an apparatus that utterly erased critical thought, you can make none more efficient than the American corporate media.”

Jen Angel doesn’t need me (or anyone) to explain all that to her. She knows it firsthand and has spent much of her time creating and supporting media that offer the perspective of women, workers, immigrants, and everyone else outside the mainstream umbrella. Not just writing and design, but also issues of distribution, diversity, workplace dynamics, etc. The story of Jen’s role in Clamor—told concisely and with honesty—is part blueprint, part kick in the ass. “The real challenge,” she writes, “is getting people, on a large scale, to understand how media works to nurture, sustain, and strengthen social movements.”

In other words, if the corporate-owned media drives the getaway car for global criminals, it’s high time to create our own independent methods of communication to not only expose what’s going on but also talk openly about what needs to be done…now.

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Travel poem

Comments (14)

Friday, June 26, 2009

Mickey Z. sez:

(Photo by Michele)

“It is our moral obligation to see through our own propaganda and kick the addictive habit of lazy thinking. Change should and must be imagined possible. The precarious state of global affairs is not the result of some preordained theology or unstoppable force of nature. We are where we are thanks to decisions made by humans. Other decisions could have been made; other outcomes could have resulted. Therefore, it follows that change is not impossible.”

Your thoughts?

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Nimby haiku

(Still in Texas: hope to be home on Sunday night)

Comments (17)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

What sometimes passes for conversation

(A Cool Observer re-run of sorts)

When you meet someone for the first time, they often ask: “What do you do?” Being well-trained capitalists, of course we all understand this question to really mean: “What job do you have?” or “How do you make a living?” or “Where do you rent yourself out for 8-10 hours a days in order to pay for all those consumer electronics?”

I once encountered a more palatable version of this scenario when I met an experimental musician who asked me: “What sort of things do you do?” This refreshing variation led me to answer: “Well, one of the things I do is write.” From there, we talked about my books and his music with no mention of whether or not we’ve ever earned a penny from such ventures.

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Disposable poem

(I’m still in Texas and will try to update soon)

Comments (21)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Health care, American-style

According to an Institute of Medicine report, 60 Americans die every day due to lack of health insurance.

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Speaking of health care:

My Dad just had surgery in Texas so I’m headed down to help out. I’ll try to stay in touch here but my Internet access will be limited...at best. As always, I hope you’ll all continue to gather and chat in my (relative) absence.

Buh-bye...

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I took this photo in the North Woods of Central Park

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Laundry haiku

Comments (28)

Cell phones or Eastern Lowland Gorillas?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

It's our choice

Which would you rather have:

A commodity culture or an ozone layer?

Interstate highways or ancient forests?

Hamburgers or rainforests?

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Poetry w/soul

Comments (24)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Understanding the situation in Iran (a quiz)

In order to take seriously the mainstream media/political talk about Iran (elections, nuclear ambitions, etc.), you have to first pretend which of the following:

A) The US didn’t overthrow Mossadegh in 1953
B) Israel doesn’t possess nuclear weapons
C) Iran doesn’t possess the world’s third largest oil reserves
D) The US actually wants to promote democracy at home and abroad
E) You forgot that the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons is America
F) All of the above

(Answer: F)

If you can partake in all that pretending, well...the current hoopla will make a whole lot of sense to you.

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Punning poetry

Comments (29)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Cultural genocide and the environment

A term like cultural genocide has been typically reserved for discussions of the political science variety. However, with the ever-increasing impact of climate change, all lines are becoming blurred. Neena Bhandari of IPS has written about the frightening connection between global warming and Australia’s Aboriginal communities. Indigenous rights advocates, Bhandari tells is, warn of people being forced out of their traditional lands, their culture destroyed, and their access to water resources dwindling.

Aboriginal people account for only 2.5 percent of Australia’s total population, with an estimated population of 517,200, and they are paying a high price for “progress.” Tom Calma is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. “As coastal and island communities confront rising sea levels, and inland areas become hotter and drier, indigenous people are at risk of further economic marginalization, as well as potential dislocation from and exploitation of their traditional lands, waters and natural resources,” Calma said. “The cruel irony is that indigenous people have the smallest ecological footprint but are being asked to carry the heaviest burden of climate change.”

Article 7 the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples uses the phrase “cultural genocide” and declares that indigenous peoples have the “collective and individual right not to be subjected to ethnocide and cultural genocide, including prevention of and redress” for:
(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources;
(c) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights;
(d) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures;
(e) Any form of propaganda directed against them.

It’s gonna take more than recycled toilet paper and energy efficient light bulbs to solve these problems, folks...

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Tourist poem

Comments (18)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Animal Rights, Ecofeminism and Rooster Rehab: Mickey Z. Interviews pattrice jones

pattrice jones is an ecofeminist educator, activist and writer. She is the author of Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies and co-founder of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center.

Founded in a rural region of Maryland dominated by the poultry industry, the sanctuary provides a haven for hens, roosters and ducks who have escaped or been rescued from the meat and egg industries or other abusive circumstances, such as cockfighting. Not surprisingly, pattrice and company take things further than your average sanctuary. “We work within an ecofeminist understanding of the interconnection of all life and the intersection of all forms of oppression,” she explains. “Thus we welcome and work to facilitate alliances among animal, environmental, and social justice activists.”

As the sanctuary begins a move from Maryland to Springfield, Vermont, I thought it would be the perfect time ask pattrice a few questions, via e-mail:

MZ: What led you to such work? Why hens, roosters, and ducks?

pj: We found a chicken in a ditch. Seriously. Miriam Jones and I (then partners, and still family) were both experienced social justice activists when we inadvertently landed in poultry country, having moved “back to the land” with Green Acres dreams of going off grid. At the time, it was not uncommon for birds to flee to freedom by jumping from transport trucks, and “growers” for the poultry industry would sometimes let us rescue birds they were supposed to cull (the industry has since tightened its transport and security procedures.) One bird became two then five then thirty-five… within six months of finding the first bird, we incorporated the sanctuary.

MZ: Fortunately, there are many animal sanctuaries but I’m curious to know more about what you call the “gendered form of animal exploitation.”

pj: That first chicken was a rooster we originally mistook for a hen. I had to work hard to feel the same way about him once I knew he was a rooster. He was the same tenderly friendly bird he’d always been, but all of those “rooster” ideas—cocky, aggressive, etc.—were interfering with my ability to see him clearly. That got me thinking about the ways that people project gender stereotypes on animals and then read them back as evidence that traditional sex roles are natural, a process I have come to call the social construction of gender by way of animals. So, when we got an urgent call about 24 roosters who had been living together peacefully but all other sanctuaries had turned away under the theory that so many roosters cannot possibly get along, we said yes. Besides livening up the place, that colorful crew inspired us to try to figure out a way to rehabilitate roosters used in cockfighting, which we have done.

MZ: What do you mean when you say “rehabilitate roosters”?

pj: Roosters confiscated from cockfighting operations used to be automatically euthanized, on the presumption that they were too aggressive to ever live peacefully with other birds. But that’s the propaganda of cockfighting enthusiasts, who argue that they are just watching roosters doing what comes naturally. In fact, chickens—like the wild jungle fowl from which they descended and to whom the birds used in cockfighting are very nearly genetically identical—naturally live in flocks in which multiple roosters coexist peacefully. Roosters in the wild fight to the death only against predators, not against each other! They sometimes will have highly stylized fights with each other, but these are not the pitched battles to the death that we see in cockfighting.

MZ: Why do fighting roosters fight?

pj: Raised in isolation and constant frustration, they never learn the social signals by which roosters resolve their conflicts and figure out their places in flocks. Prior to cockfighting bouts, they are often injected with testosterone and methamphetamines. In the bouts, they face opponents who, like themselves, have had their combs shaved (so they look more like a hawk than another chicken) and their spurs augmented by sharp blades. It’s kill or be killed. What we do is give former fighters the chance to learn, by observation and gradual participation, the social skills they need to coexist peacefully with other birds. We give them a safe space from which to do this and, over time, recover from the trauma to which they have been subjected.

MZ: Your approach with the roosters sounds like a logical, compassionate strategy for any living thing that has undergone trauma.

pj: Right. We all—or at least all social species—need the same things when we’ve been traumatized, including safety or sanctuary and the chance to restore the relationships (with others and within ourselves) that have been strained or severed by trauma. I talk about that, for people, in my book Aftershock. In relation to animals, I’m happy to be working with Gay Bradshaw of the Kerulos Center and other members of the new International Association for Animal Trauma and Recovery; we’ve all been thinking hard about how to apply what we know about trauma and recovery among people to the task of helping animals who have suffered human-engendered trauma.

MZ: So now you’re bringing this approach to a new location?

pj: Our move to a larger property in Vermont, a small state with 33 factory farms serving the dairy industry and adjacent to Maine (the home of the infamous DeCoster egg factory) will allow us to expand our bird rescue capacities and also expand our activism to include dairy, which—like cockfighting—is a gendered form of animal exploitation.

MZ: How can readers help and get involved?

pj: Because we were founded in one rural agricultural area and are now moving to another, we depend entirely on support from afar to fund our programs. Because we are a small and chronically underfunded sanctuary, even small donations make a big difference. And we fall all over ourselves with gratitude for those who can afford to give more and do. Folks can find donation information on our website (http://www.bravebirds.org).

If you live in a big city, another way to help out with money is to hold a vegan pot luck fundraiser at your house. Eat, watch a movie like Peaceable Kingdom or Chicken Run, and then pass the hat for the sanctuary.

In terms of volunteering, folks who live near our new location in Springfield, Vermont might want to pitch in on coop cleaning and grounds maintenance. We need folks in our original locale, on the Delmarva Peninsula, to occasionally help out by driving local birds to sanctuaries in Maryland and Virginia. As we expand our rooster rehab program, we’ll be needing folks up and down the east coast to sign up to sometimes drive birds to us from wherever they might be confiscated by authorities after a cockfighting bust.

We need everybody to have a look at the information and ideas on our website and then subscribe to our blog so that they will receive action alerts as we continue and expand our efforts to fundamentally reform food and agriculture while building bridges among social justice, environmental, and animal liberation activists. We’re going to be coordinating a new, explicitly feminist, campaign concerning dairy later this year. Watch for it!

You can e-mail pattrice at:
Website: http://www.bravebirds.org

Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

Comments (0)

Here are my answers from a while back
Here are all previous survey answers

Take the Tiny Choices survey

My friend Jenn (along with her pal Karina) run a site called Tiny Choices. Every Friday, they post someone’s answers to these 10 survey questions:

1. Vital statistics (name, age, location, link to website/blog)?
2. How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)? Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
3. How do you travel (transit, car, etc)? Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
4. Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
5. What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
6. What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
7. What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you make that people question (in either a positive educational or a negative hassle way) you the most about?
8. What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
9. Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
10. Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?

So, in the name of cross pollinating ideas and philosophies, I’m wondering if any of the regulars here would like to take the survey. If so, copy the above questions, add your answers, and send it all to:

(Let me know if you do it so I can post a link here)

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History poem

Comments (21)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

High Noon

I was watching High Noon for the billionth time the other night. For me, the most powerful moment in the film is when Amy, the converted Quaker wife (played by Grace Kelly) of Marshal Kane (Gary Cooper) shoots and kills a man to save her husband’s life.

Earlier in the film, Amy declares: “My father and my brother were killed by guns. They were on the right side but that didn’t help them any when the shooting started. My brother was nineteen. I watched him die. That’s when I became a Quaker. I don’t care who’s right or who’s wrong. There’s got to be some better way for people to live.”

However, Amy not only ends up shooting a man, she also fights off the main villain (see above photo) which allows Marshal Kane to finish him off.

While High Noon was originally created as a McCarthy-era allegory, it stands today as a stark warning not only that the average citizen would rather pretend all is well than stand up and fight but also this: When staring down murderous psychopaths, even pacifists must sometimes choose force.

Your thoughts?

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New Mickey Z. video:

Thanks to Keir, I now have footage of my brief talk at the May 17 Veggie Pride Parade

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Hungry haiku

Comments (23)

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

His manifest erosion

Once upon a time...

At the top of the Grand Central Station stairs sat a homeless man. Way back, when I endured the only office gig I’ve ever had, I saw him asking for money near the #7 train. He was about 50-55 and claimed to be a Vietnam vet (if everyone who claimed to be a Vietnam vet was authentic, the U.S. must have had about 10 million invaders over there).

As the months turned into a year, the Vet was at the same spot every single day. I watched him progressively waste away. The Vet lost at least 40-50 pounds…his skin color turned a sort of grayish tone…he barely had the strength to hold up his tattered coffee cup.

It’s pretty shocking to witness a human being’s demise on a daily basis especially when you’re watching him along with thousands of others…most of us contributing to our own demise by submitting to suicidal 9-to-5 (more like 8-to-8) grind.

Even with his manifest erosion, I only started regularly giving the Vet money after a specific incident. The Vet was seated on a milk crate a little nearer to the turnstiles than usual. An extremely large cop noticed this. He approached the Vet with that annoying police swagger we all know and hate…brusquely ordering the poor man to move. The Vet meekly voiced his protest and this massive man in blue loudly and inarticulately bellowed: “Don’t make me put my hands on you, man, ’cause if I do, you’re gonna get hurt.”

This pathetic moment—essentially ignored or unseen by my fellow passers-by—spurred me to immediately adopt the Vet as my own personal cause. I started giving him money the next time I saw him…and went as far as making up regular packages that included underwear, socks, food, and new signs to help his begging.

For some reason, he never used the signs I gave him.

The End

Who wants to tell us a story in the comments section?

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New Mickey Z. video:

Thanks to Keir, I now have footage of my brief talk at the May 17 Veggie Pride Parade

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Feline poetry

Comments (20)

Read my interview with pattrice here

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Animal rights, ecofeminism, and rooster rehab

pattrice jones is an ecofeminist educator, activist, and writer. She is the author of Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for Activists and Their Allies and co-founder of the Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center.

pattrice sez: “We all - or at least all social species - need the same things when we’ve been traumatized, including safety or sanctuary and the chance to restore the relationships (with others and within ourselves) that have been strained or severed by trauma.”

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NYC Event Alert:

Noam Chomsky at Riverside Church on June 12

Anyone planning to go?

(FYI: It’s a fundraiser so there is a charge)

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Memoir poem

Comments (25)

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Make a bold move or settle for nothing?

Ani DiFranco sez:
“What a waste of thumbs that are opposable
To make machines that are disposable
And sell them to seagulls flying in circles
Around one big right wing
Yes, the left wing was broken long ago
By the slingshot of COINTELPRO
And now it’s so hard to have faith in anything
Especially your next bold move”

Rage Against the Machine sez:
“If we don’t take action now
We settle for nothing later
Settle for nothing now
And we’ll settle for nothing later”

Who has a song quote to add?

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Flirty haiku

Comments (25)

This got me thinking about something from Cornel West

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Playing Left Wing

I finally got around to reading my friend Yves Engler’s 2006 book, Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical. I highly recommend it...especially for younger readers (say, 16-24) just finding their way onto the meaningful path of rebellion.

An excerpt:

“Maybe all of us are outsiders in one sense or another. Maybe no one fits in completely, no matter where you are. And it sure is a lot more fun to be around people with a willingness to be different, to think critically, to strive for the truth, to challenge authority, and try to make the world a better place. I’d choose that over boring old conformity any day. I choose to conform with the non-conformists. I choose to be an insider with the outsiders. I choose to challenge authority, including the authority of those challenging authority.

“In real life, there is usually a price to pay when someone speaks the truth to the rich and powerful. Still, I would argue, there is a much bigger price to pay if no one has the courage to do it: The world would never change for the better.”

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My latest fitness column

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Ungodly poem

Comments (22)

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

We got it all wrong the first time

In the 1999 film Run, Lola, Run, the female protagonist is magically given three chances to cope with a tricky situation. Like having a reset button on a video game or computer, if Lola screws up, she gets to go back and start from the beginning.

Many people imply unless a critic expounds a specific strategy for change, his/her assessment is possibly worthless or, at the very least, too negative. This reaction misses the essential role critical analysis plays in a society where problems—and their causes—are so cleverly disguised.

When discussing the future, the first step is often an identification and demystification of the past and present. In order for us to hit reset button, we must recognize we got it all wrong the first time.

Your thoughts?

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Smarty poem

Comments (30)

Sunday, May 31, 2009

"Material growth intensifies environmental degradation"

Expendable Charles recently lent me an excellent book called How the Rich are Destroying the Earth, by Herve Kempf...and I’d like to share this excerpt from the preface:

The comfort in which Western societies are immersed must not conceal from us the gravity of the moment. We are entering a time of durable crisis and possible catastrophe. Signs of the ecological crisis are clearly visible and the hypothesis of a catastrophe is becoming realistic.

Yet, in reality, people pay little attention to these signs. They influence neither politics nor the economy. The system does not know how to change trajectory. Why?

Because we don’t succeed in relating ecology and society.

However, we cannot understand the concomitance of the ecological and social crises if we don’t analyze them as the two sides of the same disaster. And that disaster derives from a system piloted by a dominant social stratum that today has no drive other than greed, no ideal other than conservatism, no dream other than technology.

This predatory oligarchy is the main agent of the global crisis - directly, by the decisions it makes. Those decisions aim to maintain the order that has been established to its advantage and favor the objective of material growth: the only method, according to the oligarchy, of making the subordinate classes accept the injustice of the social situation.

But material growth intensifies environmental degradation.

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Expendable Foto Fun:

Zen Prole stopped in Chicago on his way out west and met with none other than JOS. Thanks to a local waitress, this Expendable moment was preserved:

JOS and Zen Prole

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The Unsolved Haiku

Comments (48)

Saturday, May 30, 2009

the only good things

“You have to do things that average people don’t understand because those are the only good things.” - Andy Warhol

Forget from Michael Fragstein on Vimeo.

Comments (0)

Friday, May 29, 2009

Pet dog Sophie Tucker was found on a remote Australian island

A pet dog which was washed overboard and believed drowned has been found four months later - as a castaway on a remote Australian island.

Read the story at the BBC.

Comments (0)

having a heart

I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.
--Rudyard Kipling

Comments (0)

My next book: Self-Defense for Radicals

Non-fiction book #7 is on its way...thanks to PM Press.

Self-Defense for Radicals: A to Z Guide for Subversive Struggle will be done chapbook-style, much like these other PM Press pamphlets.

Some advance word:

“This small book packs a powerful punch. It will help you prepare
emotionally and physically to fight back. Read it, read it again, and then
practice. As Mickey Z. says, ‘The life you save may be your own’.”
- Derrick Jensen

“Mickey Z. shows you how to use your head. Literally! An invaluable guide for those moments when violence must be countered by force.”
- pattrice jones

“In this violent culture, Self Defense for Radicals belongs on every coffee table and in the glove compartment of every car driven by a man or a woman.”
- Rosemarie Jackowski (RMJ the Expendable)

I’ll provide more details as they develop. For now, here’s a fighting related article of mine.

P.S. Anyone interested in writing a review should let me know soon.

P.P.S. Stay tuned for upcoming news about my second novel getting published this year, too.

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Poetic suicide

Comments (29)

Read my full article here

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Activism 101

Okay, short attention span crowd: Grab your remote (or mouse) and get ready to click, click, click…

To me, the following Ward Churchill quote reads like a poem...so that’s how I’ll present it:

You’ve got to learn
that when you push people around,
some people push back.
As they should.
As they must.
And as they undoubtedly will.
There is justice in such symmetry.

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NYC Event Alert:

Expendable Keir—our resident saxophone monster—will be playing some Manhattan gigs in the next week:

Sunday, May 31 @ 8PM
Winter Garden
Bang on a Can Marathon
Ken Thomson’s 9-headed saxophone monster

Monday, June 1 @ 9PM
The Tank: 354 W 45th St.
DJ SNIFF + KEIR NEURINGER

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Poetic blame

Comments (18)

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Activism 101

By Mickey Z.

Okay, short attention span crowd: Grab your remote (or mouse) and get ready to click, click, click…

“How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight? I don’t wanna die without any scars.”

-Tyler Durden (Fight Club)

Click…

William Burroughs once wrote about how we humans—like the bull in a bullfight—tend to focus on the elusive red cape instead of the matador. Indeed, we are all-too-easily distracted from real targets by an attractive image or illusion.

Of course, some bulls see right through the red cape, uh, bullshit...and quite justifiably introduce the matador to the business end of their horns. Before you mistake that for a lesson and/or inspiration, don’t forget that such bulls are promptly killed while the matador is mourned as a brave hero.

Here’s my question: If every bull in every bullfight were to gore every matador, how long would it be before bullfights were a thing of the past?

Click…

Malcolm X sez:

“It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”

Click…

In the late 1960s—thanks to Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW)—deciding whether or not to buy grapes became a political act. Three years after its establishment in 1962, the UFW struck against grape growers around Delano, California...a long, bitter, and frustrating struggle that appeared impossible to resolve until Chavez promoted the idea of a national boycott. Trusting in the average person’s ability to connect with those in need, Chavez and the UFW brought their plight—and a lesson in social justice—into homes from coast-to-coast and Americans responded.
“By 1970, the grape boycott was an unqualified success,” writes Marc Grossman of Stone Soup. “Bowing to pressure from the boycott, grape growers at long last signed union contracts, granting workers human dignity and a more livable wage.”

Through hunger strikes, imprisonment, abject poverty for himself and his large family, racist and corrupt judges, exposure to dangerous pesticides, and even assassination plots, Chavez remained true to the cause...even if meant, uh..."stretching" the non-violent methods he espoused:

Once in 1966, when Teamster goons began to rough up Chavez’s picketeers, a bit of labor solidarity solved the problem. William Kircher, the AFL-CIO director of organization, called Paul Hall, president of the International Seafarers Union.

“Within hours,” writes David Goodwin in Cesar Chavez: Hope for the People, “Hall sent a carload of the biggest sailors that had ever put to sea to march with the strikers on the picket lines...There followed afterward no further physical harassment.”

Click…

To me, the following quote reads like a poem...so that’s how I’ll present it:

You’ve got to learn
that when you push people around,
some people push back.
As they should.
As they must.
And as they undoubtedly will.
There is justice in such symmetry.

-Ward Churchill

Click…

When early American revolutionaries chanted, “Give me liberty or give me death” and complained of having but one life to give for their country, they became the heroes of our history textbooks. But, thanks to the power of the U.S. media and education industries, the Puerto Rican nationalists who dedicated their lives to independence are known as criminals, fanatics, and assassins.

On March 1, 1954, in the gallery of the House of Representatives, Congressman Charles A. Halleck rose to discuss with his colleagues the issue of Puerto Rico. At that moment, Lolita Lebrón alongside three fellow freedom fighters, having purchased a one-way train ticket from New York (they expected to be killed) unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and shouted “Free Puerto Rico!” before firing eight shots at the roof. Her three male co-conspirators aimed their machine guns at the legislators. Andrés Figueroa’s gun jammed, but shots fired by Rafael Cancel Miranda and Irving Flores injured five congressmen.

“I know that the shots I fired neither killed nor wounded anymore,” Lebrón stated afterwards. With the attack being viewed through the sensationalizing prism of American tabloid journalism, this did not matter. She and her nationalist cohorts became prisoners of war for the next twenty-five years.

Why prisoners of war? To answer that, we must recall that since July 25, 1898, when the United States illegally invaded its tropical neighbor under the auspices of the Spanish-American War, the island has been maintained as a colony. In other words, the planet’s oldest colony is being held by its oldest representative democracy—with U.S. citizenship imposed without the consent or approval of the indigenous population in 1917. It is from this geopolitical paradox that the Puerto Rican independence movement sprang forth.

This movement is based firmly on international law, which authorizes “anti-colonial combatants” the right to armed struggle to throw off the yoke of imperialism and gain independence. UN General Assembly Resolution 33/24 of December 1978 recognizes “the legitimacy of the struggle of people’s for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination and foreign occupation by all means available, particularly armed struggle.”

Prison did not dampen Lebrón’s revolutionary spirit as she attended demonstrations and spoke out to help win the long battle to evict the US Navy from the tiny Puerto Rican island of Vieques in 2003.

