"Socially dangerous behavior"

Here's an interesting story of an artist - Artem Loskutov - the Russian government is afraid of. The blog describes other recent clashes between artists and police there. On June 10 Artem was released until trial.

The interesting thing is not really that these particular events have happened (it's been the same story for thousands of years), but that once again young artists are openly challenging the controlling regime (and its police force) in Russia. Governments always get nervous about people who can generate a mob in the street no matter the reason. "Socially dangerous" means you can change people's minds.

Spreading the news of their struggle is essential to keeping artists safe when they embark on such dangerous missions as these. Oppression works best when it's a well-known secret rather than when it's embarrassing international news. Artists inside Russia are at more risk, so artists outside Russia should support them in their efforts.

Rockstar energy drinks - just say no

Fake StayHigh149 tries again

As I posted last year, with TATS Cru, there's a fake StayHigh149 online, apparently now on MySpace.

Lately, he's been dropping my name and the names of prominent writers in NYC, trying to get other writers to endorse him and his website, events, and so on. Don't be fooled. It's a pack of lies. If you get email from "StayHigh149" you can be sure it's fake.

It is ridiculous that someone would try to pull this off, but I guess some people will do anything to try to steal someone else's fame.

The real StayHigh149 is black, and he still lives in NYC as far as anyone knows.

Creating fake graffiti with Photoshop

Be on the lookout for digital biting and posing.

UK-Protesters denounce jail sentences for graffiti writers

Tragically, a young man hanged himself in jail after being sentenced to a cruel and unusual 30 months for writing on trains.

Saturday 14th February 2009

A PROTEST calling for an end to custodial sentencing for non-violent graffiti offenders took place outside the Royal Courts of Justice today.

Around 50 people turned out in central London to demonstrate against sending graffiti offenders to prison.

Last Saturday 23-year-old graffiti artist Tom Collister from Penge hanged himself in jail.

He had belonged to a gang which carried out a two-year campaign of vandalism on trains and stations around south London.

Collister was serving a 30-month sentence after admitting conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

A cautionary tale about Facebook, porn, extortion and punishment

Teenage guy poses as a girl online, collects nude photos of dozens of male, underage classmates. He blackmails some of them into having sex with him. Police bust him for a bomb threat and find his photos, etc. Sounds simple at first: he's up against nearly 300 years in jail, case closed, right? Wrong.

It will be awhile before we know how many of these victimized teens end up being prosecuted too. Clearly there's one bad guy and lots of victims, but the law is not completely on the victims' side, unfortunately.

The number of teens being prosecuted as sex offenders for trading nude photos of themselves with other kids is skyrocketing. In a better world, the law would discriminate between a little skin among friends and child porn, but it doesn't yet. Some teens have even been prosecuted for statutory rape for simply having consensual sex with their teen friends. Peeing in public is even a sex offense now. We're deep in Crazy Land here.

Sex offender penalties are awful and they are apparently forever, so if you have any photos of the naughty bits belonging to you or your friends, do yourself a big favor and delete them before they ruin your life. And ... of course ... never send racy photos of yourself to anybody. Never. Your friends today could be your enemies tomorrow, and photos on the Internet never die. Ever.

Plus you won't have encrypted them, so the NSA and all the sysadmins at your ISP and at school and at work will all have a chance to scoop your photos up in transit. Gmail and other webmail systems will save them (possibly forever). And as always, lots of the apparently teenage girls you may meet online are actually boys, sex offenders or FBI agents, so it really pays to be paranoid.

UPDATE: More insanity from Australia-Girl gets 3 months in jail for first offense

UPDATE: Her sentence was reduced on appeal so she won't go to jail. Finally some common sense is applied

---

Previously:
She wrote her name on a cafe wall with a marker. The cafe wants $200 AUD for restitution. And yet somehow this resulted in a 3-month jail sentence for Cheyene Back, a first offender. This cruel and unusual punishment, way out of proportion to the crime, is counterproductive in terms of social outcomes -- and not what one would expect from a civilized country. Did she even have a lawyer?

Amtrak photo contestant arrested by Amtrak police in NYC

The linked article shows what idiots some train company police can be (arresting a photographer during an Amtrak photo contest and then lying about why), but nonetheless it's legal to take photos in public places in the US unless a sign prohibits it.

