It's a sad fact that the poorest nations on Earth often shoulder the brunt of peacekeeping operations.
It's not sad at all. These countries use peacekeeping missions as an opportunity to give troops field experience, and exchange tctics with the forces of more developed nations. It's a chance to get the UN to pick up the salaries of a few thousand soldiers, that, should they be needed, can be recalled to the motherland.
It keeps 'em sharp and they get paid while they're at it. I don't see a sad thing about it.
Might as well ask here... any of you web-design monkeys interested in some very low paid/out of the goodness of your heart design work?
I've been looking to overhaul my blog, and have little to-no design skill, and little to-no money. I can probably get ya some free CD's though, or a couple bucks.
drpynchon: I'll give you most of those. The only ones I nominated are Green Day & Brian Wilson. And Mission of Burma actually came in @ #11 for me, and so weren't on my ballot. Nontheless, I can at least comprehend their inclusion.
Js: The Lips, I suspect, are up there primarily on the strength of the live show nowadays. Yoshimi is no Soft Bulletin, but it's solid I'd say.
Richer: Yea, metallicas pretty fucking baffling.
mmmuttly: The Walkmen are being carried on the strength of one song - "The Rat" which is fucking amazing. Most of the rest of their stuff blows.
Ted Leo is absolutely great though, and I stand by my having put him on my ballot.
DrPynchon:
Flaming Lips are on the top of the world and have been since the Soft Bulletin if you haven't noticed. Youth != Quality, and vice versa.
GBV are on their farewell tour, and the Pixies have just reunited - the two tours have been called THE live shows to see this year, and both bands have been drawing raves.
Sonic Youth just put out a killer comeback album with Sonic Nurse.
Green Day came out of nowhere with what is, for me, one of my top 5 albums of the year. Have you listened to American Idiot?
Brian Wilson finally finished a project started nearly 40 years ago, and did so brilliantly.
David Byrne probably shouldn't rank as high as he did, though he is still putting out fantastic and forward thinking albums.
And Elliot Smith is dead, but his last (and possibly best) album just came out.
It used to be Drink Locally - at least, on the poster on my wall behind me.
And Darshon - the best album to start with is "Multi Kontra Culti Vs. Irony"
There are 2 tracks from Hutz's side project up @ TTIKTDA right now.
The band is in Chicago recording a new album with Steve Albini @ the moment.
It will fucking rock.
Most employers don't give election day off unless it's a presidential election. Even then, only a few do.
In the US, Employers are required by law to give you time off work to go vote if you can reasonably prove that you would be unable to do during non-work hours (i.e. long commute, weird hours, academic obligations during non work hours, etc.)
I've said it before. There are 2 kinds of rallies.
The kinds you hold when you wanna demonstrate how much power you have to influence a descision maker.
And the kind you hold when you want to energize your troops and get them excited to go do something else.
Most modern protests have been unquestionably of the latter variety (the only exception I can think of that has been even remotely successful on the massive scale is Seattle '99 - there is no question that the entire Globalizaton debate has been completely reframed since that bloody week). I can think of lots of small scale and local exceptions, but those aren't the sort of thing Monkey's will have heard of.
So, did yesterdays protests have a message?
No.
Were they important? Yes. If only 1 % of the people I was handing flyers to attend one of the trainings this week that the awesome folks at MFA are holding this week - well, thats 300 people who have been trained to do something that will have a real effect, on this election, and on politics in the long term. If only .1 % of the marchers who were out there yesterday feel energized enough by that walk to take a trip to pennsylvania, and canvass door to door for a few hours, and they convince 10 voters each? thats FOUR THOUSAND SWING STATE VOTERS that will have been influenced.
And to be honest with you, that last set of numbers is pretty damned conservative.
A protest is not so much about having an affect on Bush so much as it's a motivating force for us Tensor.
I was working w/ a group distributing schedules for nearly 70 trainings around NYC over the next few days.
if 1 % of the people that were at that protest yesterday get some training, and do something more than just protest - be it canvassing, media work, etc. etc., thats 5000 committed new activists doing something that WILL make a difference.
These events give the movement the energy it needs to continue, and constantly are bringing new people into the fold - thats whatg the magic is.
I just realized that there are 3 different links here.
Well, about as different as 3 different AP articles about the same thing...
but still - slight improvement. Your posts to links ratio just decreased considerably.
Aside from, of course, the fact that peacekeepers are neccesary at all that is.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
It's a sad fact that the poorest nations on Earth often shoulder the brunt of peacekeeping operations. It's not sad at all. These countries use peacekeeping missions as an opportunity to give troops field experience, and exchange tctics with the forces of more developed nations. It's a chance to get the UN to pick up the salaries of a few thousand soldiers, that, should they be needed, can be recalled to the motherland. It keeps 'em sharp and they get paid while they're at it. I don't see a sad thing about it.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
In "(How) To Kill A Mockingbird"
That was fucking EPIC.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
In "Rat Out a Church.org"
Does this page crash firefox for anyone else? I managed to read a little bit though. Looks looney enough.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
In "Curious George - Word Query:"
INFOTAINMENT!