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Emma Goldman sez:

“No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law.”

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In her excellent 1995 book, Bridge of Courage, Jennifer Harbury quotes a Guatemalan freedom fighter named Gabriel, responding to a plea to embrace non-violent resistance: “In my country child malnutrition is close to 85 percent,” he explains. “Ten percent of all children will be dead before the age of five, and this is only the number actually reported to government agencies. Close to 70 percent of our people are functionally illiterate. There is almost no industry in our country—you need land to survive. Less than 3 percent of our landowners own over 65 percent of our lands. In the last fifteen years or so, there have been over 150,000 political murders and disappearances… Don’t talk to me about Gandhi; he wouldn’t have survived a week here. There was a peaceful movement for progress here, once. They were crushed. We were crushed. For Gandhi’s method to work, there must be a government capable of shame. We lack that here.”

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Huey P. Newton sez:

“In the spirit of international revolutionary solidarity, the Black Panther Party hereby offers ... an undetermined number of troops to assist you in your fight against American imperialism. It is appropriate for the Black Panther Party to take this action at this time in recognition of the fact that your struggle is also our struggle, for we recognize that our common enemy is U.S. imperialism, which is the leader of international bourgeois domination. There is no fascist or reactionary government in the world today that could stand without the support of United States imperialism. Therefore our problem is international, and we offer these troops in recognition of the necessity for international alliance to deal with the problem … Such alliance will advance the struggle toward the final act of dealing with American imperialism. To end this oppression we must liberate the developing nations … As one nation is liberated elsewhere, it gives us a better chance to be free.”

(Excerpted from an October 29, 1970 letter to the National Front for Liberation and Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Viet Nam)

Click…

Arundhati Roy sez:

“People from poorer places and poorer countries have to call upon their compassion not to be angry with ordinary people in America.”

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In his book Endgame, Derrick Jensen tells of a discussion he had with a longtime activist. “She told me of a campaign she participated in a few years ago to try to stop the government and transnational timber corporations from spraying Agent Orange, a potent defoliant and teratogen, in the forests of Oregon,” Jensen writes. All too predictably, the dedicated demonstrators assembled to protest the toxic spraying were, “like clockwork,” ignored by the helicopter pilots. Both humans and landscape ended up thoroughly doused with Agent Orange—time and time again. The protest campaign obviously had no effect, so a different approach was taken. “A bunch of Vietnam vets lived in those hills,” the activist told Jensen, “and they sent messages to the Bureau of Land Management and to Weyerhauser, Boise Cascade, and the other timber companies saying, ‘We know the names of your helicopter pilots, and we know their addresses’

“You know what happened next?” she asked.

“I think I do,” Jensen responded.

“Exactly,” she said. “The spraying stopped.”

Click…

MLK sez:

“When you’re right, you can never be too radical.”

Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

Comments (1)

Monday, May 25, 2009

Happy Anniversary to us

Q. How long has the Cool Observer blog been around?
David Bowie sez: Five years

It all began five years ago—on May 26, 2004—with this rather mundane post.

So, I’ll take this opportunity to say thanks to all the regulars—The Expendables—past, present, and future. I am humbled on a daily basis by the amazing folks who’ve chosen this tiny corner of the Web as a meeting place of sorts.

How many of you remember how you first found this blog?

P.S. Thanks to Mark and Nancy for making this place possible

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Screwing around at Socrates Sculpture Park

(photo by Michele)

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Love poem of sorts

Comments (29)

Progressive paradox: Anti-war, pro-troops

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Memorial Weekend (blah, blah, blah...)

Last year’s post

2007

We stand and sing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch at Yankee Stadium to support, among other things: water boarding, Daisy Cutters, cluster bombs, napalm, depleted uranium, white phosphorus, and the launching cruise missiles into crowded cities.

P.S. Don’t support our (sic) troops…

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Subway haiku

Comments (21)

time is a delusion

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
--Albert Einstein

Comments (0)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

"No further physical harassment"

“By 1970, the grape boycott was an unqualified success,” writes Marc Grossman of Stone Soup. “Bowing to pressure from the boycott, grape growers at long last signed union contracts, granting workers human dignity and a more livable wage.”

“Within hours,” writes David Goodwin in Cesar Chavez: Hope for the People, “Hall sent a carload of the biggest sailors that had ever put to sea to march with the strikers on the picket lines...There followed afterward no further physical harassment.”

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Not really a poem poem

Comments (19)

A review of Lierre Keith’s book
Further discussion about Lierre Keith’s book

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Loners, uh...unite?

I just finished reading Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto and I have a feeling more than a few Expendables would enjoy and relate to this book.

An excerpt:

Apart. Such a simple concept. So concrete. So easy to represent on charts or diagrams with dots and pushpins either in or out. Yet real life is not dots. Some of us appear to be in, but we are out. And that is where we want to be. Not just want but need, the way tuna need the sea....

We do not require company. The opposite: in varying degrees, it bores us, drains us, makes our eyes glaze over. Overcomes us like a steamroller. Of course the rest of the world doesn’t understand.

Someone says to you, “Let’s have lunch.” You clench. Your sinews leap within you, angling for escape. What others thrive on, what they take for granted, the contact and confraternity and sharing that gives them strength leaves us empty. After what others would call a fun day out together, we feel as if we have been at the Red Cross, donating blood.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Veggie Pride Parade photos (and other food for thought)

These images were taken by Jenn:

(Expendables: James, Keir, me, and Charles)

This one is by Expendable James:

(more photos to follow later in the week)

Plus: Two links that relate to the discussion that began in the previous thread (be sure to check out the comments after the articles):

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DVD Alert:

An interview with me appears in this documentary

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Poetic Wake-Up Call

Comments (31)

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Postcards from the ledge

Slingshot

Disguised as a book of innocent postcards, Slingshot is a dangerous collection of Eric Drooker’s most notorious posters. Plastered on brick walls from New York to Berlin, tattooed on bodies from Kansas to Mexico City, Drooker’s graphics continue to infiltrate and inflame the body politic.

Sample:

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Leprechaun poem

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NYC Event Alert:

Veggie Pride Parade schedule here

Comments (20)

Friday, May 15, 2009

The return of Expendable storytelling

(This one should sound familiar to some of you)

Once upon a time...

Years ago, I had a friend, Vinny, and he was a wizard with his car. I don’t mean fixing it; I mean driving it. Vinny could drive his car backwards better than most people drive forward. And he did so with immense pride. But here’s the catch: he wouldn’t drive backwards in the wrong direction. Vinny would drive along with all the other cars in the same direction as them…only backwards. This was a major league mindfuck for anyone on the road with him.

He’d get us in his Toyota…me in the front with him, Frank and Pasquale in the back. Vinny would instruct us to sit straight and look forward as if we were doing nothing unusual. He would ever-so-slightly turn his head and sometimes only use the rearview mirror. The best would be when we stopped at a red light with a car in front of us and behind us. We’d be facing the wrong direction but going in the right direction and people were puzzled.

One more Vinny rule: do not laugh or act differently than you would on any other drive. Amazingly, we could pass an entire night doing this.

Vinny’s driving magic did not end there. He perfected the ability to sit in the passenger seat and still drive his car. His left hand would covertly hold the bottom of the steering wheel as his left leg stretched over to manipulate the pedals.

The first time I saw him, he was turning the corner on my block and I did a genuine, silent-movie caliber double take. People were freaking and he had this incredible gift to act as if all was normal. He waved to me and drove past as this other guy Charlie mumbled something about “cruise control.” I must have laughed for twenty minutes.

The next step was to add passengers. Vinny would get me and Frank in the back seat and cruise through Astoria. He’d have the radio blasting with his right hand out the window, fingers snapping. The responses along crowded Ditmars Boulevard were priceless...indelibly etched in my mind. Vinny loved this game so much that he’d do it alone if he had some errands to run.

The End

Who wants to tell us a story in the comments section?

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Liberty poem

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NYC Event Alert:

Comments (14)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Obama and the denial of genocide

This April, President Barack Obama broke campaign promise #511, namely to explicitly acknowledge the Armenian genocide as U.S. president. What happened on his recent visit to Turkey? What are the ramifications of his breaking this promise?

Read my interview with David Boyajian here

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Female haiku

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NYC Event Alert:

Comments (28)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Obama and the Denial of Genocide

By Mickey Z.

Writer-activist David Boyajian’s investigative articles and commentaries have appeared in Armenian media outlets in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Armenia and the Newton Tab and USA Armenian Life newspapers named him among their “Top 10 Newsmakers of 2007.” So, when Barack Obama paid a visit to Turkey last month, it seemed like a good time to ask Boyajian for his take on the new president’s approach to the issue of the Armenian genocide.

Mickey Z: This April, President Barack Obama broke campaign promise #511, namely to explicitly acknowledge the Armenian genocide as U.S. President. What happened on his recent visit to Turkey? What are the ramifications of his breaking this promise?

David Boyajian: President Obama visited Turkey from April 6 to 7, where he did not use the word “genocide” when referring to the 1.5 million murders committed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens from 1915-1923. As a candidate, Obama had promised several times to do so. His statement in Turkey that he had “not changed his views”—implying he still believes it was genocide—was still a clear breach of his promise to use the “G word.” It was a case study in verbal gymnastics and political duplicity and should be studied in political science courses. Obama’s broken promise obviously eroded his credibility. The same holds true for Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who, as senators, supported the Armenian genocide resolution. They’ve since fallen disgracefully silent. Dr. Samantha Power should also be embarrassed. She’s the National Security Council’s genocide expert and a Pulitzer Prize winning author. As a campaign advisor to Obama, she made a video telling Armenian Americans that as president, Obama would definitely acknowledge their genocide. “Take my word for it,” she said.

Appeasement of a genocide-denying country such as Turkey is bad policy because its message is that genocides can be committed without consequence. Appeasement also erodes U.S. credibility on human rights and its stated desire to be a leader in genocide prevention. Unlike what lobbyists for Turkey would have U.S. believe, Armenian genocide affirmation by America would not harm U.S. national interests. Turkey depends on the U.S. for weapons systems, support for billions in loans from the International Monetary Fund, security guarantees through NATO, advocacy for Turkish membership in the European Union, and more. Some 20 countries, including Canada, France, and Switzerland, as well as the parliaments of the EU and the Council of Europe, have acknowledged the Armenian genocide. None has ever experienced much more a Turkish temper tantrum in retaliation.

MZ: Two days prior to Armenian Genocide Remembrance day—which annually falls on April 24—Turkey and Armenia announced that they had agreed to a “roadmap” to normalize relations. What was the significance of this timing? What does the “roadmap” contain?

DB: Behind the scenes, the U.S. State Department had long been twisting Armenia’s arm to agree to a so-called “roadmap” with Turkey before President Obama issued what has become a customary “April 24 statement” by U.S. presidents marking Armenian genocide memorial day. The “roadmap,” announced on April 22, provided political cover for Obama to not use the “G word” on April 24. That is, since there was now supposedly a roadmap for normalization of relations—no matter how vague and hurriedly slapped together— Obama could say that he did not want to upset Turkey and the touted-as-highly-delicate Turkish-Armenian negotiations by using the “G word.” Notice that Obama did not consult with Armenian-Americans or Armenia about this. So much for promises and moral principles. It’s disgraceful that Obama, simply to help Turkey save face, not only broke his promise, but showed blatant disregard for the activists—not just Armenians—who labored so hard for many years for the cause of recognizing all genocides.

Armenia has always said that it was ready to normalize relations with Turkey—which would include Turkey’s re-opening its border with Armenia—without pre-conditions. Suddenly, however, Armenia has had pre-conditions imposed on it in this “roadmap.” According to the Turkish press, the “roadmap” allegedly contains pre-conditions such as: Armenia’s agreeing to a joint commission to examine the veracity of the Armenian genocide—yes, you heard right, Armenia’s formal recognition of current Turkish boundaries—which contain the Armenian homeland, and, possibly, Armenia’s accepting Turkish mediation in the conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijan over the disputed Armenian region of Karabagh—which is absurd since Azerbaijan and Turkey are allies. It appears that Armenia’s president, whose electoral legitimacy is in question, has been worn down in these negotiations by Turkey, the West, and possibly even Russia. And because the Armenian president is grappling with his legitimacy, he is not heeding the cautions being voiced by the people of his own nation about the “roadmap.”

MZ: The U.S. administration and mainstream media would have us believe that Turkey is seeking to “reconcile” with Armenia. Is “reconciliation” really a possibility, or have we misunderstood what’s going on?

DB: The word “reconciliation” in relation to Armenian-Turkish relations is largely an invention of U.S. policymakers, their emissaries, and the mainstream media who take their cues from them. What the U.S. and Europe would like to see is a more stable Caucasus—that is, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia—with open borders. Open borders, you see, would facilitate laying more oil and gas pipelines that would originate in the Caspian Sea region and proceed west to Turkey and then to energy-hungry Europe and Israel. The U.S. and Europe don’t want to put it quite that crudely—no pun intended—so they try to depict Armenia and Turkey as possibly “reconciling” and thus resolving all their differences. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 out of sympathy with its ally Azerbaijan, which was in a war with the Armenians of Karabagh, a historically Armenian-populated autonomous area within Azerbaijan that Stalin handed to Azerbaijan. Turkey has also been infuriated that Armenia and Armenians worldwide have been demanding that Turkey acknowledge the genocide it committed against Armenians.

Turkey has to acknowledge the genocide or there will never be peace between it and Armenia. And although the Armenian government has not put forth any claims for reparations arising out of the genocide, or for territory, many Armenians do have these goals. They cite the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920, which provided for Armenian sovereignty over Armenian lands upon which Turkey committed the genocide, and which have since been incorporated into what is now eastern Turkey.

MZ: The countries of the Caucasus are Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Most Americans, including the mainstream media, could not find these small countries on a map. Why are Russia and the U.S.—the latter being thousands of miles from the region—so interested in these three small countries?

DB: The Caucasus is truly Ground Zero in Cold War II, the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Russia. The U.S.—along with Europe and the NATO military alliance—regard Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan as middlemen between the West and the gas and oil-rich regions around the Caspian Sea. The West has already laid gas and oil pipelines from Azerbaijan through Georgia and then on to Turkey and the west. The U.S. wanted those and future pipelines to bypass Russia and Iran because those two countries could shut such pipelines to pressure the U.S. and others. The only possible pipelines routes, therefore, are through Georgia or Armenia. But Turkey shut its border with Armenia in 1993, and Azerbaijan closed its border with Armenia even earlier due to the conflict between it and the de-facto Armenian region of Karabagh. That left Georgia as the only place for these Western pipelines. After the Russian-Georgian was last year, however, opening an alternative route has become more urgent. That largely explains the West’s renewed interest in Armenia. Conversely, Russia sees the Caucasus as within its traditional sphere of influence, and regards U.S. and European interest in the region as hostile acts.

Simultaneously, NATO has been pushing into the region. Georgia, Azerbaijan, and to some extent even the ex-Soviet republics on the other side of the Caspian Sea, are on the path to joining NATO. Russia was already upset that, following the Cold War, NATO had absorbed the former Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe. NATO is now attempting, in effect, to do the same thing on Russia’s southern border. Russia fears that it will eventually be virtually surrounded by NATO. As a result, we have Cold War II: The U.S. and NATO are trying to push into the Caucasus and Central Asia, while Russia is trying to keep them out.

MZ: Why is Israel interested in the Caucasus, and what role is that country playing? Why are Israel and the pro-Israel lobby dead set against recognition of the Armenian genocide by the U.S. Congress?

DB: Israel is interested in getting some of the oil and gas that flow out of the Caspian Sea region. That is, from countries such as Azerbaijan, oil and gas flow west through Georgia, and then on to Turkey and other countries, possibly including Israel. After all, the U.S. and Turkey, which are important players in these pipelines, are obviously also very friendly with Israel. Israel also welcomes all non-Arab supplies of energy since they would make its Western allies less dependent on Arab oil and gas. And Israel has long had what it calls its Periphery Policy. Historically, Israel has not had good relations with its Arab neighbors. Therefore, to serve as counterweights, Israel befriends those countries further away, especially Muslim countries that aren’t necessarily sympathetic to Israel’s Arab neighbors or Palestinians. Azerbaijan, the only Muslim nation in the Caucasus, and some Muslim nations to the east, such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, are such countries. Fortuitously for Israel, they also possess significant deposits of gas and oil.

For decades, Israel and Turkey have had very good relations, mainly because they have a common ally, the U.S., and common adversaries, namely Arab nations. In the 1990’s, Israel and Turkey signed a number of military, economic, and political agreements that solidified their relationship. Even before that, but particularly after that, Turkey felt that it did not have sufficient lobbying muscle in Washington. So the Turks asked Israel to convince some of the pro-Israel lobby—the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and others—to serve as advocates for Turkey. The Jewish lobby groups agreed. So these groups, as part of their deal with Turkey, deny or call into question the Armenian genocide and work to prevent U.S. acknowledgement of that genocide. These groups won’t tolerate anyone questioning of the Holocaust, and yet hypocritically work against acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide. Interestingly, for the last 2 years, Armenian Americans have exposed the ADL’s hypocrisy. In Massachusetts, for example, fourteen cities severed ties with an anti-bias program sponsored by the ADL because of the latter’s hypocritical and anti-Armenian stance (see NoPlaceForDenial.com). Armenians are determined to challenge genocide denial whenever it occurs.

MZ: Is there a problem with the way the mainstream media has been covering Armenian issues?

DB: Yes. The mainstream media have several problems. First, they know very little about the Caucasus or Armenians. Reporters tend, therefore, to copy each other and repeat clichés and falsehoods—such as that Armenia and Turkey are on the verge of a historic “reconciliation.” Media also tend to accept at face value the propaganda issued by Western governments whose interest in the Caucasus is—let’s be frank—not “reconciliation,” democracy, or human rights, but rather self-interested economic, political, and military political penetration of the Caucasus.

Turkey has about 30 times more people and territory, and 50 times more Gross Domestic Product, than Armenia. The power differential is enormous. Turkey has infinitely more allies in Western media, governments, think tanks, and multi-national corporations—and knows how to use them. Commentators who have a vested interest in touting Turkey for their own political and even financial reasons have particularly come out of the woodwork to deride legitimate Armenian demands. But we rarely hear commentators speak of how a small country that has been the victim of genocide, that has had most of its territory stripped from it, and that has been blockaded by the denier of that genocide—Turkey—is being threatened by that very same unrepentant denier. Mainstream media largely fail to appreciate the foregoing facts. Hopefully, Mickey, this interview will help the media and your readers understand the issues and the region a bit better.

David Boyajian can be reached at

Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

Comments (1)

Monday, May 11, 2009

His aim is true

In 1968, Peter Bogdanovich made an auspicious celluloid debut with a film called Targets, starring Boris Karloff as Byron Orlok, a veteran horror film actor who has retired because real life has become so terrifying that audiences are no longer frightened by horror movies. In the film’s riveting climax, a sniper, Bobby, chooses as his targets the patrons of a drive-in theater showing the real life Karloff in The Terror.

“Bogdanovich attempts to show us just how lethal weapons are,” writes film critic Danny Peary. “He forces us to look through the gun sights with Bobby and help him line up his victim. It is frustrating—we want Bobby to miss but each time we see his aim is true. It is bad enough when unidentified people fall dead, but often Bogdanovich will have Bobby take aim at someone and pull the trigger only to find himself out of bullets. While he reloads we have time to get to know and suffer with the intended prey.”

After killing the projectionist, Bobby climbs down from his perch only to be confronted by Orlok (Karloff). Although Orlok is unarmed, Bobby is perplexed by the image of the real Karloff who seems to be also walking towards him on the immense screen. Bobby shoots at the screen—the “wrong” Orlok—and is then disarmed the “real” Orlok before being arrested.

“The scenes in which Orlok complains that real life is so horrifying that horror films have lost their ability to scare anyone remind us that we are watching a movie,” writes Peary. “While Bogdanovich places the sniper in a screen where The Terror, a not-very-scary Roger Corman horror film starring the real Boris Karloff, is being projected, to prove that Orlok is correct in thinking ‘real’ life more frightening than horror films, he is also reminding us that no matter how terrifying we find Bobby’s actions in Targets, it is only a movie we are watching and doesn’t compare to the real real thing.”

Unfortunately, discerning “the real real thing” from imagined evils is not just the stuff of ambitious directorial debuts.

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Media Poetry

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NYC Event Alert:

Comments (23)

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mothers and the Great Escape

Perhaps the most famous elephant of the nineteenth century was Jumbo. He was captured in a similar fashion. A hunter, Hermann Schomburgk, shot his mother. He describes it himself: “She collapsed in the rear and gave me the opportunity to jump quickly sideways and bring to bear a deadly shot, after which she immediately died. Obeying the laws of nature, the young animal remained standing beside its [sic] mother …. Until my men arrived, I observed how pitiful little baby continuously ran about its mother while hitting her with his trunk as if he wanted to wake her and make their escape.” …

If you are a mother, what would you do if someone tried to take your child? If you have a mother, what would you feel if someone shot her so they could put you on display? What would you feel as you poked at her, hit her, wanted her to wake up so together you could make your escape, but she did not awaken?

-From Derrick Jensen’s “Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos"

Comments (0)

Vegetarianism, the Holocaust and the Myth of Civilization

Lierre Keith’s new book The Vegetarian Myth is generating lots of passionate discussion on vegetarian and vegan blogs and message boards. Here are a couple examples of comments recently posted on the Vegans of Color blog:

“I was just reading about the book elsewhere. I don’t want to buy it though… I don’t want to support the project. I’ll see if I can get it from my library.”

“I would be tempted to review it but not if I had to actually support the book by buying it. And I only say tempted because I really wouldn’t want to give this book any more publicity than it already has.”

These commenters appear interested in reading The Vegetarian Myth, although they seem more inclined to pick up a copy at a library rather than purchasing one. But does borrowing the book from a library mean you won’t be “supporting the project”?

Libraries are more inclined to keep books on their shelves—i.e., not discard them—if they’re getting checked out. And library systems may decide to purchase additional copies of a particular title if they’re getting regular requests from patrons. So, it would seem readers are still “supporting the project” even if they opt to borrow a book from a library ... But I digress.

Whether you “support the project” by purchasing The Vegetarian Myth or indirectly “support the project” by borrowing it from a library or friend, I strongly recommend you read it. For vegetarians and vegans, there’s a good chance you’ll be repulsed by Keith’s return to meat-eating after 20 years of being a vegan. And many vegetarians and vegans may be able to cite studies and sources to counter her arguments, particularly the ones she uses to extol the health benefits and the environmental benefits of eating non-factory-farmed meat and dairy.

But The Vegetarian Myth is a book that addresses a set of related topics about which vegetarians and vegans care so deeply—the food we eat, how it’s produced, and how it affects us—that you’ll likely come away from reading it feeling enriched, so to speak, no matter how empty you think Keith’s argument are or how angry it makes you.

Elsewhere in the same thread on the Vegans of Color blog, one of the commenters addresses some issues raised in The Vegetarian Myth that I didn’t discuss in my earlier review of the book.

“Dani” of the Vegan Ideal writes:

“Since Keith believes that civilization and vegetarianism are ‘substantially the same,’ the book is fanatically anti-vegetarian. For instance, Keith makes an overzealous and misguided attempt to use the Haber-Bosch process to somehow link vegetarianism to the Holocaust. Should we think this is absurd, Keith tells us that is because we are believing the myth of the vegetarians.”

Keith addresses the Haber-Bosch process and the rise of modern agriculture in the “Political Vegetarians” chapter of the book. (As defined by Keith, political vegetarians believe a plant-based diet for humans is more just and sustainable than one based in part on the consumption of animal-based products.) She writes that two out of five people in the world today are alive because of this process. She backs up this statement by citing Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In his 2006 book, Pollan cites the work of Vaclav Smil, a geographer who wrote a book about Fritz Haber called Enriching the Earth. Pollan writes:

“This is why it may not be hyperbole to claim, as Smil does, that the Haber-Bosch process (Carl Bosch gets the credit for commercializing Haber’s idea) for fixing nitrogen is the most important invention of the twentieth century. He estimate that two out of every five human on earth today would not be alive if not Fritz Haber’s invention. We can easily imagine a world without computers or electricity, Smil points out, but without synthetic fertilizer billions of people would never have been born.”

