…partly in disgust with myself for letting the sappy soundtrack work on me, but, if this isn’t faked, it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve seen, and if it is faked, it still tells a truth.

Enough intro from an old macho guy. It’s only 2 and a half minutes long. Watch it, if only to know what a softie I really am.

YouTube - Christian the Lion - the full story (in HQ)

* via Kim Antieau

YouTube - Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

I remember an early version of this, probably from his first trip dancing around the world. Now everyone’s posting it, and I’m glad to pile on. I think I first saw this version at Making Light, but the site that inspired me to post it today was Kim Antieau’s. At least five clips are astonishing, but they’re all good.

The NewLife Blog » Jesus for President

We may live in the best Babylon in the world, but it is still Babylon, and we are called to come out from her and be separate from her.

That’s a quote from Shane Claiborne of Jesus for President, who gets the title of his book and his tour from a Woody Guthrie song.

I like what little I’ve read about the simple way. I plan to learn more. CNN has a video about them: Video - Breaking News.

I love the observation that the US is the best Babylon yet. Only 40% of Americans live in poverty, and they’re kept out of sight, in “bad neighborhoods” and “flyover country.” It’s an amazing Babylon.

But it’s crumbling, and in the way of all crumbling empires, it’s refusing to see its problems clearly. Only a few servants of the empire are willing to play Cassandra:

Robert Reich’s Blog: The Terrible Jobs Report

Total job losses since the first of the year are now 438,000. That’s a loss of 73,000 a month. The economy needs to CREATE 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

In other words, this hole is getting deeper.

Consumers have no money left. This is the first consumer-led recession in over twenty years. Consumer-led recessions are worse than the normal kind, where the Fed has overshot by raising interest rates too high or corporations have pulled back their spending. Consumer-led recessions are deeper and longer….

It’s a good time to think about simple ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4_MsrsKzMM

via making light

This is an excellent day to remember that unjust laws should not be obeyed. Blow up something in the name of liberty!

“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” —Thomas Paine

“Every generation needs a new revolution.” —Thomas Jefferson

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny” —Thomas Jefferson

“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.” —Thomas Jefferson

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” —Howard Zinn

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” —The Declaration of Independence

My ancient (G3) iBook needs more work than it’s probably worth, so I don’t want to take it in for service or put it on eBay, but I hate to send it straight to recycling. I think it has motherboard problems, and I know the lid is a bit askew, but it might be useful to someone. Suggestions?

LENIN’S TOMB: The going rate of exploitation:

this little beauty from the Irish Times … tells us that the average Irish worker
produces 48,500 euros of profit per year for the owners. These figures
were produced by the Unite union to disprove the idea that profits for
Irish capitalists are somehow ‘too low’ or being squeezed by
unjustifiably higher wages. Actually, it suggests an extraordinary rate
of exploitation. According to the Industrial Development Agency [pdf], the average wage in Ireland was 627.24 euros per week in 2007, which is just over 32,000 euros per year.

My ‘puter’s dead. I’m using Em’s right now. I’ll get another soon, maybe something used, maybe one of the cheaper Asus EEE PCs. My monitor and keyboard should work with them, and I like the idea of leaving Apple and going to Linux.

Kind of wish the gremlins had found a gentler way to do this, though. But I’m grateful they didn’t find a harsher one.

update: I’m now the proud owner of a miniMac. Tempted to put it in a suitcase and carry it to a coffeeshop someday, but I suspect I’ll be getting a cheap ultralight instead.

from Boing Boing Finds 21st Century Trotsky? | MetaFilter

Tribe trumps truth.
posted by euphorb at 9:41 AM on July 2 [2 favorites]

It’s great. I’d like to give credit where it’s due.

Also, I am never going to delete a link post again, ever, ever, ever.

later: corrected “link” above. Keeping an honest log is a pain, but not a great one.

I’ve been in the habit of deleting old blog posts that seemed especially irrelevant. I won’t do that anymore. It’s my lesson from That Violet Blue thing - Boing Boing. I think the Boingers failed to realize that a commercial site should have higher standards of behavior than a fan site, so I hope they’ll apologize for their decision soon.