An interesting thing happens when you unplug from the world-wide web–time expands. Yes it does indeed. Time expands in the sense of all the things you can explore OFFline. Consider what happens when you forget your cellphone and you don’t feel the need to answer every ringtone like Pavlov’s puppies. Oh the freedom from the ring, from the keyboard connected to social media, and everything in the info universe. It can be very liberating–and you realize just how much energy, effort and time you’ve been putting into communication technology. Having been almost constantly online since BEFORE Facebook and twitter were even imagined I discovered a real big break from it all was in order. It’s been the kind of break where I’m on the verge of needing to upgrade my cellphone so that it will ‘work’. Aside from personal connections I have not missed the world-wide web much. I don’t enjoy reading books online–but I adore reading. Writing online has its pros and cons. I’ve discovered that the best way to deal with writer’s block is to actually write with a pen/pencil on paper. Yeah, it works. According the research I suspect it’s because more of your brain is stimulated by using your fine motor skills when using a pen than with using a keyboard. Oh and there’s never a problem with power outages or viruses or hitting the wrong key and sending everything into nowhere-land. Yes, being offline has been very good for my writing. It’s also been good for reading, exploring music, and cooking. Virtual cooking leads to virtual food and that’s inedible no matter what it does to your salivary glands.
When you’re exploring books offline in a library setting interesting things tend to happen–to me anyway. For example, an oversize book cover featuring Virginia Woolf’s profile draws your attention to Stefan Bollman’s Women Who Write, a book of profiles of women writers. Reading Francine Prose’s introduction raises the question of what other women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature since the book’s publication. The answer to this query leads to 2015 Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices from Chernobyl:The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. I currently do not know where else you can read anything like this in English. Which leads in turn to the translator, Keith Gessen who is the co-editor of City By City, Dispatches from the American Metropolis. The essays therein present diverse perspectives on the American urban landscape–and they’re anything but boring.
I heartily recommend all these books for your reading table or tablet. Warning: Voices from Chernobyl may break your heart with its love stories. What happens to people who know nothing about the downside of nuclear energy when things go terribly wrong? This is an intensely personal record of what happens. Considering the world in which we live we owe to these people to at least make ourselves aware and informed. Because Blue Skies do not mean all is hunky dory in the radioactive universe. Note: this is also a National Book Critics Circle Award winner for General Nonfiction.
Dots:
~Virginia Woolf’s profile
~Women Who Write by Stefan Bollman, Francine Prose
~Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich
~Translator Keith Gessen
~City By City, Dispatches from the American Metropolis edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb
Please do feel free to share wherever these dots lead you.
Thanks for engaging here. Your time, energy and virtual presence is very much appreciated–more than ever before.
But some people don’t want to think about that reality.
~Why not?
Because then they’d have to learn a new history.
~Ooops–but isn’t history supposed to be true and honest?
Depends on who is using which facts to support which version of what happened.
~Are you saying people manipulate facts to suit their own agendas?
Me? Why would I ever say something like that? It might be politically incorrect, and we can’t have that, can we?
~Hmm, but what’s Politically Correct for one group isn’t necessarily PC for another group. And people do have a tendency to abuse PC everywhere in order to create conflict and sometime even abuse other people who had no intentions of abusing anyone. There’s been some very rough irony involved in demands for PC over the years.
No way! Who would do something like that?
~Who doesn’t? Come on, look at the conservative media, the scared shitless media, the controlled media, the alternative media, the foreign media, the underground media, the social media–everyone spins everything to suit their vision of reality, right?
Do you think that’s what pissed off those high school kids in Colorado so much that they pretested in the streets about changes in what history would be taught?
~What do you think?
I’m not sure yet. But–I do recall what happened in Arizona with the Mexican-American Studies program being shut down because it presented a different viewpoint of history than what the TPTB wanted taught in schools.
~Hey, are you saying there’s a conspiracy to teach lies in American schools?
Look, I don’t go in for conspiracy theories. But I don’t think this is a coincidence either. Maybe it’s just like minds acting out in similar ways. Or not.
~ Like minded people, right. Ah ha.
ACT II:
Lie. Lie. Lie.
Deny lying and lie some more.
Because if the truth is known the people might rebel.