When humankind acquired the power to “fix” nitrogen, the basis of soil fertility shifted from a total reliance on the energy of the sun to a new reliance on fossil fuel, Pollan writes. The Haber-Bosch process works by combining nitrogen and hydrogen gases under immense heat and pressure in the presence of a catalyst. The heat and pressure are supplied by large amounts of electricity, and the hydrogen is supplied mostly by natural gas today.

In The Vegetarian Myth, Keith highlights the link between fossil fuels and modern agriculture, and how it is an unsustainable practice. As Dani of the Vegan Ideal notes, though, Keith goes further by describing Haber’s ties to Germany’s war machine. Keith writes on page 106:

“Haber also developed poison gases, including ammonia, chlorine, and the Holocaust horror of Zyklon B. He oversaw the first gas attack ever on April 22, 1915. This overlap between war and agriculture will only surprise you if you believe the myth of civilization or the myth of the political vegetarians, which end up substantially the same since their genesis is the same: agriculture and its annual monocrops.”

Dani of the Vegan Ideal is correct to assert that Keith “makes an overzealous and misguided attempt to use the Haber-Bosch process to somehow link vegetarianism to the Holocaust.”

I doubt many people would be surprised by Haber’s involvement in both the development of a process that led to modern agriculture and the development of poison gases used in war. Both involved the use of chemistry. Keith’s statement that this overlap would “only surprise you if you believe the myth of civilization or the myth of political vegetarians” reads similar to the guilt-by-association argument used against vegetarians: that Hitler was a vegetarian, a claim that has been debunked many times.

With regard to the links between agriculture and war, Dani of the Vegan Ideal states: “It’s ironic that Keith claims a plant-based system of food production is inherently linked with war, while she proudly promotes an intensive pastoral system of food production when there is an overwhelming amount of anthropological evidence showing an overlap of herding- and war-based cultures.”

Dani of the Vegan Ideal also contends that Keith describes the exploitation of other animals as a “reciprocal relationship” (page 25) rather than as exploitative. “It’s sad that Keith, who comes from an anti-sexual violence background, would make such a repulsive claim,” Dani of the Vegan Ideal writes. “It’s repulsive, because by reframing the exploitation of other animals as a ‘reciprocal relationship’ in defending animal husbandry Keith depoliticizes that exploitation. It shares a twisted logic with patriarchy and the belief that a woman or child cannot be exploited by a husband, father, or other ‘male head of a household.’”

Dani of the Vegan Ideal raises some interesting and persuasive points about The Vegetarian Myth. But that’s because Dani of the Vegan Ideal read the book—albeit in limited preview on Google Books. Taking whatever time you need to read The Vegetarian Myth will be well worth it. In fact, reading the book may have the unintended effect of making you even more committed to the practice and ideals of veganism. -Mark Hand

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An older Mother’s Day article of mine

Another Mother's Day (sigh)

My haiku from last year

I miss my Mom...

Bruce Springsteen sez: “Those you are with, in the presence of miracles, you never forget. Life does not separate you. Death does not separate you.”

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Bonus: A non-Mother’s Day shout out to all those women who are child-free and loving it

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NYC Event Alert:

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Read the full article here

Friday, May 08, 2009

Just What the Herbalist Ordered

Kurt Vonnegut sez: “The late twentieth century will go down in history, I’m sure, as an era of pharmaceutical buffoonery.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug while one in six takes three or more. As reported by TruthOut.org, an analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs than by cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines combined. To make things a little more dramatic: statistically speaking, prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists.

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Found Poetry

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NYC Event Alert:

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And don’t forget: Mickey Z. on YouTube

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American Idol Star Carrie Underwood Accused of “Supporting Domestic Terrorists”

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Hired Gun: CCF's Greatest Hits

As tracked by GreenIsTheNewRed.com:

American Idol star Carrie Underwood is donating a portion of the proceeds from her new single to the Humane Society of the United States, and getting accused of supporting “animal rights terrorists.” One of my favorite lines so far: “Carrie Underwood may think she is supporting puppies and kittens, but she needs to understand that she is supporting domestic terrorists instead.”

Let’s pause for a second and take a look at how idiotic this has all become. The Center for Consumer Freedom needed a hilarious flow chart to attempt to connect HSUS to “terrorism,” and failed miserably. Now, Carrie Underwood is being smeared as a terrorist for being “connected” to HSUS and, as Ecorazzi reports, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is trying to put pressure on Fox. What’s next?

Underwood’s single, “Home Sweet Home,” is a cover of a Motley Crue song. Maybe that means they can go after Tommy Lee for supporting terrorism, too? (I mean, he also produced that, ahem, “terrorist training video” with PETA spokesperson Pamela Anderson).

Corporate Front Group Warns PETA’s New Neighbors of “Violence”

The Center for Consumer Freedom, a corporate front group formed by Philip Morris, is warning Dupont Circle businesses that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals may bring “violence” to the Washington, D.C. neighborhood.

CCF’s press release and letter warns neighbors of the “potential for harassment, violence, and mass pet killings” from a “radical animal rights group.”

“It’s not unusual for ordinary people to be unsure about how to act around the group’s employees,” CCF warns. “Please be assured that most of them are harmless unless provoked.”

Lines like that might make you wonder if this is all a joke. But Rick Berman and his crew at the Center for Consumer Freedom are dead serious. The letter is part of an ongoing media campaign by the group to demonize animal rights activists as “animal rights terrorists.” And it’s part of a broader scare-mongering campaign by corporations, politicians and industry groups called the Green Scare.

Center for Consumer Freedom Helps Terrorist Groups Raise Money

Last week the Center for Consumer Freedom, an industry front group, took out a full-page ad in The New York Times accusing the Humane Society of the United States of supporting “terrorism.” Their crime? A speech at a “holiday gala” for a group called the Humane League. If you’re not following, well, you’re not the only one. The ad included a flow chart to explain CCF’s convoluted logic, and their website has a 70-page document trying to support the flow chart.

CCF argues that they connect the Humane Society to bullhorn-wielding “eco-terrorists” in six steps, and in response I created a little contest called “Six Degrees of Consumer Freedom.” I asked you all to trump CCF by connecting them to real terrorists in fewer steps.

I’m proud to say… we have a winner!

Karen left a comment connecting CCF to terrorism in two steps: CCF was created by Philip Morris, and Philip Morris has ties to cigarette smuggling, which directly funds terrorist groups. (Congrats Karen! You’ll be receiving your “domestic terrorist” apron!)

Tofu Makes You Gay and Charlotte’s Web is Animal Rights Extremism

Forget about the First Amendment. The Center for Consumer Freedom, an industry front group, is out there protecting more “delicious civil liberties” (and delicious corporate profits). Their press release on the movie says:

But the images prodding your kids toward the multiplex might be more about animal rights than E.B. White. One Charlotte’s Web commercial airing on Nickelodeon (oddly enough, during an episode of Mr. Meaty) shows heroic bike-riding teens in pig-snout masks “liberating” (read: stealing) a barn full of pigs. Is this illegal? Definitely. Is it appropriate advertising for a G-rated movie? No way.

I should note that the commercial CCF is dubbing a promo for the Animal Liberation Front features “We’re Not Going to Take It” by Twisted Sister. I completely agree that Dee Snider is indeed terrifying and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The scare-mongering goes on to note:

The TV commercial ends with a plea for kids to visit SaveWilbur.com, a Nickelodeon / Paramount website that encourages kids to “Say no to bacon” and print out stickers reading “Tofu Rulez.”

Apparently those extremists at Paramount aren’t just promoting “eco-terrorism.” They’re trying to turn our kids into rampant homosexuals! I urge introduction of the Hollywood and Homosexual Terrorism Act as quickly as possible.

Head of Center for Consumer Freedom Called a “Despicable Man” by His Own Son

Rick Berman has no shortage of enemies. He and his various front groups have been the hired guns for a laundry list of nasty corporations, smearing anyone for a buck (including Mothers Against Drunk Driving or, as Stephen Colbert calls them, “O-mamma bin Laden”). I’ve written here about one of his groups, the Center for Consumer Freedom, and their campaigns to smear activists as “eco-terrorists” and “animal rights terrorists.” (And we’ve also linked them to terrorism).

So it’s not really breaking news when unions, animal groups, environmentalists and everyone else targeted by Berman rails against him. But the most scathing attack on Berman I’ve ever read comes from his own son.

His son, David Berman, was the head of the band the Silver Jews. When the band broke up, David Berman wrote on Drag City message board, saying “I’ve always hid this terrible shame from you, the fan.” (Stereogum had this story first. Thanks to Liz and Justin for the tip.)

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Derrick Jensen on IMF Protest

Source: Lia Tarachansky

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Clean (sic) coal

No matter what the Pope of Hope might think, “clean coal” is a contradiction in terms.

Greenpeace sez: “‘Clean coal’ is the industry’s attempt to ‘clean up’ its dirty image—the industry’s greenwash buzzword. It is not a new type of coal. ‘Clean coal’ technology refers to technologies intended to reduce pollution. But no coal-fired power plants are truly ‘clean’. ‘Clean coal’ methods only move pollutants from one waste stream to another which are then still released into the environment. Any time coal is burnt, contaminants are released and they have to go somewhere. They can be released via the fly ash, the gaseous air emissions, water outflow, or the ash left at the bottom after burning. Ultimately, they still end up polluting the environment.”

I hate to break it to Lord Obama but even the mainstream corporate media has got the goods on this farce. The Washington Post sez: “Clean coal: Never was there an oxymoron more insidious, or more dangerous to our public health. Invoked as often by the Democratic presidential candidates as by the Republicans and by liberals and conservatives alike, this slogan has blindsided any meaningful progress toward a sustainable energy policy.”

We are so fucked…

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Myth as Poetry

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NYC Event Alert:

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And don’t forget:

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Call me Mickey (dis)Mantle

(photo by Nancy Ryan)

Sure, we know the term dismantle by its standard definition:, e.g. “to take apart.” However a variation on that standard definition—"to put an end to in a gradual systematic way"—gets closer to how “dismantle” is often used in a radical sense: dismantle civilization.

Why such a goal? Some persuasively posit that civilization is anti-nature because constant growth requires resources, forests, fuel, food, minerals, etc. Civilization “conveniently views humans as being above nature, its only perceived value as resources to plunder & pillage. Civilized people, cut off from nature and the landbase that supports them, do not perceive themselves as part of the natural world, and in fact often fear it.”

What does it mean to dismantle civilization? In the words of Derrick Jensen, it means: “Depriving the rich of the ability to steal from the poor and to destroy the world.”

So, if the rich (and the politicians they own) want to take away our rights, I say we get our shit together and fight to take away theirs: Their right to pollute, their right to exploit, to wage war, to steal, and to treat all living things as if they were disposable.

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Poem of Progress

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NYC Event Alert:

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And don’t forget:

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Sunday, May 03, 2009

Soil Isn’t Just Dirt: A Review of The Vegetarian Myth

By Mark Hand

Review of The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability by Lierre Keith (PM Press, 2009).

On the cover of Lierre Keith’s new book, The Vegetarian Myth, there’s a blurb by environmental activist and author Derrick Jensen that says, “This book saved my life.”

I don’t think I’m prepared at this time to make such a bold pronouncement. However, I may change my mind if my health radically deteriorates and I decide to follow the advice on diet and nutrition dispensed by Keith.

After reading the book, though, I am prepared to write this about it: The Vegetarian Myth tackles a set of related topics—the food we eat, how it’s produced, and how it affects us—with a substance and style that I’ve never read anywhere else.

My summary assessment isn’t as dramatic as Jensen’s “This book saved my life” blurb. Such an opinion would be hard to match, given the consequences at stake in Jensen’s life. Another test of a book’s redeeming value is to determine whether it effectively challenges one’s long-held beliefs on a particular topic. For me, as a vegetarian, The Vegetarian Myth passes this test because it effectively challenged my strongly held belief in the merits of vegetarian and vegan diets.

And The Vegetarian Myth has many other merits, including explaining the awesome destructiveness of agriculture—and the role played by the corporate giants in this sector—in a manner that I, as a layperson on the topic, had never read anywhere else.

The heart of The Vegetarian Myth is composed of three chapters—“Moral Vegetarians,” “Political Vegetarians” and “Nutritional Vegetarians.” Keith defines moral vegetarians as people who believe life is possible without killing other animals. Political vegetarians believe a plant-based diet is more just and sustainable. Nutritional vegetarians believe that animal products are “the root of all dietary evil.”

On a rudimentary level, someone could come away from reading The Vegetarian Myth, particularly the “Nutritional Vegetarians” chapter, thinking the U.S. meat, poultry and dairy industries will love the book—except those pesky parts where she states factory farming of animals is cruel, wasteful and destructive.

In one such pesky part, Keith writes: “Factory farming is a nightmare, from every angle: ethically, ecologically, nutritionally. There’s not word besides torture to describe the experience of laying hens in battery cages, so crowded they can’t lie down or open their wings, driven insane by the bright glare of lights that stay on forever. Torture also describes what happens to pigs, animals that are smarter than dogs, so smart in fact that if they had digits instead of hooves they could probably learn some rudimentary sign language. … This tortuous life ends at the slaughterhouse, where, if not properly stunned and killed, they may be boiled alive in a rendering vat. No moral person can face these facts without a sickening of the spirit.”

In the minds of the executives at these companies and their marketing gurus, would drawing attention to Keith’s fierce opposition to any type of factory farming—the exact type of farming in which each of these industries engages—outweigh the benefits of publicizing her impassioned case against vegetarianism and veganism?

Would it benefit these industries to leverage Keith’s life story—from a meat eater in her youth to 20 years of veganism and back to a meat eater—to promote the supposed nutritional value of consuming their food products?

Will these industries ever know The Vegetarian Myth exists?

Released by PM Press and Jensen’s Flashpoint Press, the book likely will get very little exposure due to the publishers’ limited marketing budgets. But let’s say an executive with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association does get her hands on the book. What will she discover? She will learn that Keith believes humans need to embrace the consumption of animal products, including beef, or else face severe and chronic health problems.

A vegetarian diet, most especially a vegan one, “will damage you. I know,” Keith writes. “Two years into by veganhood, my health failed, and it failed catastrophically. I developed a degenerative joint disease that I will have for the rest of my life. It started that spring as a strange, dull ache deep in a place I didn’t know could have sensation. By the end of the summer, it felt like shrapnel in my spine.”

Keith says her spine now “looks like a sky-diving accident.”

Six weeks into her veganism, Keith says she had her first experience with hypoglycemia. Three months into it, she stopped menstruating. She felt exhausted all the time and had an ever-present cold. Her skin became flaky and itchy. At the age of 24, she developed gastroparesis. She suffered from depression and anxiety.

Keith, now in her mid-40s, says she wasn’t the only one in her circle of friends who developed severe health problems from going vegan. “All the friends of my youth were radical, righteous, intense. Vegetarianism was the obvious path, with veganism the high road alongside it. And those of us who did it long term ended up damaged,” she writes.

Now that Keith has gone back to eating meat and dairy, how has it changed her life? She says her spine “isn’t coming back” but that eating a diet of grass-fed [my emphasis] animal production “has repaired the damage a bit and made a moderate dent in my pain level.” Her insulin receptors “are also down for the count, but protein and fat keep my blood sugar stable and happy,” she says.

She hasn’t missed her period in five years and her stomach is “okay” as long as she takes betaine hydrochloride with every meal. She is now depression-free, but her cold and exhaustion are permanent due to her veganism, she says. And some days her breathing takes more energy than she can spare, all because she lived as a vegan for 20 years, she says.

Keith would be a perfect spokesperson for a national campaign against vegetarianism and veganism, as long as the sponsors of the campaign understood and, even better, shared her distaste for what “civilization” has done to the planet.

Second Thoughts

Keith’s transformation from vegan to campaigner for the human consumption of animal products reads similar to some notable figures who renounced their staunchly held beliefs or past associations in order to bring attention to their current causes. Some recent examples include David Horowitz, who spent most of the 1980s renouncing his “communist” and Marxist upbringing and early adulthood and is now a right-wing political activist; Patrick Moore, an early member of Greenpeace who now serves as a shill for nuclear power; and Bjorn Lomborg, who also was a member of Greenpeace (although Greenpeace says it has no record of him being actively involved in the organization) prior to writing The Skeptical Environmentalist in which he argued that the world’s environmental problems aren’t as serious as many scientists’ claims and that environmental conditions “are going better and they are likely to continue to do so into the future.”

One might argue that Keith’s conversion can be easily differentiated from these three examples because her goals—one of which is putting an end to global biocide as quickly as possible—are much more radical. But one could also argue Horowitz’s support of a more powerful U.S. police state is radical and far out of the American mainstream. And Moore’s support for a nuclear power renaissance certainly runs counter to the beliefs of Wall Street banks, which have been reluctant to invest in new nuclear power plants over the past 25 years, viewing the energy source as too costly and risky. Perhaps Lomborg is the least radical of the group, given his support of the global economic status quo.

And yet, I agree with those who would argue that Keith’s fundamental critique of industrial culture is not represented anywhere in mainstream political discourse or media, unlike the beliefs of Horowitz (FOX News), Moore (Barack Obama/Stephen Harper) and Lomborg (BusinessWeek, Time, The Guardian).

Some might argue that Keith has simply become an advocate of “happy meat”—local, grass-fed, sustainably produced, and humanely raised meat. But that would be unfair. If there were ever a movement devoted to the principles set out in The Vegetarian Myth and if it proved successful, such a movement would easily result in a spectacular reduction in the suffering and torture of animals, compared to what they experience today in factory farms and due to ecosystem devastation.

The leading perpetrator of crimes against animals and the planet, according to Keith, is agriculture. “Liberal remedies will never serve a radical analysis,” she writes. “There is an inherent contradiction in understanding that systems of power must be dismantled while only embracing personal solutions. To put that more bluntly: if agriculture is a war, why aren’t we fighting back?”

In The Vegetarian Myth, Keith uses her 20 years as a vegan to lend credibility to her campaign against agriculture. Along the way, however, she may alienate a large segment of the vegetarian and vegan populations, the groups of people who she hopes to convert to her cause. Describing these segments of the population as a “subculture” with “cult-like elements” will certainly raise eyebrows. It also could prove counterproductive.

Throughout the book, Keith mocks vegetarians and vegans. She portrays them as adolescents. “In the narrative of my life, the first bite of meat after my twenty year hiatus marks the end of my youth, the moment when I assumed the responsibilities of adulthood,” Keith writes. “It was the moment I stopped fighting the basic algebra of embodiment: for someone to live, someone else had to die. In that acceptance, with all its suffering and sorrow, is the ability to choose a different way, a better way.”

In Defense of Animal Fat

According to Keith, not only misguided and naive individuals like her, but entire nations have benefited from moving toward a diet based on large amounts of animal fat. The Japanese have been living healthier and longer lives since they started eating a more “Western” diet, higher in total fat and animal fat, she writes. The studies she cites run counter to conventional wisdom, which has told us that the health of residents in Japan and other Asian countries has grown worse since they increased their intake of animal fat.

The Japanese have “increased their consumption both of total fat and animal fat over 250 percent since 1961—and they are now the longest living people in the world,” Keith writes.

And in the United States, the past 15 years have seen a reduction in fat consumption of almost 25%, but our health has only gotten worse, according to Keith. Americans have done what the experts have told them—“ate less fat, more carbohydrates – and have gotten sicker,” she writes.

Clinical studies, according to Keith, have found that low-fat diets increase anger, depression and anxiety. Low cholesterol levels occur more often among criminals, individuals diagnosed with violent or aggressive conduct disorders, and homicidal offenders with histories of violence and suicide attempts related to alcohol.

Currently, 40% of Americans are killed by coronary heart disease. The rate of coronary heart disease has increased at the same time that the proportion of animal fats consumed by people in the United States dropped from 83% to 62% and the consumption of vegetable oils has increased by 400%.

“You tell me what to blame: the saturated fats we’ve always eaten—for four million years—or the industrially manufactured oils that until recently were used in paint,” she writes.

Unlike the general meat-eating population, a large percentage of the target audience of Keith’s book—the “subculture” of vegans and vegetarians—have studied the impact of factory meat production on the environment. This subculture has concluded that it is not only more humane, but better for the entire planet and more efficient to refrain from eating animal products. They’ve probably read that it takes approximately 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat in a factory farm. Much of this grain is grown in developing countries, where a large percentage of their land is used for cattle-raising for export to the United States, instead of being used to grow staple crops, which could feed local people directly. In a world where a child starves to death every 2 seconds, it seems impossible to justify such waste.

Oops! Grains and staple crops are products of agriculture, Keith reminds us. “The truth is that agriculture is the most destructive thing humans have done to the planet, and more of the same won’t save us,” she writes. “The truth is that agriculture requires the wholesale destruction of entire ecosystems.”

Unlike the general meat-eating population, a large percentage of vegetarians and vegans will not get lost or utterly confused when Keith states, “What’s looming in the shadows of our ignorance and denial is a critique of civilization itself.”

“Critique of civilization”? The average American, who might have been nodding in agreement while reading the “Nutritional Vegetarians” chapter, in which she slams vegetarians and vegans, will grow suspicious when Keith speaks of bringing down civilization in order to save the planet and ourselves.

“The words ‘animal rights,’ ‘vegetarian,’ and ‘vegan’ are some of the most mocked and emotionally loaded terms in our language, even in very liberal circles. One has to wonder if a multibillion dollar meat industry hasn’t had a part in making these words and the ideals behind them seem so laughable to so many people,” Sunaura Taylor and Alexander Taylor write in a recent essay.

Looking beyond her case against vegetarianism and veganism, Keith’s book is essentially a well-researched indictment of the U.S. food industry—and, yes, civilization itself.

The food industry has developed more than 100,000 new processed foods since 1990, she writes. She spends several pages discussing soy and how big agriculture has heralded soy as a panacea for everything from hot flashes to world hunger. “Soy contains so many anti-nutrients that it isn’t edible for humans without a lot of processing, substantially more than other seeds,” she writes.

In discussing Asian cultures’ relationship with soy, Keith writes, “The Chinese ate soy as a protein source only when they were starving—when they also ate their children.”

The Vegetarian Myth is at its strongest when Keith avoids using attention-grabbing “ate their children” polemical ploys. In the “Moral Vegetarians” chapter, she goes into wonderful detail about soil and how one tablespoon of it “contains more than one million living organisms, and, yes, every one of them is eating.”

“Soil isn’t just dirt,” she writes. “A square meter of topsoil can contain a thousand different species of animals.”

Grasping the Concept of Domestication

Keith explains the reciprocal relationship between animals and plants and how she didn’t fully understand this relationship when she was a vegan. She writes about the concept of domestication and how it’s not well understood by people who claim to be against it.

“I saw domestication as bringing animals and plants under human control and it was appalling to me, a short trajectory that ended in hens tormented in battery cages and primates brutalized in head injury experiments,” she writes. “Of course, my entire diet was composed of domesticates, with the exception of a serving or two of fiddlehead ferns every spring, but they were plants, so I simply didn’t think about it. It was the animals I wanted to save from human exploitation, and in the vegan outlook, exploitation begins with domestication.”

In the “Political Vegetarians” chapter, Keith explains that where she parts company with them is when they conflate factory farming with any and all meat.

She describes how a 10-acre non-factory farm “of perennial polyculture in a mid-Atlantic climate” could produce 3,000 eggs, 1,000 broilers, 80,000 stewing hens, 2,000 pounds of beef, 2,500 pounds of pork, 100 turkeys and 50 rabbits.

“This is the amount of food that Joel Salatin—one of the high priests of the local, sustainable movement—produces on ten acres of his Polyface Farm in Virginia. The chickens get some supplemental grain; everything else eats grass,” she writes.