If you actually resist arrest, though, train security might shoot you dead, like a BART officer in Oakland did to Oscar Grant, just days ago. Oscar was not taking photos, but there too, the train police confiscated cameras and phones from witnesses after one of the cops killed Oscar. Some youtube footage is surfacing anyway, because so many people witnessed the killing.

The right to take photos is one we must all continue to fight to keep, but take that fight to the courtroom for your own safety, and to benefit everyone.

President-elect Obama's first YouTube address

It's a new day in American leadership, and what a difference. Let's hope Congress gets behind him and that his economic interventions work.

Of course, the idiots are freaking out too. So now is the time to step up our intolerance for hate speech and racist attitudes. It's not something we just have to put up with, it's a tiny cowardly minority with big mouths.

Anarchists raise $1000 for MFone defense in PA

The state claims [MFone] caused over $600,000 in damage in a years-long stretch of writing. We know this ridiculous claim was made to demonize Danny and further the career of certain politicians like city councilman Bill Peduto (the fake hipster). We intend to work hard to make sure that Danny gets an appeal and is out of prison as soon as possible. We also want to stand in solidarity with all graffiti writers and other marginalized people in our city and all over the world. We want a world where the sanctity of property is not more important than the life of a young artist.

-Greater Pittsburgh Anarchist Collective
Member of the Anti-Racist Action Network
GPAC412 AT gmail.com

For more information on the case of Daniel Montano visit FREEMFONE.org

"In our city, a neo-nazi who killed an unarmed woman served less time than a young man is presently facing for a graffiti conviction."

MFone is currently serving a 2.5 to 5 year sentence after the media made him out to be public enemy number one in Pennsylvania.

Afghan Journalist Receives 20-Year Prison Term for Blasphemy

... which is only good because before they were going to kill him for it.

"Journalist [Perwez Kambakhsh] distributed an [Iranian] Internet article criticizing the Prophet Mohammed's views on women."

If you can't criticize your religion or ask questions about it, you're already in prison.

Voting for religious fanatics is also a terrible idea. Just say no to mixing Church and State. No telling what they might make illegal next.

Let's hope he gets a real appeal or a BBC airlift.

Whales and polar bears are bad for the economy: Palin

We can't drill our way out of any crisis.

Oh for some reality-based government.

Toronto gallery show closes after local writers complain

This is the second time I know of that something like this has happened. The most recent other example was the 2007 Tattooed Walls show in NYC, where very similar stuff went on. In that case it cost the photographer his book as well.

In this case, the photographer was selling photos of writers' pieces for an outrageous sum: CAN$2800, but she did not acknowledge that the artists had rights to their work or indeed to any of the money. They were also not properly credited.

Understandably, the writers felt disrespected and ripped off. In fact they were, and further, this sounds like a clear-cut case of copyright violation, particularly if the photography was quite documentary in nature. Idiotically, the photographer took the attitude that she was doing the writers a favor. Just as stupidly, the gallery let this all happen.

What if writers had printed copies of her photos and sold those for thousands of dollars - to do her a favor of course - without bothering to mention her name? Right.

It's unfortunate when graffiti art shows (or books) go down in flames, but in cases like this, it's the only right thing to do. Some photographers assume they can do what they like with graffiti photos because they think the artists can't defend their work or that they are not going to notice. Others arrogantly assume that their photos are legitimate art and the paintings are not. Nothing could be further from the truth. Graffiti writers win copyright cases all the time. They also tend to play nice with non-predatory, respectful photographers and galleries.

TATS Cru sues over mural removal in NYC

Another shameful moment for Rev. Al Sharpton.

Only unpopular speech needs free-speech protections. This legally done mural on private property was censored by people who didn't agree with it. And that's just not the way we do things in the USA.

The "Stop Snitchin'" mural, painted on the side of an East Harlem bodega with the permission of the building's owner in 2006, featured a rat with a noose around its neck and the phrase that police say has left many of the city's crimes unsolved.

In July, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Rev. Al Sharpton and others painted over the mural and invited the media to watch, charging that the mural hampers the justice system and promotes violence.

The Hunts Point-based Tats Cru, which has turned its street graffiti into a worldwide commercial enterprise, says the city's action has violated its right to free speech.

Stacey Richman, the group's lawyer, says city officials violated federal defamation and slander laws by painting over the mural.
"If you or I or anyone else did this, we would be arrested for criminal mischief," Richman said. "It was not about endorsing a negative connotation. It was about getting discussion going."

The mural destruction mob claimed the owner said they could erase it. TATS representatives say the owner was threatened with fines if he did not agree. Perhaps they will get another demonstration of the Streisand Effect for their trouble.

