06 December 2011

ready to smile?



thx char!

you go, girl.

the 10 days of my birthday zooventure!

yesterday, you met the sand cat. today's entry is entitled, "bears are people, too."


you know how i feel about bears. i don't have to tell you anything.

lisa frank apparel




(via)




thx casey!

did you know richard lawson has a tumblr

follow that shit.

on a boat

some british men (and ladies) on a boat are here to give you some holiday cheer. happy christmas! (thx faith)

work it out gurl

team jacob!

omg, can we go?!

y'all. the original stamp act of 1765 is IN new york city. right now! it's written on sheepskin and is 40 yards long!!

it's included as part of the revolution! the atlantic world reborn exhibit, currently at the new york historical society. how timely!

a compelling case

you may have heard about a recent #occupywallstreet initiative, involving a hunger strike outside of duarte square (canal + sixth ave). the demands of the strike include being allowed to use the space as the new zucchini park. the plaza is owned by trinity church, which has been fairly supportive of the movement, sheltering protestors at times. a common reaction (it was mine) was that a hunger strike is a bit of a disproportional approach to gaining a new gathering space. additionally, many argue that this protest no longer requires a physical space, and that these efforts are a digression from more important goals.

this morning, i read an editorial piece written by one of a group of clergy members who assembled to hear and evaluate the movement's request to use their plaza:
That morning a dozen occupiers addressed forty or so clergy. We clergy were all somewhat skeptical of the demand for public space. You could hear the ministerial, rabbinical hrumph, hrumph in the room. (Most of us had never occupied Zucotti Park and a downward trend in temperature wasn’t going to improve on that.) But the occupiers edged toward the theological as they articulated a need for communal, inspirational, face-to-face contact in which they could “appear” to one another.
Secondly, they talked about the nearly complete privatization of municipal public space in a way that made a deep and tragic sense. Where can you go if you don’t own something? Does a public even exist if it has no space? The great irony is that they have been called the virtual demonstration, and here they were talking about old-fashioned, in-person, human interaction.
Third, they talked about the increasing surveillance of most space, private or public—the self-surveillance on Facebook, the constant camera, and the ask-no-questions “security” cordons. They reminded me of one of my first posts on this whole matter: we no longer march and the police pen us for “our own good.” What nonsense. A completely nonviolent movement does not need to be penned up for its own good.
And finally, they spoke of a new monasticism, in which people have given up everything to jump to a future they can only imagine. In the most recent newsletter posted by Occupy Theory [as of this posting, the site is down —Eds.], occupiers describe how sad they were about their lives, both present and future, until they found each other. If you were worried about “young people today” before, you will be terrified after you read about the emptiness, the bought-and-soldness, the futility, the lack of any place to be or person to be. (via)
worth a read.

burger king : garden grill

it's healthy!
see?
get it?!?!

NYPD dummies.

so back around the west indies parade time, a bunch of racist NYPD cops (allegedly!) started a facebook page, and proceeded to publish thousands of ill-advised comments under their real names. the new york times has found that 60% of the names of those involved are also the names of police officers, so.
The comments in the online group, which grew over a few days to some 1,200 members, were at times so offensive in referring to West Indian and African-American neighborhoods that some participants warned others to beware how their words might be taken in a public setting open to Internal Affairs “rats.”
But some of the people who posted comments seemed emboldened by Facebook’s freewheeling atmosphere. “Let them kill each other,” wrote one of the Facebook members who posted comments under a name that matched that of a police officer.
“Filth,” wrote a commenter who identified himself as Nick Virgilio, another participant whose name matched that of a police officer. “It’s not racist if it’s true,” yet another wrote.
classic.
“They can keep the forced overtime,” said one writer, adding that the safety of officers comes “before the animals.”
Wrote another: “Bloodbath!!! The worst detail to work.”
“I say have the parade one more year,” wrote a commenter who identified himself as Dan Rodney, “and when they all gather drop a bomb and wipe them all out.” Reached on Monday, Mr. Rodney confirmed that he was a police officer and that he had used Facebook, though rarely, but denied making the comment. “That wasn’t me,” he said before suggesting that someone else might have been responsible. “I leave my phone around sometimes. Other than that I have no comment.” (via)
 
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