If people ate nothing but the above, it would be enough food to support at least nine people for a full year and support them in full health by providing essential protein and fat, Keith writes.

Political vegetarians, on the other hand, are planning a planetary diet in complete ignorance of where food comes from, she writes. “Advocates like Peter Singer and John Robbins want us to grow annual grains and no animals at all,” Keith writes. “Set aside the topsoil, water, climate, and typography problems. What is going to fertilize that grain? Peter, John: what is going to feed your food? Vegetarians like everyone else in urban industrial culture, have no concept that plants need to eat, that soil is alive and hungry. They seem shocked when I ask them what will feed their food.”

With regard to the top environmental issue of the day in mainstream circles, global warming, Keith argues it all began with agriculture. “Ten thousand years of destroying the carbon sinks of perennial polycultures has added almost as much carbon to the atmosphere as industrialization, an indictment that you, vegetarians, need to answer,” she writes.

Our Only Hope Is in the Soil

To save the world, we must first stop destroying it, according to Keith. “Cast your eyes down when you pray, not in fear of some god above, but in recognition: our only hope is in the soil, and in the trees, grasses and wetlands that are its children and its protectors both.”

Toward the end of the book, as she tries to rally the troops and unite the factions, Keith calls for a new populism and a serious political movement combining environmentalists, farm activists, animal rights activists, feminists, indigenous people, anti-globalization and relocalization efforts that fights for a new, and living, world.

I assume Neal Barnard and my other former colleagues at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, where I briefly worked almost 20 years ago, will be able to respond to Keith’s “Nutritional Vegetarians” chapter with studies and evidence of their own showing that people live longer, healthier, and happier lives on a vegan diet.

I’m not a dietician, so I can only use my personal experience and those of others I know to say that I have not witnessed vegetarianism and veganism produce the endemic harmful health effects that Keith chronicles in The Vegetarian Myth. I’ve been a vegetarian for more than 15 years and I’ve never been healthier. I’ve always been physically active. But since becoming a vegetarian, my strength and stamina have improved to the point that I’m a faster marathoner, half-marathoner, 10-miler and 10-kilometer racer today, in my early 40s, than I’ve ever been, including when I was a meat-eating, dairy-loving captain of my cross-country team in high school.

However, I’m not going to rule out the possibility that I would run even faster if I started eating meat again. It’s certainly possible, but I don’t plan on giving it a test anytime soon.

With regard to Keith urging vegetarians and vegans to eat meat and dairy or else face chronic health problems and an early demise, I assume such a move would only hasten the oft-predicted ecological collapse. There are not enough farms like Polyface Farm to support all of the vegetarians and vegans in the United States if they were to begin eating locally grown, grass fed animals. This means that these vegetarians and vegans would need to eat factory-produced meat in order to get proper amounts of protein, Vitamin D and Vitamin B12. These are the same factory farms that rely on agriculture, and all of its devastating qualities, to provide the grains to feed their animals.

My advice would be for vegetarians and vegans to monitor your health very carefully (as I’m sure you already do), and to adjust the types of food you eat if you begin feeling the same symptoms and enduring the same debilitating conditions experienced by Keith. And if you do go back to eating meat and dairy, try to avoid, if at all possible, factory-farmed food products.

If you, as vegetarians and vegans, are able to read with an open mind the sections of Keith’s book where she slams the vegetarian and vegan lifestyles as naïve, unhealthful and destructive, I think you’ll appreciate the rest of The Vegetarian Myth because it gets to the root of the problems that are driving our culture toward ecological collapse.

Our industrial culture, including factory farming, is destroying our planet. The Vegetarian Myth is a tremendously helpful resource that can help guide us away from the abyss and toward sustainability.

Mark Hand can be reached at .

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The F Word

What is feminism? My favorite definition comes from the inimitable bell hooks: “A movement to end sexism, sexual exploitation, and oppression.” This description not only exposes any non-feminist as the dogmatist he/she is, it also dovetails nicely with the concept of self-defense.

First, there are the three iniquities feminism seeks to abolish (sexism, sexual exploitation, oppression). Many physical attacks are essentially oppressive gestures spawned by a perceived ability to exploit a weaker (sic) gender. Therefore, any struggle to eradicate such attacks (and the mindset behind them) is—by definition—self-defense. Whether the person fighting back is a female or male is not the point. However, the vastly greater number of female targets consequently creates more female fighters.

In addition, bell hooks uses the word “movement.” In a literal sense, self-defense requires movement: evading attack, disabling your attacker, and then getting away from the attack scene as quickly as possible.

Conclusion: Fighting back is feminism in action.

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Pedal Poem

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Friday, May 01, 2009

Remember The Martyrs

In “Minimum Security,” a furious (yet adorable) bunny and his friends confront countless obstacles to pursue their dreams. Whether it’s to save the world or to break into the competitive world of accordion superstardom, they use everything from plucky grit to the willful denial of unrealistic expectations to achieve their goals. And, in Bunnista’s case, an impressive arsenal of gray-market weaponry.

The title is inspired by a prisoner who, after being released into general society, observed in an interview, “I’m still not free; I’m just in minimum security.” “Minimum Security” is an allegory of a society headed over the precipice into who-knows-what.

Characters:

Bunnista: After escaping from the mascara section of a cosmetics testing lab, Bunnista made it his mission to destroy evil as he sees it (one missing eye notwithstanding). Not so unrelatedly, he’s an ardent explosives and weapons enthusiast.

Kranti: Kranti wears leaves and lives outside in a quest to rewild herself and to restore the planet as a whole to its natural state. Beneath her harsh, uncompromising exterior is a person who’s really hard to get along with.

Bananabelle: With her good heart and cheerful nature, Bananabelle just wants everyone to get along and for everything to work out in the end. To keep hope alive, she embraces denial as her most effective tool.

Nikko: Kranti’s brother deploys his considerable charm and intelligence to achieve a life of glamor, fun, comfort and junk food.

Javier: Nikko’s boyfriend is passionate about politics and art. He’s convinced that the most effective way to change the minds of millions, and thus save the world, is by playing Animist riot-polkacore music on the accordion.

Chip: He’s filthy rich, he’s narcissistic (not that those things necessarily go together, ahem), and he burns with the desire for true love (without really knowing what that is).

Other characters include Fluffy, a dog who wants nothing more than a colossal mountain of bones (with little bits of rotting meat still attached), Bunnista’s mom, who wields her cleaning implements with fierce assertiveness, and a polar bear who eats oil company shareholders in an attempt to save the polar ice caps (plus they just taste so good).

Comments (0)

Operation Cease and Desist: Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. Liberate Arlington

Authors Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. came to Arlington, Va., on April 25, 2009 to speak about what they think is wrong with our society and culture and the ways we can right the wrongs.

Born and raised in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, Mickey Z. is the author of several books, including his latest non-fiction book, No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial.

Mickey Z. sez: “As Malcolm X used to love to say, ‘You’ve been had, you’ve been took, you’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled and led astray.’ And I submit, the reason for this is a little something I like to call propaganda. And I know this is not a word commonly used in polite discourse in our country. We prefer euphemisms like spin and hype and public relations. But don’t kid yourself. We live in a corporate propaganda state.”

Mickey Z.’s novel, CPR for Dummies, was released in 2008.

Derrick Jensen is the author of thirteen books, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame.

A Bunnista sandwich.

Mickey Z. asks: “What is normal in our country and on our planet? ... Normal means that shortly after World War II, the Department of War was magically transformed into the Defense Department.”

Derrick Jensen sez: “One of the good things about everything being so fucked up—about the culture being so ubiquitously destructive—is that no matter where you look—no matter what your gifts, no matter where your heart lies—there’s good and desperately important work to be done.”

Mickey, Derrick and Michele.

In his latest novel, Songs of the Dead, Derrick Jensen writes: “I know now that there is and always has been a heart that beats beyond the grasping of our mechanical fingers, unfound in the claws of our braced backhoes, slipping away in the face of our too-coarse bulldozers. The past resides in the soil, and though we believe it blows away and is lost, that is not true. It is there all the time, though we do not see it.”

Mickey, Zen Prole and Michele.

Comments (0)

WTFWJD?

(From my talk last week)

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006 (AETA) specifically targets anyone who “intentionally damages or causes the loss of any real or personal property (including animals or records) used by animal enterprise, or any real or personal property of a person or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transactions with an animal enterprise.”

John 2:13-16: “In the Temple courts (Jesus) found men selling cattle, sheep and doves and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the Temple, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said: ‘Get out of here.’”

Q. What would Jesus do?
A. 12 to 18 months

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Speaking of the April 25 event: Maxwell has put up some videos (but the sound is sketchy at points) and there’s also a slideshow from Nancy (see below). All of this will soon be on my YouTube page, too.

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Culture Poem

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NYC Event Alert:

Comments (16)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Same as it ever was...

You know, I was thinking about The Pope of Hope’s so-called stimulus plan and all the backlash from the sheep fearing socialism (sic).

It’s a textbook example of how to condition a society. We are so deeply programmed to fear and hate anything but free market capitalism (sic), we can’t even recognize that the “rescue” is just business as usual—slightly accelerated and made a little more transparent.

Your thoughts?

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In honor of my birthday (April 30):

Getting Old Poem

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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And don’t forget:

Comments (27)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

More April 25 photos

But first: Mark Hand’s report on the event

Derrick keeps an eye on me during my talk
(photo by Michele)

Q&A
(photo by Zen Prole)

Running into Maxwell at Whole Foods
(photo by Michele)

I talk. Derrick and Jesus listen.
(photo by Michele)

Michele with Mark, Nancy, and Lucy Sunshine
(photo by yours truly)

Me and Zen Prole
(photo by Michele)

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IM Poetry

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And don’t forget:

Comments (17)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. - Let's Go to the Videotape

Mickey Z. and Derrick Jensen If you didn’t attend the Derrick Jensen-Mickey Z. event in Arlington on April 25, where were you? Were you too afraid to hear frightening details about how we’re killing the planet and ourselves? Are you in denial about the seriousness and urgency of the crisis?

Well, if you are afflicted with either of these conditions, or don’t live in the D.C. area and were unable or chose not to travel a long distance to the event, you’re in luck. We have video.

C-SPAN’s Book TV decided not to show up, without an apology or even a note saying they couldn’t make it. But who needs C-SPAN? We have other footage. So, let’s go to the videotape.

Keep visiting Press Action in the coming days and weeks. We’ll give you information about how to access video of this wonderful event. Mickey and Derrick captivated the audience for four-and-a-half hours. Yes, they were on stage from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., enlightening, inspiring and entertaining.

For their videotaping efforts, a special thanks to Kevin and Billy at SleptOn Magazine. The two of you and your online political Web site are exceptional. And let’s give another standing ovation to Maxwell, one of Mickey’s extraordinary Expendables, for shooting video of the event.

Also, how ‘bout a hip, hip hooray to Craig O’Hara at PM Press, GreenIsTheNewRed.com’s Will Potter, Ryan of the recently shuttered Brian Mackenzie Infoshop, author Lierre Keith, fellow Expendable Zen Prole, Gary from Minnesota, Nancy, Michele, and all of the dedicated activists who were in the streets of Georgetown Saturday night.

Thank you Derrick and Mickey for making this a special event. And thank you everyone who attended. Let’s keep this community growing and connected, from Canada to Bermuda, from Virginia to California.

(Above photo of Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. courtesy of Zen Prole.)

Comments (0)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Wake-Up Call for Obama Nation

Some photos from the April 25 event. I’ll offer details soon but Maxwell and Zen Prole are perhaps better positioned to do so.

Me at the pulpit

Me and Derrick after lunch

Me and Derrick doing Q&A

Expendables: Maxwell Black (on the far left), Zen Prole (also on the far left), and yours truly (on, well, the far left)

Event organizers (and our good friends), Mark Hand and Nancy Ryan

(All photos taken by Michele)

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Problematic poem

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And don’t forget:

Comments (29)

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Derrick Jensen-Mickey Z. to speak in Arlington tonight

Doors open at 6 p.m. for book sales and signings. Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. take the stage at 7 p.m.

Admission is free to the event.

Event venue Where: Arlington Temple United Methodist Church, 1835 N Nash St., Arlington, VA 22209. The church is across the street from the Rosslyn Metro Station in Arlington, only one Metro stop from Washington, D.C. Click here for directions.

The Arlington Temple United Methodist Church is located above a Chevron gas station.

For information about the event, please visit http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/earth or contact

ABOUT DERRICK JENSEN

Derrick Jensen is the acclaimed author of thirteen books, including “A Language Older Than Words,” “The Culture of Make Believe,” “Endgame,” and the brand new “What We Leave Behind.” He has been hailed as the philosopher poet of the environmental movement.

Writes Publishers Weekly, “Jensen paints on a huge canvas an emotionally compelling and devastating critique of the intellectual, psychological, emotional and social structure of Western culture.” His premise is as profound as it is persistent: industrial civilization is inherently unsustainable. It will always require violence to biotic and human communities.

He has packed university auditoriums, conferences, and bookstores across the nation, stirring them with revolutionary spirit.

ABOUT MICKEY Z.

Mickey Z. is probably the only person on the planet to have appeared in both a karate flick with Billy Blanks and a political book with Noam Chomsky. Armed with only a high school diploma, Mickey Z. has spoken and lectured in venues ranging from Yale University and MIT to ABC No Rio and the Broadway Branch of the Queensborough Public Library.

Newsday calls Mickey Z. a “professional iconoclast.” Time Out New York says he’s a “political provocateur.” To historian Howard Zinn, he’s “iconoclastic and bold.” Sander Hicks asks of him: “How can one be so sweet and yet so fierce?” Born and raised in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, Mickey Z. is the author of several books and his work has also appeared in more than 10 published anthologies.

His novel, “CPR for Dummies,” was released in 2008, as was his latest non-fiction book, “No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial.”

Comments (0)

Friday, April 24, 2009

Countdown to Derrick Jensen-Mickey Z. - 1 Day

Acclaimed environmental author Derrick Jensen will be joining “professional iconoclast” and New York City author Mickey Z. in Arlington, Virginia, on Saturday, April 25, 2009, to assess the first 100 days of the Obama presidency from a vantage point unfamiliar to most Washington insiders.

The two dynamic speakers will take a close look at the new administration’s policies on the environment, civil liberties, the economy and foreign interventions. Jensen and Mickey Z. will not repeat the business-as-usual platitudes articulated by pundits on the Sunday political TV talk shows. Instead, they will offer fresh perspectives for addressing the top issues of the day.

Jensen and Mickey Z.’s public talks always inform AND entertain. On April 25, they will liberate the audience from the conventional wisdom that suffocates public debate in Washington. They will campaign for genuine change people can believe in.

Event venue The free event begins at 6 p.m. for book signings, with Jensen and Mickey Z. scheduled to take the stage at 7 p.m. The event will take place at the Arlington Temple United Methodist Church (see photo) in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington. The church is across the street from the Rosslyn Metro Station, only one Metro stop from Washington, D.C., and across Key Bridge from Georgetown. Click here for directions.

For information about the event, please visit http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/earth or contact

ABOUT DERRICK JENSEN

He has packed university auditoriums, conferences, and bookstores across the nation, stirring them with revolutionary spirit.

ABOUT MICKEY Z.

His novel, “CPR for Dummies,” was released in 2008, as was his latest non-fiction book, “No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial.”

Comments (0)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Derrick Jensen-Mickey Z. author event unrelated to Earth911.com

ARLINGTON, Va., April 23—The author event scheduled for April 25, 2009, in Arlington, Va., featuring Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z., is completely unrelated to Earth911.com and Earth911.com is not in any way affiliated with PressAction.com or the April 25 author event titled “A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation.”

Earth911.com is a one-stop shop for all you need to know about reducing your impact, reusing what you’ve got and recycling your trash. Check Earth911.com for daily news, weekly feature stories, product channels and information on opting into weekly emails.

For more information, visit http://earth911.com/

Comments (0)

"Human Nature"

Human nature is the concept that there is “a set of logical characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that all normal human beings have in common.” But, despite the ballyhoo surrounding genetic research and the mapping of the human genome, we humans are made up of much more than our DNA. “We are not the expression of our genes,” declares Ruth Hubbard, professor emeritus of biology at Harvard, “and knowing their location on the chromosomes, or their composition, does not enable someone to predict what we will look or be like. ... It is a mistake to put too much weight on genes or DNA.”

“There’s no doubt that there’s a rich, complex human nature,” sez Noam Chomsky. “When you get to cultural patterns, belief systems, and the like, the guess of the next guy you meet at the bus stop is about as good as that of the best scientist. Nobody knows anything.”

The precarious state of things is not the result of some preordained theology or unstoppable force of nature. We’re in this mess thanks to human decisions. If different decisions had been made in the past, it’s likely that we would’ve had different outcomes. If different decisions are made now, we can have better outcomes in the future.

What new decisions are you willing to make?

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We’re off tomorrow morning...

...to Arlington, that is. Hope to see some of you there. Either way, stay tuned for a full report upon my return (and maybe news of a Book TV showing).

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Tucked poetry

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And don’t forget:

Comments (18)

Countdown to Wake-up Call for Obama Nation - 2 Days

One of the good things about everything being so fucked up—about the culture being so ubiquitously destructive—is that no matter where you look—no matter what your gifts, no matter where your heart lies—there’s good and desperately important work to be done.

-Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Volume I: The Problem of Civilization, p. 97

Join Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. on Saturday, April 25 at 7 p.m. for “A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation,” as they break through the conventional wisdom that suffocates public discourse in Washington. Along with dissecting the first 100 days of the Obama administration, they’ll offer ideas on how to avoid ecocide and resist corporate-controlled culture. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to see Derrick and Mickey together in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, only one Metro stop from Washington.

Comments (0)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Countdown to Wake-up Call for Obama Nation - 3 Days

Whenever I write an article or give a talk about the state of global affairs, the first question asked is this: “So, what can/should we do?” My inevitably stammering reply involves a combination of three factors:

What we’ve been doing all along is obviously not working.

We need new ideas, new tactics, and a far greater commitment from everyone.

I can’t say more because it could be (purposely) misconstrued and that just don’t fly in the land of the free (sic).

-Mickey Z., No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial

Comments (0)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Read (or watch) "The Lorax" for Earth Day

I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I’ve come here to celebrate Earth Day, so please
Come join me and help spread the message I bring.
Be a friend to the trees and to each living thing.

Here’s what Random House has to say about The Lorax (1971) by Dr. Seuss: “Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss, speaking through his character the Lorax, warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth’s natural beauty.”

Watch the video here

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Poem Zeppelin

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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And don’t forget:

Comments (16)

Countdown to Wake-up Call for Obama Nation - 4 Days

I know now that there is and always has been a heart that beats beyond the grasping of our mechanical fingers, unfound in the claws of our braced backhoes, slipping away in the face of our too-coarse bulldozers. The past resides in the soil, and though we believe it blows away and is lost, that is not true. It is there all the time, though we do not see it.

Our dreams carry with them the perfume of this soil, and will not without a fight let go of that which beneath it all makes each of us who we are.

-Derrick Jensen, Songs of the Dead

Comments (0)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Countdown to A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation - 5 Days

We are trained to believe that nothing major is wrong. Global warming? Economic meltdown? Epidemics of preventable diseases? Slavery, genocide, ecocide? You name it and we’re ready to downplay it. We’re Americans, goddammit, we’ll figure out a way to fix it. When the going gets tough, we’ll call the experts. ...

We know things have passed the proverbial tipping point and that immediate action is 100% needed and justified, but we’re far too spineless to do anything that might get us in trouble. Somehow, it’s more terrifying for any of us to face down a cop than it is to contemplate the total destruction of our earthly eco-system.

If it’s true that action expresses priorities, we American activists aren’t overly concerned about the future.

-Mickey Z., Five Reasons Why Americans Won’t Resist

Comments (0)

Read the full review of my book here

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Call me feisty, cheeky, sarcastic, and pissed off (but smart)

(Photo by Michele)

Excerpt:

“I love it when a writer unapologetically calls out the things that you aren’t supposed to, the kid pointing out the emperor’s (lack of) new clothes. Mickey calls out the “hypocritical white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” of the United States and writes with a natural sarcastic humor that leads me to nod my head in recognition at the absurdity of the systems that prevail in “the land of the free.’”

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Pirated haiku

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And don’t forget: Mickey Z. on YouTube

Comments (27)

Countdown to A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation - 6 Days

We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means—all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity. Why do we act as we do?

I began this project because I wanted to understand our culture’s pervasive destructiveness and to know if it is possible to live another way. Perhaps, I thought, what we are doing is natural, instinctive, and no different from the expansion of bacteria on a petri dish. Or perhaps the cause of the destructiveness is more specific to our being human; our adaptablity and capacity for critical thinking guarantee that we will “outcompete” every other species.

But if that’s the case, how do we explain the existence of the Hopi, the Inuit, the Ladakhi, the !Kung, and other groups of people who fashioned ways of living that were in dynamic equilibrium with their surroundings?

-Derrick Jensen, Listening to the Land: Conversations About Nature, Culture and Eros

Comments (1)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

What We Leave Behind 'Succeeds Admirably'

Library Journal reviews ‘What We Leave Behind’

Until recently, our waste decomposed naturally, passing through the inevitable cycle of decay, metamorphosis, and regeneration. But the global industrial system, argue environmental activists Jensen (Endgame) and McBay, now produces massive amounts of unsustainable and toxic wastes. In fact, Earth is suffocating on plastics and persistent chemicals. The authors focus on some of these harmful products, discuss reasons why our culture produces so much waste, and explain why individual action is insufficient to solve our enormous problems. Finally, they explore the kind of activism needed to protect our planet and make our culture life-affirming. This compelling book has a refreshing style, at once very personal and very passionate. It is also thorough, with historical, scientific, statistical, and anecdotal evidence filtered through a lot of anger and some quirky humor. Compared with similar books on waste and sustainability like Renee Loux’s Easy Green Living, this one succeeds admirably. Highly recommended for most libraries.

-Ilse Heidmann, Washington State Lib., Olympia

Comments (0)

Mickey Z.’s 'Feisty, Politically Charged' Writing

Feminist Review on Mickey Z.’s No Innocent Bystanders

Here’s an excerpt:

Among the qualities I’ve always appreciated in Mickey Z.’s writing is the smart, cheeky, pissed off tone. I love it when a writer unapologetically calls out the things that you aren’t supposed to, the kid pointing out the emperor’s (lack of) new clothes. Mickey calls out the “hypocritical white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” of the United States and writes with a natural sarcastic humor that leads me to nod my head in recognition at the absurdity of the systems that prevail in “the land of the free.”

Mickey Z. questions the assumptions and causes blindly supported by the average American, quietly eating what the Government is feeding. He muses on dissent, advocacy for animals, the planet and our selves and challenges the symbols we assign to speak for us. He asks if we can be anti-war but pro-troops and parallels war to “the morally indefensible and scientifically fraudulent enterprise of animal experimentation.”

There are no innocent bystanders because in this age of information, there is no excuse for ignorance. The facts are everywhere, and it is our responsibility to pay attention.

-Review by Matsya Siosal

Comments (0)

Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. to Dazzle Like Edward Cullen

By Press Action

Robert Pattinson is a fan of Morrissey who detests factory farms as do Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. So, all of you RobFans, especially those of you who aren’t familiar with the writings of Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z., mark Saturday, April 25 on your calendar because you won’t want to miss “A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation.” The two authors will dazzle you with their biting commentary and unswerving devotion to rescuing our sick planet. It’ll be an evening that’ll easily surpass Rob’s sparkle scene in Twilight.

Comments (0)

Combating Ecocide Without a Major Economic Sacrifice?

By Press Action

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on April 17 issued a “proposed finding” that “greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare.”

The Washington Post reports: “In her statement releasing the finding, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said that while global warming pollution is ‘a serious problem now and for future generations,’ Americans can combat it without making a major economic sacrifice. ‘This pollution problem has a solution—one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country’s dependence on foreign oil.’”