Houston writer who was wrongfully arrested wins lawsuit!

"Article" was arrested for allegedly resisting arrest (WTF?) while painting during a legal workshop he was giving at an arts festival, in 2006. He stood up for his rights and finally won the case against the city of Houston, Texas. He and his lawyer will get nearly $20,000 in the settlement.

New Orleans' Insane Anti-Graffiti Law

Interesting article in general, with lots of pictures ... Near the end it reveals this:

"In the recently ended session of the Legislature, state Rep. Anthony Ligi of Metairie successfully sponsored a bill that skyrockets the penalties for graffiti. Currently the maximum fine in New Orleans is $500, plus community service, restitution and a possible six months in jail. Beginning Aug. 15, the maximum fine increases to $10,000 with a prison term of up to 10 years. Ligi, a lawyer and real estate title insurance agent, said he believes that Louisiana judges will be able to apply looser local penalties or the more stringent state penalties as they see fit.

"If it's a kid who's written his girlfriend's name on a wall, a judge will see it one way," Ligi said. "If it's somebody who's marked up an office wall and done thousands (of dollars) in damage, it gives the judge more options."

So not only do they have a stupid law, but they plan to enforce it selectively depending on who does it and what's written? That sounds like poor, minority kids going to jail, as usual in the South. I hope some heroic lawyer and judge step up to strike this for the cruel and unusual - and potentially racist - punishment that it is. New Orleans needs community service and community art, not more young people in jail for nonviolent property crimes.

When will the government in Louisiana get a clue and join the civilized world? This is the same state that recently decided to teach wishful thinking instead of science.

Barack Obama - Fight the Smears website

I'm not sure Mr Obama has the will to make a real difference in the USA, but IMO he's clearly the better man in the race.

I am sure though, that the smear and fear campaigns of the desperate right wing will continue. These will continue to be race, sex, religion and integrity related LIES, circulated in the media, especially in email and talk radio.

Check out the latest lies at this website. Refuse to pass them on. Condemn the racism and the smear tactics and the media personalities and corporations that use them.

If your enemies have to make up lies to condemn you with, that's probably a good sign, as irritating as it is to watch. Too bad we could not even invent lies as outrageous and unbelievable as the truth about the current administration's actions and policies.

Politics is annoying, but we need to spread the truth and condemn the lies, no matter what our policy beliefs are.

Impeach Bush & Cheney

Go Dennis Kucinich!

So many Americans wish the cowardly Congress would hold the Administration accountable. More than 85% are unhappy with the government's course. (And yet so many support McCain even though he represents more, more of the same, WTF?)

Is the $23 billion that disappeared into war profiteers' pockets with no accountability in Iraq on the list? (Go BBC).

"In the run-up to the invasion, one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth $7bn that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president. Unusually only Halliburton got to bid - and won."

So many Americans wish the cowardly US media would hold the Administration accountable. But instead, the bloggers have to cover this story.

Too bad the Supreme Court's been diluted with blind justices... 

So who's minding the fort? 

Go Dennis! 

I mean ... Go Obama!

*sigh*

Washington, Jun 10 - Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio
In the United States House of Representatives
Monday, June 9th, 2008
A Resolution

INDEX

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of H. J. Res114.

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor.

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes.

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq.

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources.

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries.

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq.

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors.

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives.

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy.

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture.

Article XX
Imprisoning Children.

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government.

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws.

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment.

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens.

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements.

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply.

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice.

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare.

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency.

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change.

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001.

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders.

Toronto declares legal mural not art, must go

This is absurd. If graffiti is defined as illegal marking, then legally done artwork is the obvious alternative. There's always so much shouting about permission (or purchase) being the salient difference. A commissioned mural is just that.

To instead censor work based on an aesthetic, a tool, lettering content, or (dare we say it) ethnicity or socio-economic status of the artists (real or imagined) is so Dark Ages.

Luckily, you can comment about this at the Toronto Sun (comment form is hidden under the talk back image).

Website selling freight photos is violating writers' copyrights

This isn't the first idiot selling artwork that doesn't belong to him online, and he probably won't be the last. It's amazing though that people doing this crap are so ignorant about copyright law. You'd think they would worry, since it's so expensive to violate.