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
In "The top 40 Bands in America Today,"
Glad to hear it. :) And yeah, the Decembrists have a very NMH vibe, if a bit less Lo-Fi. Too bad Jeff Mangum went and, y'know, went insane.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
In "Curious George: Freelance web sites"
Might as well ask here... any of you web-design monkeys interested in some very low paid/out of the goodness of your heart design work? I've been looking to overhaul my blog, and have little to-no design skill, and little to-no money. I can probably get ya some free CD's though, or a couple bucks.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
In "The top 40 Bands in America Today,"
drpynchon: I'll give you most of those. The only ones I nominated are Green Day & Brian Wilson. And Mission of Burma actually came in @ #11 for me, and so weren't on my ballot. Nontheless, I can at least comprehend their inclusion.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
Js: The Lips, I suspect, are up there primarily on the strength of the live show nowadays. Yoshimi is no Soft Bulletin, but it's solid I'd say. Richer: Yea, metallicas pretty fucking baffling. mmmuttly: The Walkmen are being carried on the strength of one song - "The Rat" which is fucking amazing. Most of the rest of their stuff blows. Ted Leo is absolutely great though, and I stand by my having put him on my ballot.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
Also, Better Propaganda > Epitonic.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
DrPynchon: Flaming Lips are on the top of the world and have been since the Soft Bulletin if you haven't noticed. Youth != Quality, and vice versa. GBV are on their farewell tour, and the Pixies have just reunited - the two tours have been called THE live shows to see this year, and both bands have been drawing raves. Sonic Youth just put out a killer comeback album with Sonic Nurse. Green Day came out of nowhere with what is, for me, one of my top 5 albums of the year. Have you listened to American Idiot? Brian Wilson finally finished a project started nearly 40 years ago, and did so brilliantly. David Byrne probably shouldn't rank as high as he did, though he is still putting out fantastic and forward thinking albums. And Elliot Smith is dead, but his last (and possibly best) album just came out.
posted by Captain Psyko 19 years ago
In "Think Globally, fuck locally. "
It used to be Drink Locally - at least, on the poster on my wall behind me. And Darshon - the best album to start with is "Multi Kontra Culti Vs. Irony"
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
And it's Drink Locally, Fuck Globally.
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
There are 2 tracks from Hutz's side project up @ TTIKTDA right now. The band is in Chicago recording a new album with Steve Albini @ the moment. It will fucking rock.
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
In "Curious George: Why don't you vote?"
Most employers don't give election day off unless it's a presidential election. Even then, only a few do. In the US, Employers are required by law to give you time off work to go vote if you can reasonably prove that you would be unable to do during non-work hours (i.e. long commute, weird hours, academic obligations during non work hours, etc.)
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
In "RNC Protest Photos"
I've said it before. There are 2 kinds of rallies. The kinds you hold when you wanna demonstrate how much power you have to influence a descision maker. And the kind you hold when you want to energize your troops and get them excited to go do something else. Most modern protests have been unquestionably of the latter variety (the only exception I can think of that has been even remotely successful on the massive scale is Seattle '99 - there is no question that the entire Globalizaton debate has been completely reframed since that bloody week). I can think of lots of small scale and local exceptions, but those aren't the sort of thing Monkey's will have heard of. So, did yesterdays protests have a message? No. Were they important? Yes. If only 1 % of the people I was handing flyers to attend one of the trainings this week that the awesome folks at MFA are holding this week - well, thats 300 people who have been trained to do something that will have a real effect, on this election, and on politics in the long term. If only .1 % of the marchers who were out there yesterday feel energized enough by that walk to take a trip to pennsylvania, and canvass door to door for a few hours, and they convince 10 voters each? thats FOUR THOUSAND SWING STATE VOTERS that will have been influenced. And to be honest with you, that last set of numbers is pretty damned conservative.
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
In "400,000 march for peace in New York City"
A protest is not so much about having an affect on Bush so much as it's a motivating force for us Tensor. I was working w/ a group distributing schedules for nearly 70 trainings around NYC over the next few days. if 1 % of the people that were at that protest yesterday get some training, and do something more than just protest - be it canvassing, media work, etc. etc., thats 5000 committed new activists doing something that WILL make a difference. These events give the movement the energy it needs to continue, and constantly are bringing new people into the fold - thats whatg the magic is.
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
In "HomePage for Opines by FaceMan�"
I just realized that there are 3 different links here. Well, about as different as 3 different AP articles about the same thing... but still - slight improvement. Your posts to links ratio just decreased considerably.
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
Faceman likes to talk about Faceman.
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
In "William Buckley Leaving National Review"
The Washington Times and New York Post also lose money. To be fair, so does The Nation.
posted by Captain Psyko 20 years ago
(limited to the most recent 20 comments)