So, it appears the Obama administration is saying Americans can win the war against global warming and other major forces that are killing the planet without making any significant economic sacrifice. But that argument certainly contradicts the findings of environmental realists who recognize it is the U.S. economy itself and industrial economies around the world that have created the terrible predicament we’re in now.

According to Derrick Jensen, “It should be clear to everyone by now—even those with a vested interest in ignorance—that industrial civilization is killing the planet. It’s causing unprecedented human privation and suffering. Unless it’s stopped, or somehow stops itself, or most likely collapses under the weight of its inherent ecological and human destructiveness, it will kill every living being on earth.”

What if President Obama, instead of continuing down the path of capitalist nihilism, embraced the findings of the environmental realists and began implementing policies based on reasonable, sane, humane and human values?

What would happen if the president “decided to put in place a truly non-exploitative, sustainable economy, the sort of economy all but psychopaths would say they want, the sort of economy that environmental and social justice activists say they’re working toward”? Jensen asks in his book Endgame, Volume I: The Problem of Civilization.

“Presuming Congress and the Supreme Court went along—an extraordinary dubious presumption—and presuming the president wasn’t assassinated by CIA operatives or oil or other company hirelings—even more dubious—prices would skyrocket, the American way of life would implode, and riots would (probably) fill the streets. The economy would collapse. Soon, the president’s head would be displayed atop the fence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The point is that the only person fit to be President are those who can institute policies that value economic production over life. A sane and humane person would not and could not last in that position,” Jensen writes.

And what about the people, those of us who don’t hold positions of official power in our society? What will we do to prevent the global catastrophe that the environmental realists are predicting will happen without a major shift in our way of life?

Mickey Z. writes in a recent essay titled “Five Reasons Why Americans Won’t Resist” that Americans, for example, “are trained to believe that nothing major is wrong. Global warming? Economic meltdown? Epidemics of preventable diseases? Slavery, genocide, ecocide? You name it and we’re ready to downplay it. We’re Americans, goddammit, we’ll figure out a way to fix it. When the going gets tough, we’ll call the experts.”

“We know things have passed the proverbial tipping point and that immediate action is 100% needed and justified, but we’re far too spineless to do anything that might get us in trouble. Somehow, it’s more terrifying for any of us to face down a cop than it is to contemplate the total destruction of our earthly eco-system,” Mickey Z. continues.

By showing the danger of inaction or the absurdity of many actions that are taken, Mickey Z. is attempting to spur people to action that will result in a movement toward real change that will sustain our lives and the life of the planet.

And both Mickey Z. and Jensen often point out in their writings that there are so many ills in our society that need our immediate attention, that it should be easy for us to pick a cause and then try to make a difference.

“One of the good things about everything being so fucked up—about the culture being so ubiquitously destructive—is that no matter where you look—no matter what your gifts, no matter where your heart lies—there’s good and desperately important work to be done,” Jensen writes.

Comments (0)

Wake-up Call - 7 Days

Speaking of flying, airplane food (sic) is an excellent illustration of modern America’s commitment to staying unhealthy. Pushers, I mean, flight attendants rolling a shiny cart up and down the ever-narrowing aisle will lean in and smile, “Cheeseburger?” or “Coke?” If you want to garner attention, decline this public offer of slow-acting poison. If you want to chance having Homeland Security waiting for you when you de-board, ask for something that doesn’t induce cancer, heart disease, stroke, or diabetes. You might as well wear a neon sign on your forehead that flashes: PSYCHOTIC.

Stay strong. It was William S. Burroughs who once made clear, “A psychotic is someone who has just found out what’s going on.” And once you’ve found out what’s going on and you start speaking up, you’ll find yourself with one more categorization: “radical” (as if it were an insult). But I suggest you wear that label with pride. The Latin origin of the word radical is the same as for the word “root.” A radical is one who gets to the root of things. Plus, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., declared: “When you’re right, you can never be too radical.”

-Mickey Z., Are You a Health Nut?

Comments (0)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Soap nuts

Speaking of nuts... Let me first wish a Happy Birthday (April 18) to Expendable James, the Cat Lady of Hell’s Kitchen.

Okay, we now return to our regularly scheduled deck chair re-arranging...

I’ve recently discovered soap nuts. “Soap nuts is the common name for the fruit from the Sapindus genus of shrubs and trees, which grows in tropical regions around the world,” writes my friend Jenn at Tiny Choices, “The fruit (nuts) contain saponin, a natural detergent, which has been used as a cleanser for centuries but is just now making its way to our neck of the woods.”

Kara DiCamillo at TreeHugger.com explains: “Simply pop 6-8 shells in the cloth bag and throw them in your washing machine – these will last about 3-4 washes. Your wash will come out clean, but without a smell, so if you like the scent of clean clothes just add a few drops of essential oil to the wash beforehand. Soap nuts can also be used for other things as well, like washing windows, cars or pets. When the shells have been used to their full extent just throw them in the compost pile.”

LaundryTree.com provides more specific details about using soap nuts.

Does anyone else have something like this to share?

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Shrink-wrapped poetry

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And don’t forget:

Comments (48)

Countdown to Earth - 8 Days

What else do we forget? Do we think about nuclear devastation, or the wisdom of producing tons of plutonium, which is lethal even in microscopic doses for well over 250,000 years? Does global warming invade our dreams? In our most serious moments do we consider that industrial civilization has initiated the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet? How often do we consider that our culture commits genocide against every indigenous culture it encounters? As one consumes the products manufactured by our culture, is s/he concerned about the atrocities that make them possible?

We don’t stop these atrocities, because we don’t talk about them. We don’t talk about them, because we don’t think about them. We don’t think about them, because they’re too horrific to comprehend. ...

As the ecological fabric of the natural world unravels around us, perhaps it is time that we begin to speak of the unspeakable, and to listen to that which we have deemed unhearable.

A grenade rolls across the floor. Look. It won’t go away.

-Derrick Jensen, A Language Older Than Words

Join Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. on Saturday, April 25 at 7 p.m. for “Earth: A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation,” as they break through the conventional wisdom that suffocates public discourse in Washington. Along with dissecting the first 100 days of the Obama administration, they’ll offer ideas on how to avoid ecocide and resist corporate-controlled culture. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to see Derrick and Mickey together in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, only one Metro stop from Washington.

Comments (0)

Read my 2006 article here

Thursday, April 16, 2009

An exceedingly violent society

(A Cool Observer reprise)

Learning how to fight is not the same as promoting belligerent, anti-social behavior. We live in an exceedingly violent society. Our films, books, TV shows, and video games glorify mayhem and carnage. Our leaders (sic) solve most of their problems through aggression…or the threat thereof. While talk of non-violence is understandable and the struggle for peace has never been more essential, let’s face it: The odds are that sooner or later you’re going to end up in a confrontation that may escalate into physical violence. So, why not be prepared?

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Underground haiku

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And don’t forget:

Comments (24)

Countdown to Earth - 9 Days

“Pat Tillman personified all the best values of his country and the NFL,” said commissioner Paul Tagliabue. ... What values is NFL commissioner Tagliabue referring to ... the values canonized in our history texts (but ignored in reality) or the values of militarism and greed this nation has lived by for over 200 years?

Which America was Tillman standing up for ... the bosses at Halliburton or the homeless guy I see every day on the subway steps? The country personified by war criminals like Bush and Kerry? The country defined by corporate pirates? Indeed, soldiers like Tillman aren’t serving the 2 million behind bars or the 2 million locked in nursing homes against their will. The actions they chose over words don’t make our air or water cleaner or stop the suburban sprawl. If anything, they have the exactly opposite effect.

-Mickey Z., The American Way of Life: Inspired by Pat Tillman?

Comments (0)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Countdown to Earth - 10 Days

More people have been committing this blasphemy lately. More people have been recognizing that civilization is irredeemable. More people have come to know that the police will not protect us and the land we love from corporations, but instead that the police have as a primary purpose the facilitation of production, the facilitiation of the destruction of everything we hold dear. More people have come to know that if the integrity of our own bodies and the integrity of the land we love is to be defended, we are the ones who must defend it. And we are recognizing that we must go on the offensive.

-Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Volume II: Resistance

Comments (0)

Some context, re: Somalia

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What do pirates like about vacation?

A little ARRRRR and ARRRRR... (what else?)

You sure don’t need me to tell you that pirates have been in the news lately. (And I don’t mean that shot of me in the animation up there to the right)

As for me, here’s my favorite Pirate:

Some context, re: Somali pirates

Some more context, re: Somali pirates

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(More cartoons here)

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Dream-like poem

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And don’t forget:

Comments (18)

Countdown to Earth - 11 Days

It was a billboard on a crosstown Manhattan bus that got me thinking. The rolling PSA said something like this: “1 in 500 Americans have AIDS. Only 1 in 250 know.” Instantly, my mind responded: 1 in 2 Americans will die of heart disease. And this: Every seven seconds, an American dies of cancer. From there, the list grew to:

Every 25 seconds an American has a heart attack
Every 45 seconds, and American dies from a heart attack
Risk of death by heart attack for average American male: 50%
Risk of death by heart attack for average vegan: 4%
Rise in blood cholesterol level from consuming one egg per day: 12%
Associated rise in heart attack risk from consuming one egg per day: 24%
$135 billion per year spent treating cardiovascular disease
$70 billion per year spent treating cancer (hmm, imagine if health
insurance was experiential like car insurance)
40% of all cancers are diet related
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said in 1988, “Eight out of the ten leading causes of death in America are what you are eating."

-Mickey Z., Direct Action on February 15: Go Vegan

Comments (0)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Scrap tires

While the earliest version of tires were bands of iron or steel, today’s rubber tires can present a bit of a problem for the planet—especially once they are scrapped. Sure, there are laws dictating how old rubber tires can be properly disposed of, but the pervasiveness of America’s car culture can make it difficult to monitor. Some folks are using old tires to make sandals while others have managed to conjure up a water filter. Even so, millions and millions of discarded tires litter our increasingly paved landscape.

Meditate upon this: Every tire loses one pound of rubber per year, spewing minute grains of that rubber into the stratosphere and then back down to find a new home in our water and/or our lungs. Therefore, recycling and proper disposal are just baby steps. A larger shift—away from an auto-centric society—is long overdue.

Spread the word...

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April 15 approaches:

Cass Sunstein, Obama’s choice to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs thinks we should celebrate paying taxes.

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Poetic politics

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And don’t forget:

Comments (26)

Countdown to Earth - 12 Days

Bringing down civilization first and foremost consists of liberating ourselves by driving the colonizers out of our own hearts and minds: seeing civilization for what it is, seeing those in power for who and what they are, and seeing power for what it is. Bringing down civilization then consists of actions arising from that liberation, not allowing those in power to predetermine the ways we oppose them, instead living with and by—and using—the tools and rules of those in power only when we choose, and not using them only when we choose not to. It means fighting them on our terms when we choose, and on their terms when we choose, when it is convenient and effective to do so. Think of that the next time you vote, get a permit for a demonstration, enter a courtroom, file a timber sale appeal, and so on. That’s not to say we shouldn’t use these tactics, but we should always remember who makes the rules, and we should strive to determine what “rules of engagement” will shift the advantage to our side.

-Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Volume I: The Problem of Civilization

Comments (0)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Stimulator Interviews Derrick Jensen

Comments (0)

The Cool Observer Interview: Renato Redentor Constantino (a.k.a. "Red")

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(Red, a longtime lurker)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

RC: Read Calvin and Hobbes again and again. Learn how to make scrapbooks.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

RC: Groovy

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

RC: Laughter and weeping (but Ennio Morricone already beat me to it several times)

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

RC: Same reason Laura Branigan became successful for three seconds once.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

RC: Fight, though flight is also a way of fighting.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

RC: After the first monkey learned how to pray.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

RC: I want to be Angus Young with a donut at sunset doing opening riffs.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

RC: Choosing among ten different bottle-conditioned, micro-brewed beer and selecting the right afternoon to open each one.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

RC: When my six year-old daughter cut her her hair short. She emerged from the salon, smiled and took my breath away.

10. Are we all fucked?

RC: ,

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir
Charles
Michael
Zen Prole
Robert
Jeremy
Richie
Rick the Cartoonist

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P.S. It’s Easter...

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Poetry Polarity

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And don’t forget:

Comments (12)

Countdown to Earth - 13 Days

Everywhere we are inundated with the American theology of individualism within the entrepreneur model. The “heroes” that are packaged and sold to us are Wall Street speculators, professional athletes, and digitally or surgically enhanced celebrities. The dreams we are encouraged to fulfill seem to be limited to appearing on television, purchasing consumer electronics, and gambling on the lottery. Civil society is vanishing while fortitude is measured by bungee jumps, morality is dropped along with cluster bombs from 15,000 feet, and solidarity has been reduced to waiting on line for hours to see a blockbuster films.

The participants in this book (myself included) aren’t martyrs or heroes. Artists and activists are driven by more than material accumulation and, as a result, are often relegated to the margins. The Murdering of My Years is one small step forward widening those margins and making “different” belong.

-Mickey Z., The Murdering of My Years: Artist and Activists Making Ends Meet

Join Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. on Saturday, April 25 at 7 p.m. for “Earth 911: A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation,” as they break through the conventional wisdom that suffocates public discourse in Washington. Along with dissecting the first 100 days of the Obama administration, they’ll offer ideas on how to avoid ecocide and resist corporate-controlled culture. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to see Derrick and Mickey together in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, only one Metro stop from Washington.

Comments (0)

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Countdown to Earth - 14 Days

If the definition of a terrorist is anyone who wishes to create terror in a specific category of victim, with the purpose of altering the behavior of the members of that category, does this then mean that anyone who supports the imprisonment and especially the death penalty as deterrents to crime is by definition a terrorist? (The same question could be asked, then, of anyone who spanks or threatens to spank a child.) Clearly the stated purpose is to terrify a specific group of people into changing their behavior. That’s what deterrence is. And given the rate at which blacks, Latinos, and American Indians are imprisoned (and on death row), it could be argued that a good part of the judicial and penal systems in the United States constitutes a giant racist, terrorist organization. Simply looking at the numbers it becomes clear that the judicial and penal systems have achieved the segregation of black males—into prisons—on a scale of which the KKK and their puny brethren could only dream.

-Derrick Jensen, The Culture of Make Believe

Comments (0)

Friday, April 10, 2009

April 25 update, fitness column, poem, etc.

(photo by Sacha Lecca)

So, who’s coming to the DC area for my talk with Derrick Jensen? Who’s working hard to spread the word? Sending announcements to their e-lists? Posting details on their website? Chatting about it in forums? Handing out flyers?

P.S. There’s a reasonably good chance the April 25 event will be filmed by C-SPAN Book TV.

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My latest fitness column

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KO poem

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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And don’t forget:

Comments (13)

Countdown to Earth - 15 Days

We cannot afford to chalk up all global violence to a select few inhuman enemies of the United States, who act out their villain’s role in some grand but tragic drama. In a nation like ours, with a defense budget of over $250 billion per year, we are all partially responsible for every car bomb, every land mine, and every sanctions-related death—even those who choose to fight against it. Entire wars cannot and must not be foisted upon one man. ... Thus, it is our moral obligation to see through our own propaganda and kick the addictive habit of lazy thinking.

-Mickey Z., Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of ‘The Good War’

Comments (0)

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Dream World

A few months back, I received this request for a quote that would eventually appear in a coffee table book:

I’m requesting a written description of your perfect world, or your “dream” world. This can be as simple as “I see a world without borders,” or as concise – with as many paragraphs on as many subjects - as you prefer. The description need not begin with certain words nor the paragraphs be particularly formatted, all that is requested is your image of a perfect world: What is it you would desire in a perfect world? What is it that humanity would need in a perfect world? What is your Utopia? What would your “Heaven on Earth” be like? How would you live in your dream world? What would your dream world look like? These are some of the ways to approach the question. Your world can be as fantastic and marvelous as you want it to be. There are no rules, no right or wrong descriptions, only the world of your dreams.

I decided to not over-think my answer and relied solely on spontaneity with this:

A culture guided by an unwavering principle of justice for all living things. A culture that wittily embraces the subversive pleasure of critical, independent thought. A culture with far more questions than answers...and all those answers remain permanently open to debate (and maybe even laughter).

So, my friends, what would your “dream world” look like?

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Central Park haiku

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (19)

Countdown to Earth - 16 Days

We’re always told that the “solution” to the “water crisis” is that we should take shorter showers. But what we’re not so often told is that more than 90 percent of the water used by humans is not actually used by humans at all, but by agriculture and industry. And of the water used by cities, as much water is used for golf courses as is used by human beings.

So the people aren’t dying because there isn’t enough water. They’re dying because the water is being stolen, for mining and factories, for bottled water and soda pop, for cash-crop farms and ranches.

So if you really want to make it so people have enough to drink, I think there are more effective things you can do than take shorter showers.

-Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan, As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial

Comments (0)

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Rick (the Cartoonist)

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(Rick, an honorary Expendable)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

Rick: Question everything, starting with “Why should I question everything?”

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

Rick: Co-operation not competition.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

Rick: I’ll draw a Cartoon. I’m trying to learn Spanish and it’s showing I have no clue how grammar in English worked, so I’ll avoid writing a song.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

Rick: He speaks for us all, his poetic words bring a tear to my eye, it’s like hay fever but without the sneezing.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

Rick: As a herbivore I usually favor fleeing and then battling if needs must, think wildebeest and you’ve got the idea.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

Rick: Hell was invented to make Heaven look good, perhaps humans are here to make chimps look good in comparison?

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

Rick: The quiet one at the back scribbling Cartoons and trying to look innocent.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

Rick: I try to think as little as possible about food.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

Rick: I have many moments of clarity, but the madness passes and I fit back into society.

10. Are we all fucked?

Rick: I’m an optimist, a better world is possible (Otro mundo es possible)...unless we’re all fucked.

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir
Charles
Michael
Zen Prole
Robert
Jeremy
Richie

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Poetic credo

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (20)

Countdown to Earth - 17 Days

From taking up arms against one’s oppressor to using art and words as weapons of mass instruction, the 50 episodes presented here celebrate a different form of patriotism ... one based on challenging tradition and taking action. Whether inspired by personal conviction or a larger social ambition, those featured herein chose the more difficult, non-conformist path. In a society as heavily conditioned as ours, I submit such a choice is, in and of itself, a revolutionary act.

-Mickey Z., 50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed to Know

Comments (0)

Read the full article here

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

A starling taught to speak

While sitting in my kitchen the other day, I heard a beautiful and astonishingly complex bird call. Tiptoeing over to the window, I spied a European Starling perched on my sill—its throat vibrating as it sang its tiny heart out.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live in a world where a resilient mimic of a bird is valued above stone, metal, and masonry.

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Nostalgia poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (23)

Countdown to Earth - 18 Days

Scientists—and more broadly all believing members of this culture—often pride themselves on being rational and sometimes sneer at indigenous (noncivilized) cultures as being not rational, not reasonable, and based on superstition as opposed to “solid scientific observation,” whatever that means. The truth, however, is that this culture collectively and its members individually aren’t very smart. Let’s be frank, we’re pretty fucking stupid.

Let’s examine some evidence. How rational is it to put poisons on your own food? In the last seventy years, worldwide annual pesticide use has gone from zero to five hundred billions tons. Cancer rates have risen, as have a host of other problems.

Derrick Jensen and George Draffan, Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control

Comments (0)

Monday, April 06, 2009

A Starling Taught to Speak

By Mickey Z.

After pigeons and sparrows, starlings seem to be the most common birds in New York City but I know so little about them. I remedied that with some quick Web surfing and learned that the song I heard is a combination of “warbling, gurgling, chirruping and clicking noises,” and these birds will often imitate many other species (animals as well as birds), along with man-made sounds like car alarms and telephones. A group of starlings is known as a “constellation” or a “filth” or a “murmuration” or a “scourge” or a “vulgarity.” Whatever term you may use, starling flocks often number in the tens of thousands.

I also learned that every European Starling in North America “descended from 100 birds released in New York’s Central Park in the early 1890s. A group dedicated to introducing America to all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works set the birds free.” Thanks to this dimwitted idea, you can now find over 200 million European Starlings across much of North America.

Finally, I learned that the US Department of Agriculture has named the European Starling an invasive species because it “competes with native species and destroys crops.” Also, critics say, large flocks can “overwhelm buildings and trees with a large scale buildup of feces where the uric acid content causes corrosion to stone, metal, and masonry. Gutters and down pipes clogged with starling nests often become blocked, leading to water damage. Bacteria, fungus, and parasites in the feces pose a health risk.”

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live in a world where…

a) A resilient mimic of a bird is valued above stone, metal, and masonry

b) Humans are the species correctly labeled “invasive” and a “health risk”

Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

Comments (0)

Countdown to Earth - 19 Days

Change should and must be imagined possible. The events and deceptions outlined in this book are not a force of nature or the result of some preordained theology. The Seven Deadly Spins are enacted and empowered thanks to decisions made by humans. Other decisions could have been made; other outcomes could have resulted. Therefore, it follows that change is possibe.

-Mickey Z., The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda

Comments (0)

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Correction, re: Obama

As you know, I’ve been pretty tough on the Pope of Hope. Well, I’m here today to issue a correction: I was wrong about our (sic) new president.

Yes, after viewing his first couple of months in power, I must admit that he’s even worse than I ever imagined…

Barack Obama = Bush in Blackface

(See you in Arlington)

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(Thanks, RMJ)

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Malodorous haiku

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (15)

Countdown to Earth - 20 Days

Our relationship—both personal and collective—with shit, and more broadly with our waste products, reveals much about our relationship with the land—with our habitat—and much about why and how this culture is killing the planet. In the case of shit, this culture has turned what was a gift from us to our habitat—a gift of fertile soil, given in response to the nourishment our habitat gives us—into something toxic, something harmful. Something shameful. And that is a terrible shame.

-Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay, “What We Leave Behind"

Comments (0)

Saturday, April 04, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Richie Deadhead

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(Richie)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

RDH: TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO RUN .. RUN FAST ... READ / WRITE / SPELL / READ SOMEMORE / DON’T BELIEVE PEOPLE THAT MAKE YOUR BELLYACHE ..unless of course—it’s me or MOM ..

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

RDH: AS F***er’’ood as us .... READ ANIMAL FARM AND anything about UTOPIA/and FIGI .. and u will see what PARADISE AINT .. give me heaven or give me HELL .. but not at the SAME TIME—THANK U !~!

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

RDH: MY SORE ASS .. I SIT FAR TOO MUCH AND MY HEMORRHOIDS HURT // BLUZE/ZYDECO style..

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

RDH: P. DIDDY PiTUTI… I prefer WRIGLEY’S JUICEY FRUIT .. and so does JOS FROM CHICAGO..

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

RDH: I HAVE ALREADY FLOWN—and been dropped on my legs / shoulder / ass and head from a fluttering HUEY .. B2 .. by angry MARINES ... I’LL FIGHT for my right to PARTY .. BUT U BETTER KILL ME .. or I’LL INFECT ... even YOUR PRAYERLIFE ..

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

RDH: ...... I HAVEN’T DIED YET !! See above.. #2 ... it could be me//// OR U—MICKEY ....!!

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

RDH: ....I DON’T DO SCIENCE/FICTION .. I HAVE enuf difficulty ‘splainin’ the LITERARY MASTERPIECE known as THE “BIBLE”

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

RDH: EVERYTHING I CHEF—I HAVE LIMITED USE OF MY DIGITALS .. and BARBY don’t appreciate me stirring her soup with my dirty sox on !! bare feet acceptable..

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

RDH: THE SISTERS OF CHRISTIAN CLARITY FROM WILMETTE, ILLINOIS Taught me all the “? CHARITY ... I NEED .. or something like that .. opps another richie Malaprop/Mrs Malaprop !

10. Are we all fucked?

RDH: i f***ed 4 times successfully ..producing 3 sons and 1 daughter ... the rest was over-hyped and made me an androgyny (look that one up—y—) RIGHT ABOUT NOW ..I’D WALK a mile for a CAMEL… MY BRAND OF PREFERENCE WHILE SERVIN UZZZ ALL IN 68’ ...

