short notes: will brady's ruminations

A blog adjunct to rondak.org [click on the globe] | Perspectives on: human rights; environmental concerns; life as a visual artist; 21st century feudalism; progressive politics; aboriginal culture; new urbanism; permaculture; sustainable technology; non-traditional families; achievable utopias

2005-04-07

CRITICAL THINKING

Coffee Cups may replace bumper stickers as the source point for pithy statements | Mark Brady at Alchemy/Fouroboros made note of a new Starbucks campaign designed to foster thought |
     Wouldn't you know it, already "...some conservatives are angered by opinionated quotes that Starbucks puts on its cups..." | Honestly, what is it about these guys? | Seems they'll never be satisfied until there's only one voice droning out in monotone the same vacant statements, by they on (a) tax reduction, (b) godliness, (c) "family values", (d) the liberal media conspiracy or (e) whetehr or not one ought use Charmin' instead of Scott toilet tissue [hint: check which corporation gave the most to Republican War Chest, that's whose product you buy]
     Not only does this once again raise the question about whether or not these guys have too much free time, but it poses a more serious one | Namely, what's wrong with being forced to get one's synapses firing ? |
     I've long believed that part of the problem our society faces these days is not GOP vs DEMS or "liberal" vs "conservative", but rather the absence of critical thinking in exchange for bumper sticker logic | Now on coffee cups everywhere |

Posted by: Will Brady / 10:13 (0) comments

OTHER VOICES

Image: Josep Thorak, Comradeship, 1937

On Being a Warrior

"Being a warrior is not about the act of fighting. It's about being so prepared to face a challenge and believing so strongly in the cause you are fighting that you refuse to quit."

Richard J. Machowicz

Richard Machowicz founded Bukido Institute after years of serving as a Navy Seal | Read Mike Mahler's interview with him | Image Credit: Sculpture originally in front of German Pavilion at 1936 Paris World Exposition, from Werckmeister's Totalitarian Art page |

Posted by: Will Brady / 08:02 (0) comments

2005-04-06

MORE BAD PUBLIC RELATIONS

The Minuteman Project is comprised of a bunch of self-styled protectors of America, white guys with clear opinions about immigration but murky on the reality of American history |
Not satisified with letting law enforcement do their jobs, this group of malcontents have taken it upon themselves to start operating their own border patrols to keep the wetbacks out of Tombstone |
The Border Patrol opposes the Minuteman operation. "The possibility for something going drastically wrong is very high," according to Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jose Maheda | Reporting by KVOA Tuscon finds that since The Minutemen started their uncoordinated sentry efforts, they have set off sensors, forcing border patrol agents to respond to false alarms as well as the potential for unwanted violence | I'd surmise that there are also concerns about just plain stupid accidents occurring, such as

sun poisoning, dehydration or night-time hypothermia on the parts of the eager protectors |

Some of the people the Edwin Curtis photographed may have a different point of view
about who the illegal immigrants in Arizona might really be

The Minutemen group has successfully recruited like-minded people from around the North America, some of whom have traveled to Arizona to take part in the citizen patrols, yet ill prepared for dealing with local climate or without much first hand knowledge of cultural morays of either Arizona or northern Mexico |
That's a plan | Not a very good one, mind you, but it is a plan | Wonder when they are going to do this with Canada |

SEE: The Angry White Kid for more details | The Minutemen might also consider visiting these sites, Akwesasne Notes, American Indian Movement, First Nations, Center for Indigenous Native Studies,or the National Tribal Justice Resource Center [for starters] before going off half cocked about illegal immigrants forcing their way on to the land |

Posted by: Will Brady / 21:34 (0) comments

HIS HOLINESS
I like to think that Pope John Paul II did much to be remembered for | Opening the Papacy to the world, his constant [if unpublicized by corporate Greed Media] exhortations to lift the poor from their suffering, his reaching out to Muslims and apologizing for the Catholic Church's horrendous collaboration in the World war II Holocaust |
But I also agree with pundit Andrew Sullivan who writes

Under John Paul II (and his predecessors), the Roman Catholic church presided over the rape and molestation of thousands of children and teenagers. Under John Paul II, the church at first did all it could to protect its own and to impugn and threaten the victims of this abuse. Rome never acknowledged, let alone take responsibility for, the scale of the moral betrayal
     ...that was the central reaction of the late Pope to this scandal: he sided with the perpetrators, because they were integral to his maintenance of power.
     When you hear about this Pope's compassion, his concern for the victims of society, his love of children, it's important to recall that when it came to walking the walk in his own life and with his own responsibility, he walked away.
     He all but ignored his church's violation of the most basic morality - that you don't use the prestige of the church to rape innocent children.
     Here was a man who lectured American married couples that they could not take the pill, who told committed gay couples that they were part of an "ideology of evil," but acquiesced and covered up the rape of minors. When truth met power, John Paul II chose truth. When truth met his power, John Paul II defended his own prerogatives at the expense of the innocent. Many have forgotten. That's not an option for the victims of this clerical criminality.

It is not enough to devote oneself to good works if you also knowingly sit atop evil and do nothing to correct it |

Posted by: Will Brady / 20:23 (0) comments

2005-04-05

WEBSURFING

Blog Tower writes on features gleaned from other webloggers | There's a section devoted just to WalMart and it's efforts to destabilize the global community with plans on pillaging China | FROM The Colored Fella's Weblog

Wayne Besen on Bushwacking busybodies and their hypocritical habits | This time it's knocking Bug Man Tom Delay for pulling the plug on his own father | FROM RAW STORY

That Colored Fella writes about changing the definition of race | FROM MIKE POWER

Celebrity Cola on blogging about blogs | FROM Space Coast Web

BlogActive on influential yet closeted gay republicans who are being exposed as we read | BlogActive is written by Mike Rogers, a Washington DC political insdier who was recently featured in GQ Magazine | FROM That Colored Fella

The CopyFight, a weblog that devotes itself to shedding light on the battle for intellectual property rights, corporate and legal battles to restrict intellectual freedoms, and to understand the issues behind the debates | FROM Ron's Log

Posted by: Will Brady / 15:34 (0) comments

TOO MUCH STUFF

In an attempt to pare down what I have I'm renting a space in a group shop | That's it on the right | Measuring approximately 2.4 x 1.7 metres [6 ft x 8 ft], I plan on selling used books, vinyl record albums, art work and miscellaneous "stuff" | The second pix is from my rented storage space, which I wrote about last August as Pack Rat tendencies |
I'll be joining Bruce and Buddy in their efforts, and at the same location but on a different floor | Set to open shop on the first of May | Wish me luck |

Posted by: Will Brady / 14:29 (0) comments

2005-04-04

DISTRACTIONS

You Draw is an effort of produce a book essentially created by others | The compilers say they've gotten a couple hundred thousand entries but need a couple hundred thousand more to publish |
You cede copyright but get credit for doing the work | Why they don't just push the project as a creative commons effort is beyond me but... what they hey, it's their project | And what have you lost by contributing a doodle?
Here's one of mine |

Posted by: Will Brady / 13:16 (0) comments

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