Please take a moment to write and educate him. Ask your lawyer to send a cease and desist letter if your work is being exploited without your permission (to help protect your identity and your rights). If dude sells your artwork, he owes you 100% of the money for violating your copyright, at a minimum. Any lawyer for the arts can take care of this for you.

Given how seriously copyright is being prosecuted these days, it should be easy to have his hosting company boot him for this as well, if the cease and desist doesn't work immediately.

Copyright happens the moment an artist creates something. It is not something you have to apply for and it's not something that disappears because of the legal status of the work.

copyright.gov

What if one of the world's most famous violinists busked in the subway?

This will come as no surprise to you, but maybe it will be some comfort.

Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bell had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely pretty good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so respectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence between movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just another mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work.

Once a woman said to me, "This isn't art. Art is what I buy and hang in my living room."

Pathetic.

Daze from Scotland, sentenced to 28 months: protest campaign

http://www.freedaze.co.uk

Shoot-self-in-foot public policy strikes again. The stupidest thing is that those who are arguing that the sentence fits the crime are up in arms about the damage amount claims. If they weren't idiots, they'd be arguing for restitution, not tax-paid incarceration, which likely will end up costing them more than the damage amount.

Scotland should let him go to school as planned. Education is more reformative than prison and it leads to more tax paying citizens.

Now if we could just get the US to wake up, where more than 2 million people are in prison, many for nonviolent offenses...

California teen killed for being gay

Another way that fear destroys us.

UPDATE - Petition: Afghan man sentenced to death for downloading an article about Islam and the treatment of women

UPDATE: Apparently there's an ulterior motive in having Sayed arrested and perhaps a reason to be optimistic about his fate as well according to NPR

-

See the link for a synopsis of the case and a petition you can sign. It's hard to know if public disapproval can sway foreign officials, but it's worth a try when someone's life hangs in the balance.

The document he allegedly downloaded was from Iran and about Islamic thought. Makes you wonder what they would do to people who read Western secular documents.

When a country's belief system is so shaky that authorities have to kill or imprison people for thinking outside the book, its days are numbered. Suppression leads directly to keen interest in forbidden ideas. Let's hope 23-year-old Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh and the brave women of Afghanistan survive this shameful period of their country's history, and that it passes quickly into the books itself.

Anonymous vs Scientology

Vigilante hacking crew goes after dangerous cult: awesome manifestos on YouTube. Plotting continues at Project Chanology.

Japanese taste for whales

Australia threatened to attack ships hunting humpback whales. Japan apparently backed down. Japan will try to bag 1000 other whales for "scientific research" -- but this is a shameful lie. The truth is that the Japanese EAT whales (as apparently do some northern European peoples and Native American tribes).

In order for whale species to survive, individuals in whale-eating cultures must reduce demand. Hunting traditions that thrived when the oceans were full of creatures must adapt to the present reality or those precious traditions will die with their prey. All fish populations are under extreme survival pressure because of human activities, but the large ocean mammals may be the first to go if we don't use our big mammal brains now.

Yay for Australia! Let's save the leviathans who sing under the waters.

(Related tip for China and Japan: Viagra, not powdered endangered species!)

Those other writers and their beef -- let's hear it for the WGA

If online content is worth arresting grannies over, the corporations need to pay the people who create the material. Otherwise, it's all youtube.

Martin Lee Anderson's killers go free

This is insanely wrong. I hope there's an appeal, quickly. The people who beat Martin to death should go directly to jail, all of them. And their pet doctors too. The worst irony is that if his parents had beaten him themselves instead of paying someone else to do it, the parents would go to jail.

Just say no to booting out your children.

Flee children, flee.

Martin Anderson, RIP.

(updated) 6 years in prison for gang graffiti? California town loses its mind.

"A Santa Paula man spray-painted gang graffiti on a large wooden sign at the entrance to Marina Park in Ventura nearly two years ago, a jury was told Thursday in a case that could send the defendant to prison for up to six years.

"Sergio Martin ... 22, faces prison if found guilty of two felony charges - committing vandalism that caused more than $400 worth of damage, and possessing tools to commit graffiti, according to his lawyer, Rod Kodman. The damage to the sign totaled $523."

I hope that cooler heads prevail in court, because this is a clear threat of cruel and unusual punishment and it sure smells like racism. Punishing the demographic instead of the behavior is unAmerican. As a society, we can't afford it because it's blatantly unjust.