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir
Charles
Michael
Zen Prole
Robert
Jeremy

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Heavyweight poetry

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (19)

Countdown to Earth - 21 Days

Extinction is forever:

Estimates vary, but roughly 50,000 animal and plant species become extinct each year. That’s over 130 per day, about 6 per hour.

Here’s a fun game to improve your math and reading skills (both come in handy when taking tests like the SATs): Time yourself as you read this book and calculate how many species that were still around when you began reading have since become history.

- Mickey Z., “No Innocent Bystanders: Riding Shotgun in the Land of Denial"

Comments (0)

Friday, April 03, 2009

Action is better than hope

Arundhati Roy sez: “Governments of today have learned to deal with protest. They know to wait out a demonstration or a march. They know the day after tomorrow, opinions can change, or be manipulated into changing. Unless civil disobedience becomes real, not symbolic, there is very little hope for change.”

Let’s start by accepting the undeniable fact that most standard tactics of dissent have been rendered woefully impotent. Activism has undergone immense commodification. If we were to believe our TVs, buying a Chevy is now a revolutionary act.

Let’s also accept that looking to “leaders” (whether that be an Obama or a Chomsky or whomever) is a dead end. It’s long overdue that we create fresh new opportunities and methods better suited to our current needs and circumstances.

Ani DiFranco sez: “Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right.”

Let’s say you’re a handy man/woman/person and you get hired for a job. I’m guessing you’d bring your full toolbox to the worksite. After all, you can never be sure what might pop up and what tools you’ll need. In other words, if you have a job to do, it would be illogical to decide beforehand that certain tools are off limits under any circumstance. Keep all your tools at your disposal—even if some remain permanently untouched—just in case.

Similarly, let’s say you find yourself in a fight with a dangerous opponent. Would you rather have a hand grenade or a knife? Before you jump at the chance to blow someone up, contemplate the possibility that this fight could be happening in an elevator or on a crowded dance floor. Again, the situation dictates the tactics so it pays to be prepared and open-minded.

I’ve got news for you all: We can win*...but only if we stand up, band together, and create new ways to fight today, tomorrow, and every day.

*By “win,” I sorta mean this: Help create a softer place for most/some of us to land.

Your thoughts?

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Night shift poetry

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (27)

Thursday, April 02, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Jeremy Hammond

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(Jeremy)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

JH: How to think for themselves.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

JH: Friendly, cooperative, respectful.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

JH: The feeling when despair turns into hope. No lyrics, just music.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

JH: No. But I haven’t inquired, as I don’t really care.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

JH: Fight. Too many of the world’s problems occur because people back down instead of standing up.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

JH: The first monkey didn’t. But his firstborn did. Hundreds of thousands of years ago. Or 6000, depending upon your reckoning.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-if film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

JH: The guy who doesn’t accept the way things are and probably ends up getting killed for questioning the order.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

JH: Cereal.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

JH: Clarity does not come for me in moments. It is a state of mind.

10. Are we all fucked?

JH: Nothing is fucked here, Dude.

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir
Charles
Michael
Zen Prole
Robert

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Patriot poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (17)

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Spring cleaning, 2009

Ani DiFranco sez: “Maybe you can keep me from ever being happy, but you’re not gonna stop me from having fun.”

Ani wrote that line in a song about relationships but - for me - she might as well have been talking about our current form of human society. In that spirit, I have recently begun the process of reminding myself (as often as possible) that while happiness is fleeting in a culture such as ours, this doesn’t mean I/we can’t have fun. Sure, that last sentence sounds both obvious and contradictory...but, then again, what doesn’t?

Natalie Merchant sez:
“They told you life is hard/misery from the start
It’s dull, it’s slow, it’s painful
But I tell you life is sweet/in spite of the misery
There’s so much more, be grateful”

Joan Baez sez: “Action is the antidote to despair.”

Woody Guthrie sez: “Take it easy—but take it.”

With all due respect to our musical guests above, I’ll give the last word to the immortal Tyler Durden: “This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

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New haiku

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (32)

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Robert B. Livingston

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

RBL: Patience. Dreams and plans fail. Keep cool and do the next thing. Oh-- and meantime, sisters and brothers, “gently, pray!” Problem with that?

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

RBL: First, people would be valued above things. Second, people would seek a pragmatic harm reduction model of getting along. Third, despite individual differences and liabilities, all people would have equal access to the necessities of a healthy life including real opportunities to unfold and contribute their unique gifts.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

RBL: Like Whitman, it would be a song of myself.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

RBL: Sorry, but these two mean little to me because I pay scant attention to corporate-packaged popular culture.

However, I sometimes imagine becoming a millionaire by marketing an LP (or CD-- I guess I am showing my age) called “Drive By Rap”. The idea is to take the top 50 rap songs of all time and squeeze them into 30 minutes by just playing the sound of each song as it rumbles in from a distance, sits at a corner for 15 seconds, and rumbles away: just like in real life! I figure I could get around paying royalties and give future generations something to be sentimental about. If that didn’t make me rich, then maybe we could create a new cultural pop phenomenon by cutting a disc called “Rapping to Django Reinhardt”. Imagine! Instead of the usual crude and misanthropic lyrics, kids would be singing stuff about sweeping floors faster and cashing paychecks. (Just joking.)

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

RBL: Like most people, I think I would probably freeze. Yet, I still hope that I would be like Jean Valjean in Les Miserables and grab the hot poker from the fire. The bad guys never expect that.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

RBL: When the second monkey paved the path to it.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

RBL: The one that gets the girl.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

RBL: Sorry. I am useless in a kitchen, and hard-pressed even serving myself at a fast food which I work to avoid.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

RBL: Probably ten minutes ago-- before I got sucked into this entertaining exercise. However, there is nothing quite as clarifying as watching the moon rise and realizing that life goes on despite finding oneself occasionally alone, shattered, and penniless. Get ready world-- we all seem to be heading this way.

10. Are we all fucked?

RBL: No, so long as that moon rises-- so long as we can love, so long as we learn a little patience.

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir
Charles
Michael
Zen Prole

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Poem, re: change

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Here’s another fine example of the insanity we call humanity

Monday, March 30, 2009

Adam raised a cane (toad)

This particular paragraph jumped out at me:

The toads bred rapidly, and their millions-strong population now threatens many local species across Australia. They spread diseases, such as salmonella, and produce highly toxic venom from glands in their skin that can kill would-be predators. The toads are also voracious eaters, chomping up insects, frogs, small reptiles and mammals — even birds.

Imagine that same graph, re-written as such:

The humans bred rapidly, and their billions-strong population now threatens most species across the globe. They spread diseases and produce highly toxic products that can kill every living thing on earth. The humans are also voracious eaters, chomping up cows, chickens, fish, and various mammals — even buffaloes.

As for the actual toad slaughter, fear not...it was approved by the officially sanctioned good guys: "The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has applauded the effort, provided the toads are killed humanely."

If you’re not willing to fight back for yourselves, why not do it for the cane toads? Hey...it’s got to start somewhere.

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Poem/prose

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (15)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Zen Prole

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

ZP: To be comfortable in and appreciate nature: food, water, shelter, caretaking, and communicating with other living things. Postcard photography this isn’t.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

ZP: Open and accountable. It won’t solve the human condition, but will cut the chaff down to a sub-imperial level.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

ZP: I’ve no songs to write, but will make a very bitter diary entry.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for thesuccess of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

ZP: No, but Lewis Black took the piss by calling him “Piff Puffy”

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

ZP: Fight early and often, and without remorse. (This, after watching the Left chase its tail for 15+ years)

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

ZP: When the treatment for the Old Testament landed on someone’s desk.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

ZP: The lone warrior explorer.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

ZP: For dessert - apple pie with strudel topping. Dinner - an Italian spread isn’t right until there are 3 dishes + salad and bread.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

ZP: Sunday afternoon (see #10, single-serving size). I did a 90% black-out for 36 hours and am still very black.

10. Are we all fucked?

ZP: We are so fucked that galactic parentheses aren’t big enough.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir
Charles
Michael

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Opinion poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (21)

Capitalist Incarnate: My Interview with a Vampire

By Jason Miller

While it’s a commonly held belief that “everyone has a nonbiological twin somewhere in the world,” I wonder if we all have an antithetical “anti-twin” as well. Because I recently met someone who could easily be mine. Ironically enough, it was at the public library, one of my favorite haunts.

It’d been a particularly cold winter and the mercury had finally inched up to where it was light jacket weather, so I decided to spend a day prowling around an area called The Country Club Plaza, a Kansas City “landmark.”

Picture the Plaza as a physical incarnation of the spiritual realm where all the souls of the “good” members of the bourgeoisie will transcend once they’ve run themselves to death in the race to acquire the most toys.

Featuring rather exotic-looking architecture styled after that of Seville, Spain; retailers who demand credit approval and notarized validation of net worth exceeding six figures prior to entry into their establishment (so as to prevent “the rabble” from invading their luxurious fiefdoms); and restaurateurs whose appetizers cost enough to feed a family of four for a month, this “shopping district” is at the nexus of what some people refer to as Kansas City’s “old money.” Suffice it to say that the inhabitants of the palatial estates lining nearby Ward Parkway and State Line Road enjoy extensive insulation from the current “economic downturn.”

In fact, before his approval ratings fell off a cliff and he became a pariah to his own party, George Bush paid a visit to The Plaza en route to the home of Scott Ward, the local candy magnate who maintains co-controlling interest in the privately held Russell Stovers corporation, a company the “journalists” covering the business beat for the Kansas City Star (our daily corporate fish wrap) would characterize as an “engine of the local economy.” Bush came that day in 2006 to raise money for Missouri’s Republican candidate for US Senate. As one of the several hundred members of the “hoi polloi” who showed up to protest “all things Bush,” I was actually very fortunate. Not just because I was within earshot of Bush’s motorcade when I yelled profanities at that pusillanimous sociopath. But also because I had the “audacity” to step outside the “protest zone” and scream at a cop that he was a fucking fascist protecting a war criminal, yet somehow I managed to avoid getting tasered or arrested.

I’m meandering a bit here, but I do have a point. Armed with at least a notion of The Country Club Plaza and its demographics, you now have a context into which you can place Jacob Arnst, my anti-twin and a resident of the Plaza area, whom I’m about to introduce.

Addicted as I am to reading, learning, studying, and researching, my feet naturally made their way to the Plaza branch of the Kansas City public library during the course of my wanderings. As I was perusing the well-worn book spines for names like Best, Jensen, Zerzan, Marcuse, Adorno, Mills and a host of other anti-capitalist malcontents, my eyes happened upon a rather harsh looking older man with a stocky build, squatty stature, thin and wispy gray hair that was well on its way to extinction, taught and leathery skin that gave him a rather reptilian appearance, a well-manicured moustache contrasting sharply with a heavy five o’clock shadow, and a badly coordinated but obviously expensive outfit. His bright orange Baby Alpaca cardigan, though of exceptional quality, didn’t quite match his Agave Cowboy denims, his purple Prada distressed suede ankle boots, or his black dial Rolex Migauss. His ensemble, which also included an ostentatious gold rope chain that would have looked more at home on Kanye West, made for a very odd-looking combination. I noticed that he’d lingered in the same aisle as me for about ten minutes, so I initiated a conversation with a hello and an inquiry about his reading preferences. He didn’t seem too open to talking. Without even glancing my way he grunted a barely audible “hi” and mumbled something about finance, investment and economics. I wondered why the hell he was searching shelves lined with books by Marxists, anarchists, socialists, and anarcho-primtivists.

When I politely pointed out to him that he wasn’t likely to find Warren Buffet’s latest tome amongst these texts, he looked me directly in the eye and defiantly proclaimed that he wanted to see what the terrorists, Communists and traitors were writing about. Seeing an opening, I told him that I was a sociopolitical writer and online publisher. I told him I wanted to know what the people who formed the bedrock of capitalism and the American Way of Life were thinking. I gestured toward a nearby table that was tucked away in an alcove (hence offering a modicum of privacy) and asked him if he’d submit to an interview. Obviously flattered, he consented, but only under the condition that I agree not to disclose his real name or any of his personal information. He told me that he was quite “well off” and didn’t want “creeps” or “freeloaders” finding him through the Internet. I told him I’d honor his request.

As we sat down across the narrow table from one another, I scrutinized him with the cautious enthusiasm of a scientist observing a lethal strain of bacteria under a microscope. I was face to face with a parasitic capitalist overlord. “Is his disease contagious?” I mused to myself. We shook hands as he was telling me how affluent he was and how he’d made his money. His touch was oddly effeminate, more of a caress than a shake, and his grip was surprisingly feeble for a ruthless business man who had acquired his fortune with a “take no prisoners” attitude. It was a creepy scenario.

We made small talk for a few more ticks of the clock, which is how I gleaned the details about his wardrobe. He was delighted to boast that his attire for the day cost him over $1500.00 and that these were his “bumming around clothes.” When I told him I paid about $100.00 for what I was wearing, including my “expensive” vegan tennis shoes, he guffawed slightly before realizing his “social faux pas” and quickly apologizing. He then fidgeted with his watch, nervously cleared his throat a couple of times, and lowered his gaze to avoid my eyes. I smiled and told him not to worry about it, putting him at ease again. Funny how even the most callous and mean-spirited individuals can lapse into moments of self-consciousness.

Seizing the momentary pause in our discourse, I informed him we needed to get started on the interview as the increasing intensity of the sunrays cascading through the westerly windows indicated it was growing late in the afternoon. He nodded his assent.

Note: Jacob Arnst is an alias for my “library friend.” I am keeping my promise not to reveal his true identity or specifics about his business or personal life.

Jason Miller: All right, let’s start with a rather broad question. What do you think of the impending global economic collapse?

[Much to my surprise, Jacob burst out with a gut-busting laugh.]

Jacob Arnst: Is that what you think it is? Boy, oh boy, did you drink the Commie Kool-Aid! This is nothing more than a down-turn. In fact, it’s nothin’ compared to the Great Depression. Our economy goes in cycles. We’ve hit a valley and we’re on our way out of it. Plain and simple.

JM: How is this “valley” affecting you?

JA: Actually, I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s made my life BETTER. Some of my investments are off, but my business, which is a rather large enterprise and represents the core of my financial holdings, is booming. There are many ways to profit from the losses of others. For instance, I give you permission to at least tell your readers that I’m making a killing off of the rash of home foreclosures.

JM: Don’t you feel guilty that you are prospering at the expense of human misery?

JA: Nah, I don’t look at it that way. God gives us all a mind, body, soul, and five senses when we’re born. What we do with it after that is our own responsibility. I can’t help it if Bob the factory worker, who’s now laid off, was too damn lazy to get an education or start his own business. And if I can improve my position because he made stupid decisions that caused him to lose his house, I’m going to do it. It’s really no different than playing chess. Bob left an opening and I check-mated him. Too bad, Bob. You lose; I win.

JM: What about “Bob’s” family?

JA: Well, first of all, his damn wife should have chosen a better mate to be her bread-winner.

JM: And their children?

JA: The state’ll take care of them. That is why I pay outrageous property and capital gains taxes, my friend. Before you judge me too harshly, remember that I pay thousands of times the taxes that you and the “Bobs” of this world do. I pay taxes so I don’t have to worry about the plight of lazy, stupid, insignificant people.

JM: What are your thoughts on the eco-crisis?

JA: I don’t think there is one. Senator James Inhofe, a highly respected man, along with many leading scientists, have proven that global warming is a hoax.

JM: Global warming aside, what do you think about the Sixth Extinction? Is that a hoax too?

JA: No, that’s not a hoax. We can observe that some types of plants and animals are dying. But that’s just part of the natural order of things. Just like in business. Some companies can’t hack it, so they fold. The animals and plants that are disappearing just don’t have what it takes to survive. It’s a brave new world and only the tough make it.

JM: How do you view the problem of human overpopulation?

JA: I’m not worried about it. Some sort of catastrophe will take care of all those excess Africans and Asians. Those of us who are intelligent and live right will be fine. The ones, like your “Bob” you were so worried about, who make idiotic decisions, will reap the consequences. For many of them, that will mean death, which will be a good thing for the rest of us.

JM: Wow, Jacob. I’m trying hard to remain an impartial interviewer here, but that’s incredibly barbaric.

JA: Call it what you will, but I’m a realist. You don’t get to my position in life by feeling sorry for people. Let them pull themselves up by their bootstraps, just like I did. If they can’t make it, I’m sorry, but that’s the way the ball bounces in life. God’ll take care of ‘em in the hereafter anyway.

JM: As a dedicated vegan, I have to ask, what are your thoughts on exploiting animals?

JA: God put the animals here for our benefit. He told us that in Genesis. Besides, look around you. Everything of significance and value on this planet was invented, created, or made by people. Quite frankly, I don’t even like animals. My wife insists on having a cat, but I refuse to allow dogs into my home. And humans were made to eat meat. Everything else is just filler.

JM: Aren’t you concerned about the skyrocketing global demand for “meat,” the extensive damage “meat production” does to the environment, and the suffering of “factory farmed” animals?

JA: Jason, none of those issues are of any consequence to me. Not one. I could give a fiddler’s fuck if some Chinaman goes hungry because he doesn’t have a hotdog or a burger to eat. Green technology is going to clean up the environment. The Earth is durable and renewable. We haven’t put a dent in the vast resources God provided for us. And as for the cows and pigs that we raise for food, they wouldn’t even exist if we weren’t going to eat them. They’re lucky to be alive. Besides, we provide for their basic needs, giving them more food than they need, shelter from harsh weather, and medicine when they’re sick. They certainly have plenty of interaction with others of their kind too. But what does concern me though is that those Commie Chinese are sticking their chop sticks onto my plate of steak instead of keeping them in their rice bowl; that the governments are over-regulating businesses to the point that we can’t get at the abundance of resources on this planet; and that we coddle the animals that we farm for meat.

JM: I’d like to shift gears and talk about foreign policy for a bit.

JA: Fine by me.

JM: What do you think of US imperialism?

JA: I think it’s a figment of vivid Marxist imaginations. The US has ALWAYS been on the side of freedom and democracy and we’ve NEVER invaded and colonized another country. We only send our forces in when it’s necessary to right wrongs and crush tyranny. Look how we saved the world from Hitler.

JM: You do know that Russia lost over 20 million people defeating Nazi Germany compared to our 600,000, don’t you?

JA: That’s irrelevant. We provided the industrial and economic muscle. If it hadn’t been for the US of A, it would have been game over and Stalin and the whole lot of those damn Reds would have been learning to speak German.

JM: What about the one million or more Iraqis who’ve died as a direct result of the US invasion and the four million whom have been displaced?

JA: What can I say? War is hell. I think Bush and his staff under-estimated the strength of resistance they’d meet, but Hussein is deposed and properly hanged, we’re withdrawing our troops, and a fledgling democracy is in place. Sounds to me like we did some very good things in Iraq.

JM: I’d like to hear your opinions about Israel.

JA: I’m highly critical of the state of Israel. I’m enraged actually. We’ve sent them billions of our hard-earned tax dollars for years and they still haven’t managed to solve their Palestinian problem. Their leniency is an outrage. If I were calling the shots, I’d have unleashed hell on Gaza and the West Bank until every last one of those rat bastards died or capitulated. They’re all terrorists, plain and simple and they’re squatting on land that belongs to God’s chosen people. They need to be thankful for what they’ve got and toe the line.

JM: Anything else you’d like to add to this impromptu “man on the street” interview?

JA: Sure, I want to say that I appreciate the opportunity to straighten out an obviously misguided young man. And even if you’ve learned nothing from me today, that’s what makes this country great. You have a right to continue being wrong.

JM: Jacob, if you’re trying to provoke an angry response from me or spark a debate, you’re failing. I told you at the outset that this was going to be an interview for publication on my highly controversial anarcho-vegan blog, Thomas Paine’s Corner. While I disagree with almost every one of your views, I’m not here today to argue. I’m simply going to write an intro and publish it along with our Q&A so that readers can see for themselves how an outrageously cruel and twisted soul justifies his contemptible existence.

JA: Just see to it that you don’t put my name on it. I’m going to the country club to eat the most succulent T-bone you could ever imagine. Then I’m going to drive my Porsche Carrera GT to my 75,000 square foot mansion and fuck my 25 year old wife who has the body of a Greek goddess. I hope you choke on your Tofu burger you goddamned tree-hugger!

JM: You’ve given me plenty of material. I think we’re done here. Thanks for your time.

Jason Miller is a relentless anti-capitalist, vegan straight edge, and animal liberationist. He is also the senior editor and founder of Thomas Paine’s Corner.

More from Jason Miller

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Adam and Len: A Topiary Freeplay

Len: What are you, some kind of madman? (page 1, Freeplay by Len Bracken)

Adam: What do you want from me? (page 124, Topiary by Adam Engel)

Len: You know who I am. Who are you? (page 10)

Adam: I had been under the impression, for many years, that such people as the me inside me could not or would not allow themselves to change. (page 39)

Len: Get that shit outta here. (page 7)

Adam: I thought you of all people would understand. (page 144)

Len: I don’t care if nobody cares. (page 1)

Adam: We’ve got nothing to hide here. Not in this room, at any rate (page 87)

Len: I’ve got some time on my hands too—I just quit my job (page 4)

Adam: I can’t live like you. (page 94)

Len: You’ll have to play to understand. Up to you. (page 11)

Adam: So what happened? (page 23)

Len: We appropriate and disaccumulate goods to redistribute wealth. (page 12)

Adam: Such lunatic dreams are born of desperate minds. (page 56)

Len: We use this paratechnology to fight the technocrats, or enemi. I’m one ecologist who sees the harm technology has done, but I believe that through control of our minds we can control technology. (page 11)

Adam: That’s a lot of propaganda. (page 148)

Len: We like to make the Earth green again. To do this our hackers are converting the world’s wealth into cosmic accounting. Our ecological intelligence software is conducting barter silently through alteration of data banks of international organizations and corporations. (page 11)

Adam: Enjoy what you do. That’s all that’s important. As long as you enjoy your work. (page 143)

Len: We feel it is essential to revalue the value of things like fossil fuel, which is too much undervalued. It’s no more than changing information about energy to reflect its true worth. On the micro level our games are very personal. (page 12)

Adam: I was made for this role. (207)

Len: Do I hear a touch of jealousy in your voice? (page 31)

Adam: Not me, man. (page 134)

Len: You are an anarchist, so you have no party. Right? (page 26)

Adam: You know me. You’ve seen me. (page 207)

Len: Yes, but I would never say so publicly. (page 26)

Adam: You’ll have to take it on faith and faith is the only way you’ll keep it. Because it’s a construct, a thing of imagination, a personal design. The design of your person. Conceptual. Mercurial. Abstract. (page 209)

Len: Would we be where we are without cooperation, mutual aid, symbiosis? Will the fittest survive if the myriad levels of support systems become extinct? Will solutions to our ecological problems come on an ad hoc basis? I assure you, they will not. We must rethink the whole of our science. (page 42)

Adam: Is it dead? Society. Is it dead? (page 40)

Len: No. What we need is another Bakunin to stir up revolution. (page 60)

Adam: I want to show you something. I’d prefer you do not speak of this. Though I assume you will. Maybe I want you to speak. Why else would I be showing this? (page 212)

Len: If you say so. (page 69)

Adam: I was drunk at a party thrown by some hot-shot neurologist. Uptown. I opened a closet, thinking it was the bathroom, and there was this brain, floating in a bucket of water. Or that’s what it looked like. Water. I grilled the good doctor about the gruesome thing. It was ugly, it was sexy. Like genitals. Totally turned me on. It was yanked from an unidentified cadaver years before. … I offered to buy it. The Neurologist gave it to me for free. (page 212)

Len: What kind of mind control do you have in mind? (page 11)

Adam: What is a mind? If the mind is a physical thing, dependent entirely upon the physicality of the brain, then the thoughts and memories are still in there, just not animated. Information on a drive when the machine shuts down. No light, no spark, no access, but it’s still there. (page 213)

Len: But what do you do if you have a very unhealthy body from the start? (page 80)

Adam: Look at me. (page 23) Possessing this, this organ – that’s all we are, aren’t we? Our much vaunted intellects no more valuable than the flesh they’re printed on. Possessing this organ has introduced new possibilities into my life, a life where nothing was possible because everything already had been done. Imagine a life bereft of possibility, a life in which the Future offers nothing but the Past. The life of The Star. Do you understand? (page 213)

Len: Yes, these nuances and differences are what make Players great, don’t you think? … Anyway, while we look at this picture of the seat of consciousness, consider how much a brain is like an anarchic society. It is flexible, versatile and free yet engages in self restraint. (page 81)

Adam: We’re notorious, now. Famous. In the light. Hell, we’re known. Damn straight we got what we deserved. And we want more of it! What we deserve (page 136)

Len: Today has really been something for me. I never thought I’d have experienced anything like that. (page 160)

Adam: It was a pleasure speaking to you. (page 120)

"Adam and Len” adapted from Adam Engel’s novel Topiary (2008) and Len Bracken’s novel Freeplay (1990 edition).

