Summer reading:
One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse Orientalism by Edward Said Light in August by William Faulkner Justice as Fairness by John Rawls The Construction of Social Reality by John Searle The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn Light in August by William Faulkner The Communist Manifesto and other Revolutionary Writings Specters of Marx by Jacques Derrida Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff Benito Cereno by Herman Melville Ulysses (annotated) by James Joyce • Your curiosity is welcome.
“Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
(via culturalmarxist)
Biden To Honor Fallen Soldiers By Jumping Motorcycle Over Vietnam Memorial
“There’s no better way to pay homage to our fallen brothers than by letting it rip, hitting that ramp at full fucking blast, and flying through the sky high above the Vietnam Memorial,” said Biden, noting that he also plans to execute a midair salute by placing his fingers around his mouth in a V shape and rapidly flicking his tongue.
More.
(via theamericanbear)
Night of Prom
‘The Trojan horse, it approaches!’ rings through the night
From behind the battlement,
In shrill chorus,
Portending new life—
Unbeknownst to them,
As from the wooden beast the
Soldiers would come.
Day After Prom
Finding out
Who drank what,
And how much,
And who fucked whom;
Friendships, thereafter,
Made awkward,
Ruined—
‘You only live once,’ as they say.
“This morning, in the Vathis square area of central Athens, a 90-year old mother and her son (in his 50s-60s according to mainstream media report) walked up to their building’s rooftop and jumped to their death.
Suicide rates have increased sharply in the country since the arrival of the IMF/EU/ECB in May 2010. Between May 2010 and May 2011 alone, the figure increased by 40%. There are now more than two suicides per day in the country – as opposed to one per day in 2009/10.
A fantastic way to obfuscate reality: the economic restructuring experiment conducted in the Greek territory kills. Economically driven “suicides” are financial murders.”
On Friday, 93% of the U.S. House of Representatives affirmed a resolution escalating America’s already aggressive position on Iran from “crippling” sanctions to a zero-tolerance policy on nuclear weapons. The Congressional Research Service summarized the bill (emphasis mine):
Affirms that it is a vital national interest of the United States to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability and warns that time is limited to prevent that from happening. Urges increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran to secure an agreement that includes: (1) suspension of all uranium enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, (2) complete cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding Iran’s nuclear activities, and (3) a permanent agreement that verifiably assures that Iran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful. Supports: (1) the universal rights and democratic aspirations of the Iranian people, and (2) U.S. policy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. Rejects any U.S. policy that would rely on efforts to contain a nuclear weapons-capable Iran. Urges the President to reaffirm the unacceptability of an Iran with nuclear-weapons capability and oppose any policy that would rely on containment as an option in response to the Iranian nuclear threat.
The resolution passed the House 401-11, with a few representatives absent and a few abstaining. This means it had massive bipartisan support — for those of you who only consider Republicans to be warmongers, 166 of 190 Democrats voted in support, including some of its ostensibly most progressive members, such as Barney Frank and Rush Holt.
(Source: midnightnotes.org)
Telling people that their very real and very urgent problems, such as chronic unemployment or lack of healthcare, are “1st world”—and to be grateful they live in prosperous countries—is ignoring the very harsh reality that you can be complicit in imperialism and 3rd…
Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey: Certified Brooklyn by Adrian Franks
i feel a strong need to buy this on whatever i can get it on!
(via rabidrabbits11)
Arnaud Gerniers. Frame.
FRAME is a strange invitation to question our own gaze when faced with an image. the presence of a frame set up at the centre of a borderline hostile landscape functions as a magnet: our perception of the image oscillates between attraction and repulsion. our gaze, hypnotized by the luminous frame – an iconic and powerful element of the image – fixes on it, in an unfulfilled desire for a new element to see and interpret. one glances at the title, in order to feel less lost, but these geographical references, though they reassure us about the existence of the almost mythical landscape, do not shed additional light …
all one can do is obstinately stare at the photo and cross over to the other side of the frame, into what is not said of the image. mute and tenacious, it offers no form of narration and leaves us no choice but to go see elsewhere, beyond. in this same way, frame frees us from trying to decrypt things and forces us to look within, since we cannot project ourselves onto it. in this state of things, this necessary letting go, we end up “seeing.”
using the same principle as for the photos, the installation shown in the small room creates an intimate relationship and a questioning of what the spectator perceives. the black light troubles one’s vision and pushes away the limits of one’s visual stimulation. this perception of black transforms absence into a mystical poetry.
(via thatwasntveryclever)
Here are three maps depicting the “Advertising and Street Trade Restrictions venue restriction zone” to be set up in London during the 2012 Olympic Games. From Kosmograd:
Within this area… no advertising for brands designated as competing with those of the official Olympic sponsors will be allowed. This will be supported by preventing spectators from wearing clothing prominently displaying competing brands, or from entering the exclusion zone with unofficial snack and beverage choices. Within the Zone, the world’s biggest McDonald’s will be the only branded food outlet, and Visa will be the only payment card accepted.
The increased presence of the security state in England here dovetails with business influence to carve out a new corporate geography for the purposes of marketing. This spatial strategy is a neoliberal twist on the historic creation of colonial states administrated by businesses (consider the historic case of Rhodesia). Of course, police measures designed to restrict one form of personal expression can also just as easily restrict others, so it would hardly be surprising to see anti-corporate clothing forbidden in a similar manner to wearing the wrong brand’s clothing. Nevertheless, it seems to be an ironic twist that wearing corporate, rather than political, imagery and messaging is the expressly forbidden and subversive act within these exclusion zones.
It is through this neocolonialism at the urban scale that we see, utterly exposed, the political nature of economic practice. Corporations compete for spatial monopolies through reconfigured property arrangements, both with and without the help of the state, with purportedly fundamental liberal rights trampled on in the process.
This is some deranged shit.
What the fuck…
(via brosephstalin)
I know this meme has been around a while, but seriously though; this is my expression every time I meet with a right-libertarian.
(via brosephstalin)