There’s a very good chance they’ll refuse to be cannon fodder.
They might even learn other languages in order to talk to the rest of the world about issues that affect everyone.
Or not.
ACT III:
*
*
Howard Zinn on Honesty In History
*
Humor ~~ Warning! Contains Sarcasm, Irony and Questioning of Authority
If you’re still in the dark about the history curriculum issue in Colorado:
I do. I drink them. I eat them. I enjoy their bright cheery yellow “Hello!s.”
Dandelions were made for wining and dining everyone.
There’s an excellent free food source growing at will almost everywhere despite all the billions of dollars spent by lawn growers determined to eradicate it-drumroll please– the Incredible Edible Dandelion. It’s a plant often found in yards and lawns and just about everywhere you look. People tend to tear them out of their lawns without any regard for the food they’re wasting by doing so. How much do leafy greens cost in your market? Then again, if compulsive lawn growers have been dousing their precious grass with chemicals they’ve made the plants toxic–and probably other living things as well. I wonder what bare feet pick on such bright green beds? But, if you’ve got access to a chemical free dandelion zone then you’re in luck–go forth and forage at will–once you’re sure exactly what plant you’re looking for, of course. 🙂
A few thoughts about lawns:
Personally, I’ve never understood the entire lawn notion of fertilizing some grass to make it grow so that you can cut it down again and again and again. Heard the joke about the definition of insanity? Does not the whole concept of lawn care rely on a form of an insane game? This strange game involves expensive lawnmowers, fertilisers, herbicides, gasoline or electricity for any non-reel blade mower, plus a lot water for quenching the thirst of growing grass. And it’s made billions and billions for the manufacturers of all those noise toys and chemicals. Tell me why anyone would grow something which servers no purpose simply in order to cut it again and again and again? All the mowing creates a lot of noise I personally can do without. It’s a chore for whoever the job falls to in any household. I suppose it provides allowance money for children and wages for people who are willing to mow the grass of others who can’t or don’t want to mow their lawns and have the means to pay others to do it for them. Is lawn mowing a form of exercise? Hmm. If you’re using a reel mower which requires human push power, it sure can be. But is that a reason to grow a patch of grass?
Yes, a nice, neat, lush green lawn is very inviting for soccer and other game playing. They’re okay for picnics if there is more than grass and more grass to ‘enjoy’. I guess. Personally I’d prefer a picnic with a meadow view full of wildflowers, plants, bees, birds and insects all doing their things. Anyone who’s ever observed one knows there’s a lot more going on in a meadow then on a bed of grass pumped full of herbicides and pesticides and fertilizers. There’s those plants doing all their planty things in the grand natural scheme of things.
Dandelions are vital in the grand scheme of things despite what the lawn care INDUSTRY claims. Many Americans have been ‘educated’ to destroy this plant every time one perks up their basic green carpet with some bright yellow. Every time a dandelion plant is destroyed so is a prime human food source. Why would anyone want to kill off an edible plant full of vitamins A, K, C & E? (Oh, well, we are talking about the same mentality that killed off the buffalo which is a far better meat source than cattle of any kind. But I digress and that’s another story about industry and monetary profits instead of good healthy food and land use common sense.) And that’s just the tip of this saw-edged leafy green with the bright yellow flowers you can munch on. Oh don’t forget the roots, their edible too–and they make one of my favorite teas. As I have access to a chemical free green area I pick dandelion greens fresh for meals and snap the flowers off for tea at will. I have yet to make dandelion wine. If any of you have, please feel free to share your recipe.
You don’t have to take my word for it. A few other people consume dandelions. Just a few. You’re welcome to join us.
From Wikipedia:
Dandelions are found on all continents and have been gathered for food since prehistory, but the varieties cultivated for consumption are mainly native to Eurasia. A perennial plant, its leaves will grow back if the taproot is left intact. To make leaves more palatable, they are often blanched to remove bitterness.[17] Dandelion leaves and buds have been a part of traditional Sephardic, Chinese, and Korean cuisine. In Crete, Greece, the leaves of a variety called Mari (Μαρί), Mariaki (Μαριάκι) or Koproradiko (Κοπροράδικο) are eaten by locals, either raw or boiled, in salads. Taraxacum megalorhizon, a species endemic to Crete, is eaten in the same way; it is found only at high altitudes (1000 to 1600 m.) and in fallow sites, and is called pentaramia (πενταράμια) or agrioradiko (αγριοράδικο).[29]
The flower petals, along with other ingredients, usually including citrus, are used to make dandelion wine. The ground, roasted roots can be used as a caffeine-free dandelion coffee.[30] Dandelion was also traditionally used to make the traditional British soft drink dandelion and burdock, and is one of the ingredients of root beer. Also, dandelions were once delicacies eaten by the Victorian gentry, mostly in salads and sandwiches.