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A green "bailout" of sorts

If there’s a silver lining in the current economic crisis, it may be more green than silver. Here’s how Christopher Ketcham sees it: “The benefits of the descent are manifold but tacitly unrecognized: the malls no longer trap rats with credit cards, the casinos no longer suck blood from the arms of degenerates, the lousy restaurants no longer make you nauseous for $100 a plate (gasp – the Times reports that the ungrateful citizens are eating at home!), the retailers no longer ask you to throw away perfectly good shoes, the jewelers no longer sell to serious adults the silly shiny trinkets meant for the pleasure of cretins, the auto dealerships no longer peddle cars half as efficient as last year’s model, the cellphone hawkers no longer sell the I3869Zed Super-Iphone to burn out the brains and tire the ears, the home builders no longer slap-dab junk homes in exurban fields meant for farms that can sustain something we once called the future.”

We can easily do without and the planet will thank us for it. As Fight Club’s Tyler Durden sez: “You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.”

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Weather poem

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Friday, March 27, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Michael Greenwell

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(Michael)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

MG: To help them see when they are being lied to, which is not easy and nobody has perfected it yet. Start with 3 questions:
Who is telling me this?
Why are they telling me this?
And the third flows from the second:
What will they gain from telling me this?

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

MG: I think we should try to stop the carnage being created by the current one before we worry about the next one.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

MG: A heart-rending lament about the fact that it has always annoyed me that I have no real talent for music.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

MG: The only thing I can think of is that it is the perfect example of a society that values business acumen over having any actual useful talents.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

MG: I think the point about the flight or fight mechanism is that you never know which one you are going to do. In my personal life I have done both at different times.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

MG: I like evolutionary history. I think it was when she told the lemurs that they didn’t have to do what the apes told them.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

MG: I think I have actually become the lone explorer in real life in an attempt to destroy any overlord tendencies I once had. As for ‘Mad Scientists’ - they can be positive or negative characters.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

MG: I make lots of different kinds of soup, but that is easy. I suppose it would be Indian food, which I absolutely love.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

MG: A very depressing one. When I realised that because of the way the world is organised it is almost impossible to ‘opt-out’ in any meaningful way.

10. Are we all fucked?

MG: We are as fucked as we are prepared to put up with being.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir
Charles

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Poetic priorities

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Om-Bama?

New Life Magazine is one those rags you can pick up for free at your local health food store. You know, New Age denial and all that shit. Anyway, the March/April issue features a Peter Max painting of the Pope of Hope on the cover.

In the lead editorial, New Life publisher Mark Becker writes about Obama who he “affectionately” calls “Om-Bama.” Becker adds: “We are living in a very exciting time since we finally have a president who realizes what is broken and is willing to go out on a limb and step up to the plate to make these changes to create the America that our forefathers dreamed of.”

Mixed metaphors and political delusions aside, someone might wanna to break the news to Mr. Becker that if our beloved forefathers ever met the exalted Om-Bama, a single word would pop into their collective rich white heads: property.

(insert rimshot here)

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Poem of sorts

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (29)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Charles B. (a.k.a. Chuck)

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

CB: How to grow their own food, even though we’re facing this prospect.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

CB: Amicable, I would hope.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

CB: I’ve never written a song, but if I did, it would probably be something dopey, a la Weird Al Yankovic. Maybe a song about how Obama sucks sung to the tune of Cotton Eye Joe.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

CB: Nope. I met him in person, though. He was surrounded by the biggest bodyguards I’ve ever seen.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

CB: I’ll fight til I’m forced to flee. Or maybe I’d flee til I’m forced to fight. Depends on the circumstances.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

CB: I’m an atheist. Hell doesn’t exist.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

CB: Can I be the damsel in distress? It would be nice to have someone rescue me for a change.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

CB: Green juice, only because it’s a pain in the ass cleaning the juicer.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

CB: Yesterday, after drinking 40 ounces of fresh juice and getting over the raw chocolate high of the previous evening.

10. Are we all fucked?

CB: No, but our kids are.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS
Keir

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Commuter poem

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (19)

Read the five reasons here

Monday, March 23, 2009

Five reasons why Americans won't resist

Protest (American, definitely not a verb): Wait for UFPJ or ANSWER to stage a parade (I mean, demonstration) on a weekend afternoon so no one misses work or school or in any way disrupts the flow of commerce. Don’t make a sign; the organizers will make one for you. March in an orderly fashion, be polite to the occupying army (I mean, cops), and be sure to stay in designated free speech zones. Blame the Republicans. Wear costumes. Make puppets. Exclude anarchists. Hold a candlelight vigil. Sign a petition. Chant. Vote for a Democrat and hope for change. Need I continue?

With the stakes never higher than they are now, why aren’t activists ramping up the pressure and looking beyond tactics that are allowed by those in power?

Read the Daily Kos reaction here

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Poem, re: progress

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(More cartoons here)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Five Reasons Why Americans Won't Resist

By Mickey Z.

With the stakes never higher than they are now, why aren’t activists ramping up the pressure and looking beyond tactics that are allowed by those in power?

Here are my five guesses:

1. We are trained to believe that nothing major is wrong. Global warming? Economic meltdown? Epidemics of preventable diseases? Slavery, genocide, ecocide? You name it and we’re ready to downplay it. We’re Americans, goddammit, we’ll figure out a way to fix it. When the going gets tough, we’ll call the experts.

2. We are trained to leave it to experts. Rather than worry our little heads over why more than 100 plant and animal species go extinct each day, we rely on experts. Instead of learning what a “collateralized-debt obligation” is and how it contributed to the current economic depression, just let the professionals handle the mess. Besides, such delegation frees up much more time to watch TV and update our Facebook pages.

3. We are trained to embrace non-violence. All the real heroes would never raise a fist in anger: Jesus, MLK, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, etc. Sure, the government and its corporate owners are taking away all our rights and all our money. They’re poisoning our air, water, and food while crafting laws that make prison a looming possibility, but the moment we contemplate anything more than a non-violent response, we become worse than any of them. Ain’t that right?

4. We feel too damn privileged to risk prison (or worse). The average Gaza resident doesn’t have the luxury of wondering if their resistance could result in arrest and thus perhaps ruin their reputation. The average American? Well, that’s a different story. I can’t defy insane laws designed to squash protest. I might get arrested and that means close proximity to all those scary criminals and it also means hurting my chances of landing a good job and maybe even losing all my respectable friends. I mean, I’m an activist and all but that’s asking way too much. Who do you think I am, Mandela?

5. We’re fuckin’ cowards. Our acquiescence in a disturbingly broad range of areas—access to health care, tolerance for voting irregularities, directly funding the Israeli war machine, stomaching the groupthink behind saluting a flag, etc. etc. etc.—appears to have no limits. Americans love to talk the talk about being fearless and tough but when ordered to remove our shoes before going through airport security, it’s “yes sir” all the way.

We know things have passed the proverbial tipping point and that immediate action is 100% needed and justified, but we’re far too spineless to do anything that might get us in trouble. Somehow, it’s more terrifying for any of us to face down a cop than it is to contemplate the total destruction of our earthly eco-system.

If it’s true that action expresses priorities, we American activists aren’t overly concerned about the future.

We now return to our regularly scheduled slate of left wing articles…

Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Keir Neuringer

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(Keir)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

KN: Charm.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

KN: Skeptical.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

KN: Drinkin’ and/or ex-girlfriends.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

KN: Dude proves the existence of a god with a cruel and shitty sense of humor.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

KN: It’s a coin toss whether either would work, so I’d probably end up doing both, like Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

KN: Seconds after the universe was breathed into existence in 4004BC.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

KN: Odd-ball musician in the inevitable cantina scene.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

KN: Barszcz czerwony (Polish beetroot soup).

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

KN: Last fall. I had a difficult decision to make, so I reminded myself how the character Cincinatus saved himself in Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading, and then did the same thing.

10. Are we all fucked?

KN: At least twice.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.
JOS

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Tunnel poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Culture of Death

Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:

30 million board feet of hardwoods (caskets)
90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
827,060 US gallons of embalming fluid (which most commonly includes formaldehyde)

That’s enough embalming fluid to fill eight Olympic-size swimming pools, enough metal to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and enough reinforced concrete to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit.

Hey, you could always compost yourself...

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Another version of our pervasive death culture
(Thanks, Joe)

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Graffiti poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Obama and His Dick (Cheney)

By Mickey Z.

Here’s how well they have us trained: The powers that be are no longer gonna call the illegally detained terrorism suspects (sic) by the name of “enemy combatants.” Like the pre-programmed robots we’ve all become, we’ll celebrate this as a welcome and much-needed change from the reviled Bush-Cheney administration. A step in the right direction, we might even say.

In addition, the Pope of Hope has promised not to torture. Our society is so fuckin’ corrupt that a US president can announce—without shame—a purported plan to say no to committing crimes against humanity. Of course, we view this as “normal” and we foolishly believe him and even praise him.

Obama’s blood brother, Dick Cheney, happily plays his pre-ordained role in this passion play by going on national television and declaring that our (sic) president’s vague pledge to possibly adhere to accepted international law—a pledge more honored in the breach—is making the US less safe.

The pundit patrol gleefully spins into action. You see, what passes for intelligence and insight in America typically involves being handsomely paid to put on a suit and go on TV to debate whether its Obama or his Dick that’s got it right.

This is mental illness in plain view—unabashed, unfettered lunacy not even trying to masquerade as sanity. If we woke up, it would take perhaps 3-5 seconds to recognize this: Obama is a heinous criminal. Cheney is a heinous criminal. The same can be said for the volunteer soldiers and all those who give the orders; the law enforcement types and all those who give the orders; the judges; the professional liars who stock the media ranks; and, of course, all the humans that comprise the power structure of Corporate America.

Since we habitually choose denial instead of rebellion, our willingness to play along at home by, for example, analyzing the subtle nuances that differentiate Obama from his Dick makes us heinous criminals, too. When things are as bad as they are now, there’s more than enough guilt to go around.

Just about everything about US and global culture (e.g. raping the environment, the propaganda machine, avaricious materialism, insatiable military conquest, sexism, homophobia, racism, patriarchy, etc.) adds up to death and destruction. Yet we—the species with the allegedly superior cognitive skills—opt to spend our time getting worked up over Obama debating his Dick.

Joe votes Republican. Joann votes Democrat. Nothing changes.

Jane human loves Sean Hannity. John adores Jon Stewart. The planet remains in peril.

Joann and John think Obama’s plan is the cat’s meow. Joe and Jane agree with Dick. Big picture: It makes no difference at all.

Whatever side we choose in these fabricated conflicts, human society maintains its steady, relentless path toward mass homicide/suicide. If we ever decide to look up from our text screens and video games, we might actually catch the last act.

Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Put the Future to the Back

By Michael Greenwell

That’s one of the great things about everything being so f*cked up, that no matter where you look there’s great work to be done. If your call, if where your heart leads you is to work for battered woman’s shelters, wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful. If it calls you to write for Arthur and to push a perspective that is anti-authoritarian or whatever: wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. If it pushes you to do a timber sales appeal: wonderful also. We need it all. - Derrick Jensen

Maybe it was all the TV, films, books and comics I was exposed to as a kid [born in the 70s but grew up in the 80s] but when I see anything in print with a year 20** I still think “Wow! How futuristic and cool.”

All those stories about the wonderful technological fantasy world we would be living left something in my brain that refuses to see that we now live in 2009.

This must be because while some of the new technologies are both good and useful, we obviously haven’t quite reached that 21st century paradise yet. Against all the evidence an annoying little voice just tells me that this is because we have just made some mistakes somewhere along the way—sooner or later in the 21st century it will all come good. That is what we were all brought up to believe. To be honest, I blame the old show Tomorrow’s World.

This is all particularly dangerous when it comes to the debate about climate change. The various reports from the scientists saying this will happen in 2030 or that country will be inundated by 2025 just don’t seem very immediate—obviously we will have it all figured it out by then and know how to fix it all. Furthermore, we don’t need to actually do anything about it now, do we?

This explains why the ‘biggest broadcasting organisation in the world’, the BBC, can print a story with information from the UK government’s chief scientist entitled “Global Crisis to Strike by 2030” and yet deem it less important than the following stories in the UK section of the site…

Is That Ms, Miss? - Women’s titles are not as simple as the EU might think

[Football/Soccer] Clubs await Champion’s League Draw

and of course, Simon Cowell being mentioned in a Barack Obama interview.

In the World section of the site it is less important than…

The sale of an admittedly expensive carpet

The Pope in Africa

Even in the ENVIRONMENT section it is less important than a pink elephant being born.

So if you haven’t scurried off to one of those stories already then here is what was actually said…

Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned.

By 2030 the demand for resources will create a crisis with dire consequences, Prof John Beddington said.

Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion, he told a conference in London.

Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he added.

“It’s a perfect storm,” Prof Beddington told the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference.

He also went on to say that “there won’t be a complete collapse” which seems to contradict a little of the above. He quanitifies it by saying that the UK won’t be so bad—just other places. He also suggests GM food might be an idea which I, like most of the world, am less than convinced about.

Whether I agree with his prescriptions or not is not the issue. What I am getting at here is that when it is pressure groups or environmental organisations talking about these crises [I am not going to use the word “impending” anymore because these problems are already here] then the “biggest broadcasting organisation in the world” and all the others have readymade excuses to ignore them. They say “special interest” or the information is being given to them by organisations with an agenda. I know that that excuse is beyond irony but they do occasionally use it.

In this case, however, the information is coming from the Government’s chief scientist and it is still considered a side story. The only remaining reason can be that people still believe in the future fantasy world, the technological quick fix that we have all been told is arriving this century. The Back to the Future flying cars and weather service [they should be here in less than 6 years if the film was right] are coming.

Well, they won’t be. The techno fix isn’t coming. The Utopian ideal isn’t coming. They are fantasy stories.

We needed to start a long time ago, but better late than never.

Don’t wait for the major news story that tells you “now is the time serious measures need to be taken.” When that story comes you can bet that some of those measures will be taken against YOU. If we start doing things now, then we can define how things are to change, not be told that they have changed after the decisions about how have already been made in private.

One often has to aim at objectives which one can only very dimly see. At this moment, for instance, the world is at war and wants peace. Yet the world has no experience of peace, and never has had, unless the Noble Savage once existed. The world wants something which it is dimly aware could exist, but cannot accurately define. This Christmas Day, thousands of men will be bleeding to death in the Russian snows, or drowning in icy waters, or blowing one another to pieces on swampy islands of the Pacific; homeless children will be scrabbling for food among the wreckage of German cities. To make that kind of thing impossible is a good objective. But to say in detail what a peaceful world would be like is a different matter.

Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness."
- George Orwell

Put the future to the back of your mind, worry about the present. You know who all the organisations are. Find one that protects something you love and go and do something.

Or do something yourself.

At various times Michael Greenwell has been a university tutor, a barman, a DJ (not a very good one) an office lackey, supermarket worker, president of a small charity, a researcher, a librarian and a few other things too tedious to mention. He worked in Nepal for a couple of months doing volunteer work as well South Korea where he met some nice people but didn’t have the best time. These days he is back home in Scotland somewhere in the Highlands and islands or otherwise in Glasgow.

Michael Greenwell blogs at http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com and is a member of http://www.spinwatch.org. He also maintains the animal extinction blog http://exitstageright.wordpress.com.

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The Cool Observer Interview: JOS (The Original Expendable)

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(JOS)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

JOS: Try and figure things out on your own, do not take anything you are taught or told as the truth without first proving (or disproving) it yourself.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

JOS: Tribal.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

JOS: Every song I’ve ever tried to write turned out horribly. But if I were to try again it would have to be about a woman.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

JOS: He’s a guy with zero talent, but he never let that stand in his way.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

JOS: Flee, to a small wood shack in the middle of nowhere in Montana.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

JOS: At the dawn of civilization.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

JOS: Lone Explorer!

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

JOS: I used to have a Filipino girlfriend who taught me how to make a special corned beef hash over white rice with a fried egg on top (vegans, forgive me). It is probably the most amazing tasting dish I have ever made on my own. I have now forgotten how to make it.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

JOS: My last major moment of clarity came while reading the books of Daniel Quinn.

10. Are we all fucked?

JOS: I think about 90% of those living when the whole shithouse goes up in flames are absolutely fucked. The 10% or so that survive will have a shot at being un-fucked.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ
Andy B.

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With JOS up front today, I thought I’d post my 2009 St. Patty’s Day pic:

(Photo by Michele)

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Poetry prescription

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Click here to try The Cool Observer Interview

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Obama and His Dick

Here’s how well they have us trained: The powers that be are no longer gonna call the illegally detained terrorism suspects (sic) by the name of “enemy combatants.” Like the pre-programmed robots we’ve all become, we’ll celebrate this as a welcome and much-needed change from the reviled Bush-Cheney administration. A step in the right direction, we might even say.

Full article here

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Library poem

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (29)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Andy B.

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

(Andy B.)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

AB: Kung fu, nutrition and The Arts.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

AB: Creative and cooperative.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

AB: Rachel Corrie.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

AB: Chaos Theory might be one avenue.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

AB: Fight, someone has to.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

AB: If it’s real, then animals don’t go there, we do.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

AB: The sneaky scavenger who watches and follows before making their big move.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

AB: Boiled Broccoli with ginger and rice.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

AB: Immediately seeing Obama as empire rebranding.

10. Are we all fucked?

AB: Almost.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

Previous answers:
Mickey Z.
RMJ

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Astronomy poem

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (24)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A World in Constant Crisis

Some have been saying it all along…

Some have just begun to see it in crisis…

A world in constant crisis, chained to desks and assembly lines, clear cuts and wastelands left in its wake… and they called it progress…and it collapsed. The suffering and disempowerment felt around the world everyday has become generalized in capitalist globalization. The age of globalization is the age of quiet total war.

They exploited us, traded us away, and left us to pick up the devastation. This world is a death machine, producing death and saying that this is what it means to have it work. Around the world thousands die everyday of preventable causes linked to poverty as we live lives of shallow material opulence obtained by selling our entire lives away in the channels opened up in some market, a market which guarantees poverty to most and complete objectification to the rest. And they say that it works… And it collapsed…

Work or starvation and for many work and starvation. They fenced off the world into property, fenced off the Earth itself and make us buy back the things which are already ours if we just decide to take them back. They made us dependent on markets for the basics of life… and it collapsed…

-A communique from the Self-Described Anarchist Collective.

While in Washington for the IMF/World Bank meeting protests, join Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. on Saturday, April 25 at 7 p.m. for “Earth 911: A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation,” as they break through the conventional wisdom that suffocates public discourse in Washington. Along with dissecting the first 100 days of the Obama administration, they’ll offer ideas on how to avoid ecocide and resist corporate-controlled culture. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to see Derrick and Mickey together in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, only one Metro stop from Washington.

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"Regarded as a loafer"

But first: Let’s not forget St. Patrick’s Day

We now return to our regularly scheduled quote quota...

Henry David Thoreau sez: “If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.”

Murray Bookchin sez: “The notion that man must dominate nature emerges directly from the domination of man by man … The plundering of the human spirit by the marketplace is paralleled by the plundering of the earth by capital.”

Who else has a quote for us?

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Novella poem?

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Rosemarie "RMJ" Jackowski

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

C’mon...everyone is doing it

(Didn’t think anyone would mind bumping RMJ to the front of the line)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

RMJ: How to print money. My father always said that with enough money, you can buy all the talent and wisdom you want. Pop was right. I once had a friend who had artistic talent and no money. He always drew his own Inspection Stickers for his car. The police never caught on.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

RMJ: The precise balance of tolerance for all views - religious and otherwise, and also complete empathy for all. In other words - a well defined sense of justice.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

RMJ: All the wonderful things that I wish had happened today, but didn’t.

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

RMJ: Sean who?

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

RMJ: Now wait a minute. Hidden in that question is the assumption that a free choice is possible.

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

RMJ: Not when, but why? He wanted to be near his Master.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

RMJ: “Dystopian” is not in my dictionary. I’ll get back to you on that one.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

RMJ: Years of cooking have left me burned out. My new philosophy is that if it takes effort or time to prepare, get hungry for something else.

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

RMJ: I am still waiting for clarity. That’s something that does not come to agnostics very often; OR, on the other hand, maybe everything has clarity to an agnostic.

10. Are we all fucked?

RMJ: Not yet. It all depends on whether you are the ‘fucker’ or the ‘fuckee’.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

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Poetic Blackout

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (38)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

25 Fun Facts

1. The average baby uses 6000 diapers before potty training
2. 49 million disposable diapers are used per day in the United States
3. It takes petroleum-based disposable diapers 200 to 500 years to decompose
4. 50 million trees are cut down in India each year for funeral pyres. This releases 8 million tons of carbon dioxide.
5. 1,023 pounds of greenhouse gases are added each year from one person eating three burgers per week
6. 31% of kids who live less than a mile from school walk regularly; half of those within a mile of school usually go by car
7. The average American uses 80 gallons of water a day. The average person in the rest of the world, on average, uses 2.5 gallons.
8. The number of synthetic chemical products found in the average American home is 63
9. The institutional cleaning industry uses 5 billion pounds of chemicals each year
10. According to US EPA estimates, indoor air pollution levels can be 100 times higher than outdoor air pollution levels
11. The number of handbags the average woman in the US owns: 6
12. The average amount of lipstick a woman will ingest over her lifetime is 4 pounds
13. Only 11% of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal-care products have been documented and publicly assessed for safety by the US government
14. 33% of personal care products contain at least one chemical linked to cancer
15. The average person throws out 1500 lbs of garbage each year. That number drops to only 375 pounds of trash to the curb annually if you compost.
16. The average American throws out 68 pounds of clothes and textiles each year
17. 25,000 tons of garbage is collected in the city of New York each day
18. 3 million tons of household electronics were tossed by Americans in 2006
19. The average American household spends $1,200 on new electronics annually
20. There are 300 million obsolete computers in the US today
21. 70% of all hazardous waste is composed of discarded electronics
22. 15 billion batteries are produced annually worldwide
23. Americans purchase 5 billion batteries each year. Those 5 billion batteries leave behind 146,000 tons of battery waste each year
24. 40% of the energy used for electronics in your home is used while these devices are turned off
25. Number of planets we would need if everyone lived like the average North American: 5

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And, by the way...

...we’re just monkeys with delusions of grandeur:

(Michael’s response)

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Self-help poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Friday, March 13, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview: Mickey Z.

(All questions chosen by the regular visitors here, a.k.a. The Expendables)

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

MZ: Growing and preparing your own food, self-defense, and the subversive pleasure of independent thought.

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

MZ: It would be creative and ever-evolving...with justice as its compass.

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

MZ: I dunno...The Ballad of P. Diddy?

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

MZ: He’s the Barack Obama of hip hop.

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

MZ: Flee, if possible, when the odds are insurmountable. Talk my way out of it whenever I can. Fight when left with no choice.

6. When did the first monkey go to Hell?

MZ: The moment it met the first human.

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

MZ: The Warrior from Astoria.

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

MZ: My cooking style is pretty simple: plant-based, whole foods, organic and locally grown as much as possible. And did I say simple?

