Some Opium with your Masses

Working on many things and yet… not doing enough, thats how I feel these days. Unemployed yet still going to work, it seems. Oh and I had a lovely visit from Max and Stacy of Karmabanque and even managed to take them out on the Red August despite the rain. Nothing funnier than as Im coming home, and it starts pouring rain – I simply open my umbrella, kick the engine into high gear, and wave to all the cozy party boats as I pass them with reckless abandon.

More importantly today I have a recommendation, as I do occasionally try and point ye my dear readers, to interesting things in this world.

My roomate has been thoroughly wrapped up in a BBC4 documentary that I’ve now become very interested in, entitled: A Brief History of Disbelief. In some ways it reminds us of The Power of Nightmares or the Century of the Self, together the two most important documentaries EVER… period.

The series looks at the history of atheism, nontheism, and belief in general. It makes use of several interesting philosophers, alive and dead. It also uses archeology and economics to put things into context in terms of when people believed what and why those beliefs changed.

Though there are several aspects I could point to and say — this is interesting. What really comes to mind while watching it is the still powerful role and influence of religion in this world, even after so much experience.. so many world events… that would make one assume religion would not be as powerful as it was “back then”.

Thats all… the rest is for you to go and watch. If you can’t find them on bittorent, I will post them on archive.org within the week.

Haloween and Habeas Corpus

Im sure you heard about the recent death of Habeas Corpus.. which began with the Magna Carta back in 1215 and was destroyed by the Bush administration and the US congress in 2006.

In honor of that occasion, and since last night was haloween here in Amsterdam amongst the crazy Dutch, the expats, and the visiting bloggers, I came up with a special costume.

I haven’t gotten the best photos, but here are two to tide you over

UPDATE: The lovely Lyssa took some excellent photos of my costume… I present to you, the Ghost of Habeas Corpus:

The Fog of Elections

I was on the phone with the great D-Rock yesterday evening. He is now working for a political campaign. He spoke a bit about the tasks he has to do… if you’ve ever heard people talk about American elections, you’ve probably heard about the phonecalls, donations, speeches, going door-to-door, etc. (do they still do that last one?)

Nevermind what I think of the whole system. Lets put that aside.

I decided to go look at what’s on the local New Jersey ballot that I’m no longer elligible to use.

Now besides the normal dry, corrupt, and uninspiring selection of candidates, you also get what are called “Public Questions”. I guess it is something like a referendum only with a different name. Here’s how they read:

  • Dedicates Annual Revenue of an Amount Equal to a Tax Rate of 0.5% under the State Sales Tax for Property Tax Reform
  • Constitutional Amendment to Expand Uses of Dedicated Tax Revenues to Fund Improvements and Facilities on Preserved Open Space Lands
  • Constitutional Amendment Changes the Dedication of Motor Fuels Tax to State Transportation System

    • Generally boring, I know. But I find number 3 to be fun; maybe they’ll further re-introduce all the train systems and light rail systems they spent the better part of the last 60 years dismantling.

    Time to go find the more interesting ballot questions around the country.

    BM Will Travel to VlogEuropa

    I tend to poo-poo conferences. Let’s be real; no matter what the topic and how noble the mission, the world is full of conferences with bullshit topics where obscene amounts of money are spent in order to talk about a problem for which we will have to hold another conference to continue the discussion- repeat process for a few years, run out of money or interest and move on to another catchy titled conference.

    Anyone who’s annoyed with what I just wrote is probably a frequent participant in such conferences.

    Despite that, and contradicting my normal outlook on conferences, I’m going to a very modest and enjoyable conference in a few weeks: (hahaha) VlogEurope. If you were at the first one than you know how low budget (or non-budget) it was and how the priority was figuring out how to get this wonderful forum – videoblogs- into the hands of people who don’t want to learn to be nerds, but have a story that lacks representation in this world of media.

    Milano 2006!

    One year on, obviously alot has happened and more people are doing vlogs and watching them, but it is still far from where we hope for it to be. Plus, in making our videos and maintaining our sites, we don’t often get to sit together in person and experience the energy and feed off the inspiration. So this year, when we meet up in Milano for a weekend, we will have that rare occasion for all of this and more.

    If you can make it to Italy, or you’re just curious to know more: read up and consider joining. Or don’t… either way Ill be reporting from Italy, Slovenia, and more, come November 17th.

    bm162 Remembering Paul Wellstone

    It has been 4 years since the sudden death of one of the most progressive and passionate voices the US congress has ever known. In this program, with help from guests from Carleton College, the school where Wellstone taught, we talk about who he was, what he stood for, and what can be learned from him.

    John Schott, blogger & professor of new media, Carleton College
    Karina Hill, videoblogger & grad assistant at Carleton College

    Wellstone Action

     

    Cluster Crimes Against Humanity

    21 people have died and over 100 have been injured as a result of cluster bombs left over from the Israeli invasion and bombing of Lebanon over the summer. I was just reading yet another report about it. DemocracyNow had also mentioned last week that Hezbollah had used cluster ammunition. We know that the US has used cluster bombs at various times during their invasion of Iraq. I was also recently informed that the Dutch military owns cluster bombs for an unknown purpose.

    Cluster bombs. What useful purpose could such a thing serve, as if bombs themselves weren’t destructive enough. Apparently the chance to have tiny bomblets drop everywhere and blow up later is an appealing thing for all these armies.

    Finding Cluster bombs in Bananas!

    It is indeed a crime against humanity, if not a war crime, when these bombs are used and then days, months, and years later, civilians are blown up when they happen to encounter an unexploded cluster bomb. This recent story in Lebanon was of children picking olives in an orchard.

    Besides the obvious condemning of each of the above mentioned governments, as well as any nation that owns cluster bombs, there are more guilty parties out there. Specifically, the companies that produce these bombs and make big money selling them. They include: General Dynamics Corp, L3 Communications Holdings Inc, Raytheon Co, Lockheed Martin Corp, Alliant Techsystems Inc, EADS Co (European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company) and Thales SA. All of these companies should face charges for their role in international crimes; producing weapons that have no defensive use and are known to be uncontrollably destructive.

    Now that I made that list, not only am I outraged but I’m also ashamed that so many companies are involved in producing such a terrible weapon.