Historically, dandelion was prized for a variety of medicinal properties, and it contains a wide number of pharmacologically active compounds.[32] Dandelion is used as a herbal remedy in Europe, North America and China.[32] It has been used in herbal medicine to treat infections, bile and liver problems,[32] and as a diuretic.[32]
“There are certain points in history where a society goes so wrong, and there are certain people who will say, ‘I won’t stand for that . . . I will risk career, life, limb, family freedom . . . And I will take this risk, and I will go and do it.”
David Kairys
Betty Medsger’s book about the 1971 burglary of the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania isn’t about a cheap thrill ride of robbery for adrenaline kicks and profit, though it was a crime with a huge payout–the truth. The burglary committed by a crew of non-violent peace activists assembled by a physics professor, William Davidon, confirmed the suspicions of anti-war activists that they were being unlawfully spied upon by their own government because they were exercising their right to dissent — and that thousands of other people were being illegally spied upon because they were considered subversives according to one man, J. Edgar Hoover. People didn’t have to commit any crime or even speak about committing treason to get their names put on a list of folks to be rounded up and jailed in the event of some national emergency. If they were liberal, if they were black, if they espoused anti-war sentiments, if they were writers, artists, then they were candidates for warrantless, indefinite detention without due process under the law–as far as Hoover was concerned. The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI’s theft of FBI records brought into the light of day the term COINTELPRO–and a lot of very very illegal activity by the FBI as it committed crimes against the American people with impunity. Such crimes included destroying the lives of innocent people by deliberately framing them for crimes they didn’t commit, celebrating such wrongdoing and refusing to turn over evidence that proved their innocence in any wrongdoing. Hoover’s secret FBI didn’t give a damn about truth, integrity, civil liberties, or the law. It existed to create paranoia and fear in the population at large in order to control everyone. It refused to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States and the law. It was a criminal entity from the top on down with a few exceptions.
If this is striking a contemporary current events cord with you, that’s not an accident.
If you’re expecting an anti-war tale rife with hippies, drugs, sex and rock and roll music, look elsewhere. The people who broke into the FBI office in Media were not a bunch of hooligans. They weren’t looking for money. They were searching for evidence. These were people who raided draft offices in order to destroy the effort to conscript young men for the war machine then stayed to be arrested by the police in order to take responsibility for their actions. These were people deeply invested in ethical behavior and education who wanted the death and destruction in Vietnam to stop. They were people committed to the civil rights movement. Betty Medsger’s book provides varied personal portraits of the burglars, each dependent upon how much personal information they were willing to share, of the Media burglars. There’s a range of backgrounds and experience among them which provides some sense of the breadth of the range of people involved in the anti-war movement and what inspired them to become activists.
If you have no clue about the short and long-term importance of this burglary and the context in which it occurred, don’t fret, Medsger will fill you in. She provides notes and a very useful bibliography for further reading. While this is a very serious book about very serious issues which are very relevant to the here and now, it’s also very very accessible and readable. It gives life and breath to events by creating connections with real humans thinking hard about the world we live in–and how we live in it. What are the responsibilities of those who are free? What does it mean to have the right to dissent without fear of retaliation in a society that claims to be free? What are you willing to do to protect your civil liberties? Who wants to live their lives in fear of being arrested because of their ideas?
Betty Medsger’s book raises all sorts of interesting issues for serious conversation while stressing the important role ‘ordinary’ people play in creating the world in which we live our daily lives. If you think one person doesn’t have a lot of influence in the power plays then consider J. Edgar Hoover the Head of the FBI versus William Davidon, a physics professor with an idea.
Who is reading everyone’s mail? Who is collecting phone conversations? Who is creating files on everyone? Why?