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

MZ: The week before my Mom died, she needed non-stop care and attention and love. That week, I experienced a sense of undeniably clear purpose and focus unlike anything I’ve ever felt before or since.

10. Are we all fucked?

MZ: That’s putting it mildly.

If you want to tackle these questions in 25 words or less, please do so and e-mail me your answers

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More rhymes

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

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Click here and scroll down a bit for specifics

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Frog Skin Syndrome

Too often, global warming is linked only to catastrophic effects like tidal waves and other such cinematic episodes. The problem with this is that when these events do not occur, the real, insidious dangers are inevitably downplayed and even mocked. To better understand the impact of climate change, consider Frog Skin Syndrome. As reported by MedIndia.com, the South American tree frog population is declining and biologists are blaming global warming. These frogs, it seems, have the very un-froglike habit of basking in the hot sun (most frogs normally avoid prolonged exposure to light due to the risk of overheating and dehydration).

According to a research team at the University of Manchester, “global warming is leading to more cloud cover in the frogs’ natural habitat. This, in turn, is denying them the opportunity to ‘sunbathe’ and kill off fatal Chytrid fungal infections, leading to many species dying out.”

Andrew Gray, Curator of Herpetology at the Manchester Museum said: “With a third of the world’s amphibians currently under threat it’s vitally important we do our utmost to investigate the reasons why they are dying out at such an alarming rate.”

Human Beings...you can’t live with ‘em and you, uh, can’t live with ‘em.

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Poetic Rumor

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NYC Event Alert:

Join Healthcare-NOW! for a benefit performance of Howard Zinn’s
Marx in Soho: Saturday, March 14th 7pm

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (28)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Return of The Cool Observer Interview

Okay, friends, you supplied the questions (none came from me)...so are you happy with (respectful moment of silence) The Cool Observer Interview?

1. What skill(s) would you teach a child to aid their passage through this world?

2. If you could have a new society tomorrow, how would you describe the relationship of its citizens in this new society?

3. What are you going to write a song about tomorrow?

4. Have you heard of anyone yet having a satisfactory explanation for the success of P. Diddy (a.k.a. Puff Daddy or Sean Combs)?

5. It’s time to make a choice. Would you fight or flee, and why?

6. When did the first monkey go to hell?

7. If you were a stock character in a dystopian sci-fi film/novel which would it be: the overlord, the scientist, the ultimate warrior, the lone explorer, etc.?

8. What food/meal do you make that requires the most effort to prepare?

9. What was your last moment of clarity?

10. Are we all fucked?

The catch is that all questions would have to be answered in something like 25 words or less

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Secretive poem

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Click here to complete your tour of the Internets
(Thanks, Keir)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (24)

Call-in campaign for MOVE 9

Sunday, March 08, 2009

A veritable click-fest

Opening links are my two latest articles:
Text is a Verb
The Fit Parade Top Ten

On to the mystery links...

Cops being cops, Part I

Susie Day on Gaza

Dog story

Bugs Bunny’s penis (video)

Gandhi cashes in

The Wrestler, Part II

Sci-Fi stories in 6 words

Pubs without TVs

Women Who Do Not Consider Themselves to be Feminists Should Be Shot Immediately (video)

Israeli war crimes

Life Magazine photo archive
(Thanks, Jenn)

Life-size Blue Whale

Cops being cops, Part II

You’ve got 30 seconds

Once a slumdog, always a slumdog

3D street art (video)

See who sampled who

Post your link(s) in the comments section.

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Constipated poetry

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (28)

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Spring IMF/World Bank Meeting Protests

Global Justice Action reports:

As the economic crisis deepens and US foreclosure and unemployment rates climb, wealthy bankers and finance ministers from around the world scramble to resuscitate the financial institutions which created the crisis in the first place. This April the global elite, global financial institutions, and wealthy governments will meet to plan out billions of dollars worth of new economic bailouts for themselves while the nation’s poor, the poor of the world, and working people are left with only crumbs. Billions of dollars have already been handed over to CEOs and portfolio managers, while workers’ benefits and wages get slashed simultaneously. This trend will continue so long as capitalist expansion is prioritized over democratic principles, as long as profit is more important than people.

A better world is possible, a world in which our means of providing for ourselves is not controlled by a wealthy elite. A global order is possible in which the dignity of human life is placed above greed, and the living earth is shared and respected, rather than commodified and sold.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are two institutions which enforce the hyper-capitalist status quo. Since 1980, these institutions have been forcing countries to adopt neoliberal structural adjustment policies of privatization, liberalization and budget cuts. These policies are directly to blame for much of the suffering in the current financial crisis and in its predecessors in Argentina, East Asia, Russia and elsewhere. Though the IMF itself is beginning to admit its mistakes – it recently recommended that countries abandon market fundamentalist policies to directly intervene in their economies—it’s understood that that advice only applies to the United States and European countries. Free markets for the poor and socialism for the rich is their mantra.

Neoliberal economics widens the sphere of imperialist capitalism, props up schemes of privatization, market liberalization and deregulation, and is ultimately to blame for this crisis. The World Bank and IMF are preeminent supranational institutions working to preserve the global financial order that puts profits, private gain, militarism, and gentrification over the needs of the people. Through their Structural Adjustment Programs - what they now refer to as “Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers”—these institutions have been destroying economies, local and global, for far too long. They must be stopped.

The World Bank and IMF will be holding their annual joint spring meetings April 24-26 in Washington DC. As they try to save themselves from global financial meltdown (or maybe just give themselves a few extra billion dollars) we all know better than to let them have all the fun without us. Join Global Justice Action to oppose these institutions, resist the dominant global order, and show that a better world is possible, free from neoliberalism, capitalism, and imperialism.

While in Washington for the IMF/World Bank meeting protests, join Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. on Saturday, April 25 at 7 p.m. for “Earth 911: A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation.” They’ll dissect the conventional wisdom that dominates and suffocates public debate in Washington. Along with highlighting what’s wrong with our current state of affairs, they’ll offer ideas for how we can go about fixing it. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to see Derrick and Mickey together in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, only one Metro stop from Washington.

Comments (0)

Who Is the Biggest Waste of Oxygen on the Planet?

By Michael Greenwell

The next in the Unprofessional Interviews series is Mickey Z, author of one novel, CPR for Dummies, and several fiction books and contributor to this site, ZNet, Press Action and others too numerous to mention.

His novel and his latest non-fiction were both very well received and there is a new book on the horizon. In fact, there is usually a new book on the horizon as he is extremely prolific.

I have been a visitor to his site for a number of years. I started going there because I was asked by someone at spinwatch to review one of his books and I very much enjoyed his view of history combined with humour, which is sometimes blatant, sometimes hidden away in the corners but always disrespectful to the right people.

So this interview is a bit of an old pals act. An old pals act might seem a little unprofessional and as I have discussed many things with him, along with the ‘expendables’ on his website the tone of some of the questions is quite familiar. The interviews to follow will not be the same as I simply cold-called some of the other people.

However, if it all seems too unprofessional to you I suggest you look at the documentary “Spin: Behind the Scenes Manipulation of Mainstream News” and watch the politicians and journalists cooing at each other when they think the camera is off.

Anyway, time to commence…

Michael Greenwell: Orwell, Huxley, Monbiot, Ursula Le Guin and many others have written or talked about the anarchist dilemma. In short the problem they all described in various ways is that a truly anarchist community that was peaceful and self-contained is always vulnerable to outside attack by more aggressive neighbours. Can you see any way around this?

MZ: I agree that a truly anarchist society—read: the threat of a good example—would be attacked by all sides of the political spectrum but I’m not so sure such a society would, by definition, be either peaceful or self-contained. It could involve participants in the least likely places and also, would be unafraid to meet aggression with effective self-defense.

What is the most bizarre objection you have had to your work?

MZ: Not sure, but I’d like to share my most recent bit of fan mail:

“Die painfully okay? Prefearbly by getting crushed to death in a garbage compactor, by getting your face cut to ribbons with a pocketknife, your head cracked open with a baseball bat, your stomach sliced open and your entrails spilled out, and your eyeballs ripped out of their sockets. Fucking bitch”

Who is the biggest waste of oxygen on the planet?

MZ: It’s a 6.6 billion-way tie for first place.

If you could bring someone back from the dead temporarily so you could hear their analysis of current events then who would it be?

MZ: My mother, although we probably wouldn’t bother talking about current events.

Is there a book you reread often?

MZ: “Zen in the Martial Arts” by Joe Hyams. I’ve read it at least once a year for more than 20 years now.

Looking from outside if often seems like the USA is a loony bin. Is it?

MZ: This is god’s country,

There was a jokey MZ for prez campaign last time round. Under what circumstances, if any, would you consider getting involved in conventional politics?

MZ: Temporary insanity?

What satisfaction do you take from your books?

MZ: If you have enough of them, they make excellent door stops and when the economic situation gets worse, I can burn them for warmth.

I know you like his music but can you tell me where Bono gets off?

MZ: He could call a press conference tomorrow, draw thousands of international journalists, and help change the course of human history by simply stating the realities behind our society/culture and urging his fans to wake the fuck up now. Instead, he brown-noses the Pope and blabs on about how much he loves Africa. If it weren’t for the music U2 continues to create, Bono just might be the biggest waste of oxygen on the planet.

Interview reprinted from Atlantic Free Press

Join Derrick Jensen and Mickey Z. on April 25 for “Earth 911: A Wake-up Call for Obama Nation.” They’ll dissect the conventional wisdom that dominates and suffocates public debate in Washington. Along with highlighting what’s wrong with our current state of affairs, they’ll offer ideas for how we can go about fixing it. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to see Derrick and Mickey together in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, only one Metro stop from Washington.

Comments (2)

Text Is a Verb

By Mickey Z.

Would you give up the ability to text ttyl to your BFF in order to save a species from going extinct? In 2009, it’s not an insane question.

The next time your cell phone rings, try focusing on these six simple words: The Democratic Republic of the Congo. I ask you to do this because one of the primary components of cell phone circuitry is a metallic ore called Columbite-Tantalite—or “coltan.” Eighty percent of the world’s known coltan can be found in the African nation of The Democratic Republic of the Congo (or DRC), which just so happens to be embroiled in a brutal (even by current standards) civil war since the pre-cell phone days of 1994. Over time, all sides in the unrelenting struggles adroitly began using the mining and sale of coltan not only to nourish the West’s seemingly insatiable cell phone addiction, but also to fund their inexorable mayhem. Civilian deaths in the DRC during this time—mostly from war-related disease and malnutrition—are estimated not in the hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands, but rather in the millions…making it the world’s deadliest military conflict since the Second World War.

And it gets worse. Just ask an Eastern Lowland Gorilla, the world’s largest primate, found almost exclusively in the DRC. According to National Geographic: “Following a decade of civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, new estimates suggest that the number of eastern lowland gorillas may have plummeted by 70 percent. Conflict, illegal mining for a mineral used for electronic-device components, and the growing bush-meat trade have all taken their toll.” The UN Environment Program has reported that the number of eastern lowland gorillas in eight DRC national parks has subsequently declined by 90 percent.

We can only hope that some enterprising soul has already recorded the Eastern Lowland Gorilla’s call so it can be used as a ring tone long after they’re gone.

Speaking of “long after they’re gone,” there’s also the issue of all the e-waste created—in part—from discarded cell phones. “A whole bouquet of heavy metals, semimetals and other chemical compounds lurk inside your seemingly innocent laptop or TV,” says Jessika Toothman at HowStuffWorks.com. “E-waste dangers stem from ingredients such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, copper, beryllium, barium, chromium, nickel, zinc, silver and gold. Many of these elements are used in circuit boards and comprise electrical parts such as computer chips, monitors, and wiring.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2005, “used or unwanted electronics amounted to approximately 1.9 to 2.2 million tons. Of that, about 1.5 to 1.9 million tons were primarily discarded in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled.”

Ain’t progress swell?

Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

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When Expendables talk...

Fellow Expendable Michael Greenwell interviewed yours truly as part of his “Unprofessional Interviews” series. Here’s a sample:

Q: Who is the biggest waste of oxygen on the planet?

A: It’s a 6.6 billion-way tie for first place.

Full interview here

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Pregnant with poems

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NYC Event Alert:

Book Release Party for
Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America’s Skull
Poems by (my friend) Eliot Katz
Art by William T. Ayton

Book party will feature poet Eliot Katz in collaboration with bassist Russell Branca, slides by William T. Ayton, and special guest poets Alicia Ostriker, Danny Shot, and Diana Ayton-Shenker

Wednesday, March 11, 6:00-7:30pm
Bowery Poetry Club
$6 admission includes $3 discount on book (& the other $3 to the club)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (23)

Friday, March 06, 2009

Transition Towns

Sami Grover of TreeHugger.com calls transition towns a “community-based response to peak oil and climate change.”

The English transition town movement, explains Daniel Pinchbeck in Common Ground Magazine, “prepares local communities for the changes that are coming. It is a highly successful and well-developed grassroots initiative ongoing in over 60 towns and small cities across the UK. Transition Town groups share information, meet with local government officials, and organize courses in basic skills that will be needed again as fuel supplies diminish. They have also experimented with issuing local currencies that help to keep wealth within a community.”

Permaculture designer Rob Hopkins sez: “Rebuilding local agriculture and food production, localizing energy production, rethinking healthcare, rediscovering local building materials in the context of zero energy building, rethinking how we manage waste, all build resilience and offer the potential of an extraordinary renaissance — economic, cultural and spiritual.”

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Fret board poetry

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (19)

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

The Cool Observer Interview

I’ve always liked the idea of one set of interview questions being aimed at a ridiculously broad range of humans. (As you may know, Michael is doing something somewhat similar now.) Well, I’ve decided to create (strategic pause for effect) “The Cool Observer Interview.” It would consist of, say, 10-15 questions on (possibly) 10-15 different topics...running the gamut from urgent to absurd.

For example:
Can the land of the free actually incarcerate its citizens at the rate of 1200 a week?
OR
Who would win in a fight between Jesus and Godzilla?

So, since each of The Expendables will be asked to eventually do the interview, I’m asking the regulars here to suggest some questions. What important or insane or silly or sexy or angry or radical or mundane question would you like to see included in (drum roll please) “The Cool Observer Interview”?

Post your question in the comments section. Thanks…

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Remember:

Hunter S. Thompson sez: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

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Rhyming poem

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (40)

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Israeli Apartheid Week 2009

First launched in Toronto in 2005, Israeli Apartheid Week has grown to become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar. Last year, more than 25 cities around the world participated in the week’s activities, which also commemorated 60 years since the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and land in 1947-1948. IAW 2008 was launched with a live broadcast from the South African township of Soweto by Palestinian leader and former member of the Israeli Knesset, Azmi Bishara.

This year, IAW occurs in the wake of Israel’s barbaric assault against the people of Gaza. Lectures, films, and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid. IAW 2009 will continue to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level.

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Michael Donnelly on Derrick Jensen at E-LAW

CounterPunch reports:

One paranoid activist questioned whether Jensen “may be a deep-cover agent,” as all through the Green Scare events there are shady characters who were/are government-paid agent provocateurs. It’s not the first time people have been labeled “wimps” for not destroying things and bullied into ever more risky acts. And being paranoid is justifiable, given we now live in times where Animal Rights activists have been charged with “terrorism” simply because they wrote messages in chalk on a public sidewalk outside a vivisectionist’s home!

These understandable concerns aside, Jensen’s speech was the best I’ve heard in 25 years of attending E-LAW. He hammered the Green establishment; he called out the class war in America; he slammed wishful thinking of the Butterfly Hill variety (he once was chased down the street by angry, white Buddhist pacifists who took exception) and, of course, he called for resistance - even filing lawsuits. He noted that while Harriet Tubman carried a gun, her Quaker allies never did. He also noted that only 3% of the Irish Republican Army ever carried a gun on missions – a figure similar even in the US Army. In the end, Derrick’s an “every tool in the box” kind of guy.

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Z Magazine Interviews Stephanie McMillan

Here’s an excerpt of Z Magazine’s conversation with the Minimum Security cartoonist:

“Marx said that guilt is a good first step toward action. I agree, in that we need to face our own complicity, our own failure to adequately resist. But that’s as far as the value of guilt goes, to me. The vast majority of us did not create this system, we do not enforce it, and we don’t need to feel guilty for living in it. We’re its victims. Once we recognize that, our job is to defend our fellow living creatures and ourselves by fighting back.

In Minimum Security, I try to find ways of moving readers to expand their circle of empathy and to shift it from those in power to the oppressed. I also try to show how we—especially the expanded “we"—are harmed by industrial capitalism and that our interests do not lie in preserving it. My intention isn’t to make people feel guilty, instead I want to foster outrage and inspire people to act.

... I do have hope though. Perhaps “hope” is not the right word. I think of Gramsci’s phrase, “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” The meaning I find in my own life lies in the possibility that enough of us will resist this system and destroy it, so that all forms of life on this planet can continue and thrive.”

Comments (0)

I’m speaking at this year’s Veggie Pride Parade

Monday, March 02, 2009

The Elvis Species has not exactly left the building

A Lazarus species (or taxon) is “an animal or plant which disappears from the fossil record, presumably because it is extinct, and then reappears. In some cases, an animal which is thought to be totally extinct may be spotted and described alive, sometimes millions of years after the last fossil evidence of the species has vanished. This illustrates the unreliability of the fossil record; a special set of circumstances must come together for a fossil to form, making fossilization extremely rare.” The use of the term “Lazarus” is a reference to the New Testament story in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

My favorite example of a Lazarus taxon is the coelacanth. Here’s a little background on the coelacanth: “Three days before Christmas, 1938, in the South African coastal town of East London, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the young, black-eyed curator of the local natural history museum, got a phone call that would turn her world upside down and ultimately make her name known internationally. The events that followed that call sparked a series of urgent letters between Courtenay-Latimer and J.L.B. Smith, a chemistry professor and amateur ichthyologist at Rhodes University in the nearby town of Grahamstown. The letters chronicle the discovery she made, and he confirmed, of a creature thought extinct for at least 66 million years.”

The “Elvis species” mentioned in this post’s title is “a look-alike; due to convergent evolution, it has developed a similar appearance and lifestyle to an extinct species. As a general rule, Elvis taxa are not biologically related to their extinct counterparts. Sometimes, an Elvis taxon may be misidentified as a Lazarus taxon, until research reveals the truth.”

Okay, now you tell me something you know...

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(Sunday, May 17)

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Leftist poetry

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There’s still time to participate in the Fifth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week

(Thanks, Y)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (17)

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Pawns with lawns

The single most irrigated crop in the United States is…(drum roll please) lawn. Yep, 40 million acres of lawn exist across the Land of Denial and Americans collectively spend about $40 billion on seed, sod and chemicals each year. And then there’s all that water. If you include golf courses, lawns in America cover an area roughly the size of New York State and require 238 gallons of (usually drinking-quality) water per person, per day. According to the EPA, nearly a third of all residential water use in the US goes toward what is euphemistically known as “landscaping.”

Full article here

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Poetry as propaganda

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(More cartoons here)

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Mickey Z. on YouTube:

Comments (23)

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Pawns with Lawns

By Mickey Z.

The single most irrigated crop in the United States is…(drum roll please) lawn. Yep, 40 million acres of lawn exist across the Land of Denial and Americans collectively spend about $40 billion on seed, sod, and chemicals each year. And then there’s all that water. If you include golf courses, lawns in America cover an area roughly the size of New York State and require 238 gallons of (usually drinking-quality) water per person, per day. According to the EPA, nearly a third of all residential water use in the US goes toward what is euphemistically known as “landscaping.”

We have become a nation of pawns with lawns. Food comes from the drive-thru, entertainment is televised, the concept of play exists on hand-held computers, democracy is a reality show every four years, and that tiny parcel of land we allegedly share with some bailed out bank is inevitably set aside to be a lawn.

As described by Ted Steinberg, author of American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, when it comes to lawns, social and ecological factors often work in coordination. “Perfection became a commodity of post-World War II prefabricated housing such as Levittown, NY, in the late 1940s,” writes Steinberg. “Mowing became a priority of the bylaws of such communities.”

Lawn mowers produce several types of pollutants, including ozone precursors, carbon dioxide, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (classified as probable carcinogens by the CDC). In fact, operating a typical gasoline mower produces as much polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as driving a car roughly 95 miles. Since some folks are legally required to maintain a lawn (more about that shortly), here’s a suggestion or two: human-powered mowers or try using your bicycle.

Besides the air and noise pollution of mechanized mowers, there’s another form of toxicity directly related to America’s lawn addiction. “Lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland,” writes Heather Coburn Flores, author of Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community. “These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly increasing our risk of cancer, heart disease, and birth defects.”

“If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials,” wrote Rachel Carson almost five decades ago, “it is surely because our forefathers…could conceive of no such problem.”

We now produce pesticides at a rate more than 13,000 times faster than we did when Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962. The EPA considers 30% of all insecticides, 60% of all herbicides, and 90% of all fungicides to be carcinogenic, yet Americans spend about $7 billion on 21,000 different pesticide products each year. “Prior to World War II, annual worldwide use of pesticides ran right around zero,” says author Derrick Jensen. “By now it’s 500 billion tons, increasing every year.” As a result, about 860 Americans suffer from pesticide poisoning every single day; that’s almost 315,000 cases per year.

As mentioned above, maintaining a noxious and unproductive lawn isn’t just a simple case of one-size-fits-all conformity in the face all logic and evidence; it’s often the law.

In October 2008, for example, Joseph Prudente of Beacon Woods, Florida, was sentenced to jail for failing to sod his lawn as required by the local homeowner covenants. Before you label Mr. Prudente a modern day insurrectionist, take note that the reason he failed to live up to his suburban obligation was predictable: he couldn’t afford to replace his sprinklers when they broke. “It’s a sad situation,” said Bob Ryan, Beacon Woods Homeowners Association board president. “But in the end, I have to say he brought it upon himself.”

I’m guessing Mr. Ryan has never heard of Food Not Lawns.

Imagine, as the folks at Food Not Lawns do, each house not with a lawn but instead with a small organic “Victory” garden from which the family is fed. Imagine those without a lawn joining their local community garden to re-connect and grow their own. Or perhaps you’d like to imagine them engaging in some green graffiti and/or seed bombing.

(For the uninitiated, seed bombs are “compressed balls of soil and compost that have been impregnated with wildflower seeds. Jettisoned onto barren, abandoned, or otherwise inhospitable land, including construction sites and abandoned lots.” Liz Christy—who started the “Green Guerillas” in 1973—coined the alternative term, seed grenades. Smaller versions are commonly called seed balls. No matter what you call them, seed bombs are part of the ever-increasing international trend of guerilla gardening and you can find kindred spirits here.)

“The vast expanse of forever-green American lawn is not only the most resource intensive agricultural crop in the world,” writes Tobias Policha in Green Anarchy, “but also an obscene icon to our arrogant privilege and total alienation from a life in harmony with nature.”

The sterile lawn—complete with its requisite sprinkler, chemical cocktail, bug zapper, and “keep off the grass” sign—is an ideal symbol for America’s cookie cutter culture. Lawns, writes Ted Steinberg, are “an instrument of planned homogeneity.” He asks: “What better way to conform than to make your front yard look precisely like Mr. Smith’s next door?”

To which we must reply: Fuck homogeneity and fuck conformity.

Why don’t more people step away from the coast-to-coast mall mentality? Once reason is the looming Green Scare, a term which refers to “the federal government’s expanding prosecution efforts against animal liberation and ecological activists, drawing parallels to the “Red Scares” of the 1910’s and 1950s.”

The answer to this tactic, as always, is more solidarity. More of us need to embrace ideas like dumpster diving, off the grid living, wwoofing, billboard liberation, monkey wrenching, radical love, bartering, freeganism, veganism, transition towns, and other forms of the DIY ethic. We need organic vegetable gardens, not lawns. We need two wheels, not four. We need food not bombs. We need immediate courageous collective direct action, not “hope and change.” We need comrades, not pawns with lawns. And we need it all now.

Mickey Z. has lived in apartments his entire life but can also be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.

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