Thread Heads

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Here’s a great idea: fight consumerism by encouraging people to treat recycled clothing as raw materials. It has enviromental implications too. The shirt is ugly, but the dresses are cool. The coffee-stained blue jeans are really great.

It’s hard to figure out all of the players, but these folks turn out to be part of a network of like minded people. NikiShell seems to be at the heart of it, but there is also the Threadbanger site too. Witty and fun and naive and good-hearted in the way punk was funny and good-hearted and naive.

Posted in: Economics, Online Places, Uncategorized, Writing

Blackwater

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About Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army

It was the moment the war turned: On March 31, 2004, four Americans were ambushed and burned near their jeeps by an angry mob in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah. Their charred corpses were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. The ensuing slaughter by U.S. troops would fuel the fierce Iraqi resistance that haunts occupation forces to this day. But these men were neither American military nor civilians. They were highly trained private soldiers sent to Iraq by a secretive mercenary company based in the wilderness of North Carolina.

from a Post on Veterans Today

MISSION

To support national and international security policies that protect those who are defenseless and provide a free voice for all with a dedication to providing ethical, efficient, and effective turnkey solutions that positively impact the lives of those still caught in desperate times.

Blackwater is committed to the foot soldiers — the men and women who stand on the frontlines of the global war on terror and who believe in a peaceful future for their communities and nations. Whether serving in or out of uniform, Blackwater is committed to providing these men and women with the very best in training and tactical support to ensure they are fully prepared to meet current and future global security challenges.

from Blackwater’s Website

“And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it.”— [Bush] Speaking on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

from Slate’s The Complete Bushsms

Orwell had nothing on George Bush’s America. We have the topsy-turvey language, of course, where the Clear Sky Act is in fact an attack on the environment, and behind the President’s vow to never use torture is a memo justifying torture.

That was just the start. Bush and company (and I really mean company) have built a private army to help fight their war. You would think this would be top-secret, or that if this army were exposed, which has nearly as many people in Iraq as the U.S. Military, it would be an enormous scandal. Nope.

The mercenary army is called Blackwater, and it bills itself as “the most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world.” They are not shy.

There’s a bestseller that has “exposed” Blackwater, although it wasn’t really hidden. And Blackwater has pro shop where you can buy hats and t-shirts. You can’t make this stuff up. If you’re thinking of starting your Christmas shopping now, I would love a manly watch.

Posted in: Economics, Miscellaneous, Online Places, War, Writing

SpinZone

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bill O’Reilly may proclaim at the beginning of his program that viewers are entering the “No Spin Zone,” but a new study by Indiana University media researchers found that the Fox News personality consistently paints certain people and groups as villains and others as victims to present the world, as he sees it, through political rhetoric.

from an Indiana University Press Release, May 2

This ought to be really obvious, but it is interesting to see demagoguery fought with simple fact. Or maybe this is just childishness fought by adults. In any case, the researchers also made a useful list of O’Reilly’s techniques, including what they call his “seven propaganda devices”:

* Name calling — giving something a bad label to make the audience reject it without examining the evidence;
* Glittering generalities — the opposite of name calling;
* Card stacking — the selective use of facts and half-truths;
* Bandwagon — appeals to the desire, common to most of us, to follow the crowd;
* Plain folks — an attempt to convince an audience that they, and their ideas, are “of the people”;
* Transfer — carries over the authority, sanction and prestige of something we respect or dispute to something the speaker would want us to accept; and
* Testimonials — involving a respected (or disrespected) person endorsing or rejecting an idea or person.

Again, not surprisingly, the researchers note that these were common practices during the 1930s, evoking Father Charles Coughlin particularly, the anti-New Deal and pro fascist priest. Coughlin was instrumental in stunting U.S. governmental support for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which unsuccessfully tried to help democratic forces defeat Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War was the first battle against European fascism; its been argued that if Franco had been defeated in Spain, the worst of the Second World War could have been avoided. Amy Goodman writes about the Spanish Civil War and the Brigade, here; the Brigade was recently honored at a recent Museum of the City of New York exhibit “Facing Fascism.”

What I find fascinating is how the very same sorts of rhetoric, focused on fear and xenophobia, could be used in such different historical times. Or, perhaps we are not so different. Fear is always useful in domestic politics.

Posted in: Economics, Union, War, Writing