Who has the Hoover virus? What is to be done about it?
http://www.politics-prose.com/book/97… Betty Medsger talks about her book about the previously unsolved burglary of an FBI building in Media, Pennsylvania. Recorded on March 16, 2014.
Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics & Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.’s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics & Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. Visit them on the web at http://www.politics-prose.com/
Water Unifies us All. On March 22nd, Join the world in the Synchronized Global Water Ceremony. At 3:00pm in your local time and 3:00pm pacific. UNIFYing with the world to restore our relationship with this sacred medium of life.
No Water, No Life. Know Water, Know Life.
UNIFY.org is a platform create to support the emergence of the Spiritual Renaissance happening on the planet.
LoveWater is a year long campaign that will transform our specie’s relationship to water in every way possible.
Join us as we catalyze a global movement of beauty, love and truth.
Thanks to the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance of South Dakota for bringing this event to my attention. The Clean Water Alliance continues to fight the Powertech Uranium Mining Company in South Dakota –> http://www.sdcleanwateralliance.org/
The “Final” Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) issued by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the proposed Dewey-Burdock uranium mine is substantially deficient. The mine, proposed by Chinese/Canadian company Powertech Uranium, would use 9,000 gallons per minute of groundwater from Black Hills aquifers, contaminate area water, and open the door for eight other uranium companies that have an interest in the Black Hills.
A Blank Hills Clean Water Alliance Press Release warns that the NRC has put the cart before the horse – they have published a “Final” SEIS – and chosen a final alternative for project design – before they have completed the cultural resources analysis. This analysis is required by law to be completed before this document was issued. The SEIS notes that the analysis is “ongoing.” This relegates the cultural studies to afterthoughts, and necessarily limits NRC’s ability to protect these important resources.
The NRC is accepting public comment on the Final SEIS in the form of limited appearance statements. You can make your voice heard – click here to learn how.
Yes, it’s Monday. It’s St. Patrick’s Day. It’s national beer drinking day for a lot of folks.
But it’s also another day in the ongoing fight against uranium mining and its consequences everywhere from the past to the present.
On March 14, 2014 independent journalist Amy Goodman reported from Flagstaff, Arizona about the ongoing environmental and health issues connected with uranium mining and its long-term consequences for the Dine ~ Navajo people. The main portion of her video report is posted here but there is a great deal more information and related coverage on Democracy Now!’s site. Part of the Democracy Now! broadcast discussed the use of music and film by to raise awareness and share information regarding issues. To supplement DN!’s coverage I’ve included two videos featuring Klee Benally’s music and an informative video about Outta Your Backpack Media which teaches Indigenous people how to make and use movies to address the need for media justice and coverage in their communities. There’s a trailer for the film The Returnof Navajo Boy which is referenced in the news piece. The film’s website –> http://navajoboy.com/. Democracy Now!’s page for the story also includes links to information and related stories.
This is a trailer for the award-winning documentary film, “The Return of Navajo Boy.” See its official website for more information:http://www.navajoboy.com
Instead of Sensual Saturday welcome to Scorching Hot Sexy Cello Sunday. Yeah. I’m not joking. If you thought that cellos were just for classical tunes–well, think again. I’ve been thinking again ever since Bearspawprint introduced me to Apocalyptica.
Meet 2CELLOS — If you haven’t already. The Funniest Moments video serves as a sort of meet and greet piece. Please note that their Thunderstruck has the headline slot in the sidebar to the left <<——. Their performances have the entire sidebar venue until you hit the great pick me up energy of Aldrey’s La Lista–which now has over 400,000 views since we first turned our ears and eyes to it with hopes of helping it reach an audience of 80,000 to fulfill the goal stated in the song. Way to play it forward folks 🙂 Depending on your pc it might take some time for the music videos on the sidebar to load. If they don’t then feel free to exercise the watch and listen option on the tubes of you where there is quite an extensive playlist.
Grab a snack, some tea and biscuits if you share Lady Pen’s inclinations, and get charged with two very sizzling cello players, Luka and Stjepan. Yes, their CriminalSmoothvideo is <<— to the left. There are 70 more videos on their YouTube site.
