Schultz speaks the truth.
July 3, 2009
July 1, 2009
Portland Seattle Vancouver Kamloops Chilliwack Jasper Banff Glacier Missoula Yellowstone Grand Tetons Vernal Dinosaur Rocky Mountain Boulder Denver
[thx, jude]
June 30, 2009
Corporate PRIDE v. insurgent activism
Posted by ludditerobot under Activism, Anti-patriarchy, Anti-racism, Critical thought, Minnesota, PoliticsLeave a Comment
I wish I had something substantial to link to. Aside from the mainstream Googleable accounts, I don’t. Here’s my post-Pridetm account, anyways …
The TC Pridetm festival was its usual and utterly predictable corporatist, assimilationist self this past weekend. You couldn’t swing a leather something-or-other without hitting a Target, ING, or “non-denominational church” booth, assuming you were naive enough to wade through the throngs of $5 corndogs, bought with duplicitous tickets, or the booths where they sold said tickets. It was some gross, yuppie shit. (more…)
June 30, 2009
So this is a big deal: a super-long-time Minneapolis resident is being pushed out of her home of 23 years, on a block she’s lived on for over 50, for no other reason than the greed of her mortgage company and their affiliated leeches. There are already several foreclosed homes on the block: empty houses in a city witnessing a (surprise!) spike in homelessness.
She has dealt in good faith with the folks she’s shelled out more cash to than the house is worth in the first place; in return, they have made empty promises and now are poised to toss her on her ass.
In this age of staggering bailouts, one has to wonder: At what point is housing financing simply a naked profiteering gimmick rather than a mechanism for folks to “make their way,” as I remember being told as a child? Assuming the validity of all that rhetoric about middle-class ascendancy, shouldn’t it benefit the larger society, or neighborhood, or block, to provide houses for people rather than squirrels?
Or should it not?
I’m pretty sure it should. What’s more, I think it’s actually really simple: Houses should not be empty while people are homeless. And I’m really not interested in the impact this “radical” notion might have on the bottomline of taxpayer-resuscitated banks.
Call me crazy. Or “anti-capitalist.” Or “anarchist.” Guilty as fucking charged. Until someone else provides a logical reason why poor middle-aged Black folks should bear the brunt of super-rich white folks’ graft, I’ll be comfortable where I’m at … in the occasional empty house, clearing out some space for sleeping bags.
June 19, 2009
The internet produces the greatest thing that’s ever happened. [thx, minku]
June 19, 2009
One of which sold and one of which didn’t:
According to an article by Leon Neyfakh in this week’s Observer, [D.T.] Max’s proposal was scooped up by Viking Press at auction last week for a low–six-figure sum and will arrive in bookstores sometime in 2011. Meanwhile, [David] Lipsky’s treatment still hasn’t found an interested party willing to publish his “memoiristic sketch” about DFW; according to Neyfakh, even Lipsky’s current publisher, Random House, has passed on the project. The sticking point for publishers seems to be the fact that Lipsky’s project is based on a series of audiotaped conversations between Lipsky and DFW that took place while the two were on the road for the Infinite Jest book tour in 1996. One anonymous editor who saw both proposals said that “whoever [purchases Lipsky's proposal] is going to have quite a task turning it into a proper book,” but also admits that it “will satisfy a different itch, and that is to kind of hear that incredible music again: the sound of David Foster Wallace at full tilt.”
Like NY Mag’s Mark Graham, I’m hoping that someone picks up Lipsky’s book, which sounds pretty fucking rad (his “The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace,” published in Rolling Stone last October, is a must-read). [via bookslut]
June 19, 2009
Crashing Bob Fletcher’s fundraiser
Posted by ludditerobot under Activism, Minnesota, Police brutality, Politics, RNCLeave a Comment
Various members of C*R*A*S*S*, along with well-wishers and other good folks, showed up to pay our respects to Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher at his fundraiser last night. A good time was had by all. (Okay, by most. Okay, by us.) We made donations in our newly-minted “Bob Bucks” (see below) until we were forcibly removed from the bar, and then had a dance party outside and continued handing them out to passersby. Despite the fact that they eventually closed the blinds so they wouldn’t have to acknowledge us (or enjoy the rather stellar shadow puppets, silly faces, and signs we held up for the captive audience’s consideration), I think the point was made pretty clear.
I also think it’s safe to say our party was way sweeter than his!
June 19, 2009
See you in Vancouver
Posted by ludditerobot under Activism, Anti-patriarchy, Anti-racism, PoliticsLeave a Comment
June 14, 2009
June 14, 2009
Via Matt’s page at change.org, a fascinating story on a number of levels:
Dozens of French prisoners and corrections officers are pedaling around the scenic countryside this week on the first-ever Tour de France for the country’s prisoners. A public-private partnership, the 1,500-mile bike ride is intended to challenge 200 prisoners who participate to improve their lives through athletic activity and build the kind of determination it takes to create a successful life after release.
The riders’ sentences range from two to 25 years, and the tour makes stops in 17 towns around the country, picking up and dropping off riders at each.
Imagine the apoplectic madness that would ensue if we tried this in the U.S.
