Saturday, December 06, 2008

Comrade Vandal speaks...

...and it is enough to make one retch. Bill Ayers in the New York Times:
I never killed or injured anyone. I did join the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, and later resisted the draft and was arrested in nonviolent demonstrations. I became a full-time antiwar organizer for Students for a Democratic Society. In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village.
He means the nail bomb which they were preparing for a servicemen's dance. It went off accidently, with the Marxist murderers around it rather than the soldiers and their dates.
The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices — the ones at the Pentagon and the United States Capitol were the most notorious — as an illegal and unpopular war consumed the nation.

The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense.
Setting off firecrackers in a crowd crosses the bounds of propriety, Billy. Setting off a nail bomb in a crowd is just standard revolutionary activity. So why bother to explain how innocuous your acts were?
Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.

Peaceful protests had failed to stop the war. So we issued a screaming response. But it was not terrorism; we were not engaged in a campaign to kill and injure people indiscriminately, spreading fear and suffering for political ends.
So his "symbolic acts of extreme vandalism ... were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination." Dang. The man was just an early performance artist. If only we had known.

And don't miss the the comments. If you still have your breakfast in place, they should finish the job.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Thinking of microwaving unconventional ingredients:

Ivory soap:

Labels:

Sometimes I'm embarrassed to have ever been a member of the ACLU

It used to be a serious organization.
Posted: Dec. 3, 2008

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin stepped up its campaign against expansion of I-94 to the Illinois state line on Wednesday by asking federal officials to investigate possible civil rights violations and stop the massive roadway reconstruction.

A complaint to the Office of Civil Rights of the Federal Highway Administration alleges several elements of the $1.9 billion project, including the widening from six lanes to eight, harms minorities and low-income groups by pulling away money that could be spent on public transportation options.
Could be spent? So, building a school in white folks county is a violation of black folks civil rights because the money COULD have been spent on black folks' schools.
Also, plans to build a full freeway interchange on Drexel Ave. and eliminate access to S. 27th St., from I-94 northbound via I-894, favor the business interests in predominantly white areas in Oak Creek and Franklin over areas with large minority and low-income populations in Milwaukee, the complaint alleges.
Well, at least it has been many, many, years since I belonged.
...The ACLU complaint seeks additional review of the impact on minorities and compliance with civil rights laws to be conducted by the separate Office for Civil Rights within the Federal Highway Administration.
Tom Held has the pathetic story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Improvised Explosive Device

All the best experts say one can improvise explosives and incendiaries from common household chemicals, but here's one I haven't read about.

Ingredients:

1 egg, large, raw.
1 pokey thingy (a can opener will do).
1 microwave oven.
1 dude, middle aged, slightly tubby, shirtless.

Remove egg from ice box. Use pokey thingy to poke a small hole in the large end to release steam...it won't work, but will reduce feelings of total dufusness by approximately 2%. Insert egg in microwave. Nukey-nukey one minute. Open door, pick up slightly cracked egg. Watch and listen as it explodes in itty bitty pieces all over stove top, stock pot, cabinets, counter, floor, dude.

Clean up: Definitely. Best done before Beloved Spouse returns from long day at work. 1) Remove yellow bomb frags from belly button. 2) Sponge up remaining bomb frags from microwave, stove top, stock pot, cabinets, counter, floor, dude, disgruntled cats. (Interesting though it would be, do not chart bomb frag dispersion pattern as a murder detective would arterial blood on affected surfaces. Beloved Spouse might consider doing so eccentric.) 3)Insert last ingredient in shower. 4) On way to shower, observe that bed remains unmade. 5) Make bed before Beloved Spouse returns home. 3B) Get in shower NOW!

Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Dude, GUERNICA?

I am so glad we have the New York Times to save us from the overwrought prose of the unregulated, unmediated, irresponsible pajama-clad wing-nut bloggers.

Labels:

Monday, December 01, 2008

Victim Disarmament Zones work well...

...if you are an Islamic Supremacist in Mumbai.

Here is a counter-example.

And if by any chance you think the police will take care of you, pin this to your bathroom mirror:
Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus....But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
Shooting back might have angered the Muslim street.

Labels: , , , ,

It does seem more historic than a Dubya beer mug