2CELLOS Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser performing Human Nature by Michael Jackson, from an exciting, unforgettable and emotional evening at the beautiful Roman Colosseum in Stjepan’s hometown of Pula, Croatia. The concert took place on 3rd of July, 2013
Filmed and edited by MedVid produkcija
Directed by Kristijan Burlovic
Video editing by Ivan Stifanic & Stjepan Hauser
Sound by Miro Vidovic, Luka Sulic & Stjepan Hauser
What’s in a word? What does a name signify? If you call a thing by a certain label does it make it so? For the life of me I cannot understand why a film is titled WinterSoldier and contains a character by that name when the term has nothing at all to do with the historical reality associated with the term Winter Soldier. From the information I’ve gathered so far online there seems to be absolutely no connection at all between the movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the historical and contemporary Winter Soldiers of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan telling the public about war crimes. I find this a tad unsettling while seriously doubting there will be any ongoing social media dishing of this misappropriation of a phrase which designates American veterans as there was of The Lone Ranger. There was a ton of chatter about all the things ‘wrong’ with TheLone Ranger –all of which went on while blatantly ignoring the movie’s outright attacks on genocide, manifest destiny and the military industrial complex. I came across some comments regarding a clip from a portion of the real Winter Soldier testimony in which people were considering the effect of the Captain America film on the reality of the veterans known as Winter Soldiers. Once the movie is seen by millions who pay little attention to historical events, the term Winter Soldier will be coupled with a character from a movie with absolutely no meaningful connection to the Winter Soldiers of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Is there any greater insult to people who have the courage to speak the truth about war? Hmm, ooops I shouldn’t have asked that question, because I’m sure there are greater insults. Have no doubt that the FBI and/or the CIA could top such an insult with ease. More on that when I post my review of Betty Medsger’s very unsettling book, The Burglary. It’s an unsettling read for what it reveals about the totally corrupt character of the FBI under J.Edgar Hoover. If you can imagine a law to break, the FBI broke it. I digress, more to come on the book later. Back to misrepresentation, illusion and manipulated delusions of Marvel Comics characters. Superheroes can be so enthralling. They’re also very unreal.
Now if anyone sees the Disney film and finds a connection between the illusion and the reality, please do not hesitate to share it.
Wait–could it be the concept of brainwashing? Could it? Let’s consider that possibility…hmmm. Why not? It’s a connection. Or is it?
My thanks to Wikipedia for the factual information and links that follow.
On with the show.
What does this illusion:
Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Information about the film via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_America:_The_Winter_Soldier
Steve Rogers’ best friend, who has reemerged as an enhanced brainwashed assassin after being thought killed in action during World War II.[12][7] About the character, Feige said, “Winter Soldier has been methodically, almost robotically, following orders for 70 years.”[13] Stan, who has a nine-picture deal with Marvel Studios including his appearance in The First Avenger,[14]endured five months of physical training to prepare for the role and did historical research stating, “I dove into the whole Cold War thing. I looked at the KGB. I looked at all kinds of spy movies, and all kinds of documentaries about that time, and what it was about. I grabbed anything from that time period. Anything about brainwashing.”[15] Regarding Bucky’s transition into the Winter Soldier, Stan said, “You know, the truth of the situation is although he looks very different and there’s different things about him, it still comes from the same person. I think you’ll get to see that no matter what. I think part of my goal here was to make sure that you see an extension of that version but just a different color of that same version in a way. I think he’s still the same guy; he’s cut from the same cloth.”[16]
have to do with this reality?:
Winter Soldier Investigation via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier_Investigation
The “Winter Soldier Investigation” was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) from January 31, 1971 – February 2, 1971. It was intended to publicize war crimes and atrocities by the United States Armed Forces and their allies in the Vietnam War. The VVAW challenged the morality and conduct of the war by showing the direct relationship between military policies and war crimes in Vietnam. The three-day gathering of 109 veterans and 16 civilians took place in Detroit, Michigan. Discharged servicemen from each branch of military service, as well as civilian contractors, medical personnel and academics, all gave testimony about war crimes they had committed or witnessed during the years of 1963–1970.[1][2][3]
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Climate Denial Crock of the Week
Tree hugging on a practical level and more. All sorts of great tidbits from Mushroom homes to…well solar panels. Do not delay. Visit today.
Connie Dover
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