I'm no fan of gang graffiti, but punishing any type of painting activity with 6 years in prison on felonies is ridiculous. This guy didn't even do $1000 worth of damage (if he's even guilty) and he's only 22 years old. A more practical thing for a sane society to do would be to put him to work in community service of some kind. Imprisoning young people only creates career criminals and a permanent underclass.

Plus possession of tools to create graffiti has been interpreted in California as applying even to things like rocks and pencils. It's just a bogus add-on of convenience. Graffiti tools are not like burglary tools, they are art supplies. California needs a smarter government, and soon.

UPDATE: Sept 1: Jury would not convict Martin, so it's declared a mistrial. This is the second time he's been tried on this and had a mistrial. I feel better now.

The jury did its job after all and refused to give an excessive sentence to someone charged on iffy evidence. Luckily for Martin his jury was not made up of the howling crowd of commenters, many of whom are still out for blood for some reason. It's crazy, because $523 worth of damage, by definition, can be cured for $523. Why would anyone want to pay $30,000 x 6 years to warehouse this guy instead?

(update) Young men jailed in UK for painting trains, citizens are outraged

UPDATE:

The judges at the Court of Appeal decided each should receive a two-year conditional discharge. They have served two months of their original sentences.

Their prison sentences prompted protests by their parents and a petition on the social networking website Facebook.

Five-year Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) were also quashed by Mr Justice Grigson sitting with Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Aikens in London. They said the Asbos were "inappropriate" because the graffiti was not threatening or offensive.

The "positive features" in their cases should also have persuaded the original trial judge a community sentence was the appropriate punishment, said Mr Justice Grigson.

Mers (18) and Krek (20) got thrown in jail (in a police station, since the prisons are full) in Manchester England. Their sentences are 12 and 15 months.

You can see in the [original] article comments that reasonable adults in the area think these sentences are ridiculously harsh. And no wonder. It doesn't make any sense to put kids in jail for nonviolent offenses. Not for the kids and not for the society. At least one of these guys is a first offender also.

But in any country, it's easiest to jail people who can't afford good legal help and to let rich celebrities and white-collar criminals who actually endanger other people's lives go free after token jail visits. Blind justice indeed. We need to reform the stupid policies that result in such society-harming results.

I hope the UK citizens will continue to condemn this sort of destructive sentencing and work to free these kids. Nonviolent first offenders need to be sent to school and to work, not to jail. Otherwise, England risks becoming a prison state like the USA, where more than 2 million people are in prison, a large proportion of which are in for nonviolent and victimless offenses such as drug possession.

Fotolog is kicking a lot of writers out

I've noticed a lot of forcibly closed Fotolog accounts lately. One writer had a (tasteful) painting of a nude, but it doesn't seem to be all about T&A. If you have a Fotolog you might want to gather up your material and move to a more friendly service before they get around to you.

Finally some good news about seed patents

Monsanto has had 4 patents rejected, finally.

This is excellent news, because their patents were putting honest traditional farmers out of business and creating new dependencies and weaknesses that threatened the world food supply.

Before Monsanto tried to own all the food we eat, all farmers saved and traded their seeds, but Monsanto tried to make them buy and plant sterile seeds, so they would have to buy seeds every year. Some farmers can't afford to buy seeds every year, and many didn't understand that free sample seed would lead to them going out of business before it was too late.

Other farmers were vigorously and cruelly sued out of business when Monsanto's genetically modified crops pollenated their fields accidentally via the wind.

GMO contaminated crops could not be exported to some other countries, ruining the farmers' ability to sell their crops.

Monsanto's farming practices also lead to dangerous mono-cultures, where only one genetic strain of corn or wheat, etc., is planted in most plots, paving the way for killer diseases to wipe out a whole year's crop at once.

Profit today, while the world starves tomorrow. Brilliant.

The article talks about US farmers, but Canadian farmers were also hurt, and the most damage was likely done in India, Africa and poorer countries. I sure hope this patent rejection has a positive effect on the worldwide Monsanto problem. What we need is some unbought politicians to make some better laws around patenting food crops and the GMO contamination of traditional foodstocks. Mexico's traditional maize crop's genetic heritage is now under serious threat from the GMO cross pollination.

Related food facts here:

Future of Food documentary (Bittorrent)
Harvest of Fear (PBS documentary)

More info: Google search for Monsano Terminator

Homer brandishes his donut at The Giant

It's an ad, it's a cartoon, it's disrespectful to pagans, and it smacks of payola. Luckily it's water soluble. Does this mean pagans will declare jihad on Matt Groening? Film at 11.

Problem: Dangerous Chinese Food - Solution: Stop Buying It

From dead pets to poisonous toothpaste, the horror stories of deadly Chinese imports continue to pile up. People are furious, business looks the other way, Congress wrings its hands, FDA says it's not really their job, and Wal-Mart plays into Chinese corruption by working against inspections.

The only really effective thing we can do is to buy something else until China -- and Wal-Mart -- care about the problem. China has unhelpfully decided to kill the guy at the head of their food inspection and quality organization for taking bribes, but that's just barbaric political scapegoating. It will take an army of inspectors who care on both sides of the ocean to stop this blatant profiteering from unsafe foodstuffs. Meanwhile Wal-Mart tries to diguise its products' origins.

"As the world?s largest retailer, it distributes massive quantities of imported goods. Wal-Mart should use its significant clout with China and other importers to demand higher quality standards and more product testing. On the home front, Wal-Mart should stop fighting additional inspections and country-of-origin labeling, which would allow customers to know whether they are buying beef from Iowa or China. Wal-Mart should also consider returning to its abandoned 'Buy American' campaign and support U.S. manufacturers and local farmers rather than shifting jobs and purchases overseas."

"... American consumers we can use our purchasing power to influence how business responds to the challenge. Without assurances that imported goods are subject to rigorous inspections to ensure their safety, we can opt to buy locally grown and American-made products when we shop for groceries and other items each week. We can also decide that if we don?t know where a product comes from, maybe we don?t need it. Purchasing in such a manner not only supports local farmers and U.S. manufacturers, it protects consumers. It also provides the opportunity to strengthen our farm economy while protecting our food supply."

Someone should clue the Department of Homeland Security that weapons of mass destruction could be in those containers they don't inspect from China: E. coli, botulism, and lysteria, for starters. Instead, we have phone taps and shampoo confiscation, go figure. Let's bring the National Guard home from Iraq and put them back on the job, hmm? We could pay for it with the money that's now going to Blackwater and black-hole budgets.

14 days to save Internet radio -- Raise hell or lose it

Problem in a nutshell: Internet radio is mostly done by people like you and me, with very limited $$ and a love for music. These DJs provide most of the public musical diversity now that big corporations own most of the analog radio stations. The music industry, now famous for shooting itself in the foot, wants to raise the fees on internet radio, which will put many, if not most of them, out of business immediately. Fees are retroactive. The day the music could die is May 15 because that's the day of the vote on H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act, which was introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL ) to save the Internet radio industry.

What to do: call and write your congresscritters and tell them to support this bill.

If you are a musician, it is even more important for you to write now, if you want to save this outlet for your own business and creative interests, because both sides of the issue argue they are doing this for you.

A summary of the problem is at the link above, and there are links near the bottom of that page for writing and calling info. Here's the main site, to send your letter from:

savenetradio.org

Idiots eradicate another Banksy in London

Graffiti removal is even more expensive when masterpieces that draw international tourists are wiped away. Smart money would have replaced the surface and taken the artwork to auction. The cleaning people wouldn't have had to work again if they'd preserved it instead.

Australian Pratt vandalizes mural, refuses to pay for it

Here's another story that points out how this zealous, self-aggrandizing defacement of a graffiti art commissioned mural was actually vandalism. And of course, vandalism is NOT ABOUT WHO DOES IT, right? Rich white guys? Government grandstanders?

If the graffiti argument is *really* about legal placement vs illegal defacement, this guy should be charged -- just like he so badly wants to charge the people he doesn't like for doing the same thing.

Think, people, think.

"The original picture allegedly removed by Mr Pratt who is the Deputy Speaker of the ACT Assembly was painted by a local graffiti artist affectionately known as "Dan the man" and featured a man playing disc or frisbee golf.

"They want me to replace it, I'm not going to," Mr Pratt said. Disc ACT secretary Greg Sparksman said the club was extremely annoyed by Mr Pratt's actions and his unwillingness to apologise.

"We believed he vandalised our legal artwork of disc golf," Mr Sparksman said.

"He didn't apologise we have asked for $3000 and an apology and he's not prepared to do it."

Writers demonstrated, calling for him to be punished alike.

Massacre Monkeys

There's something deeply wrong when each tragedy competes with every other to be the most, the worst. Everyone seems to want to be on any top 10 list, to get on TV. News helicopters circle like vultures. Disasterporn and competition for the prizes no one should want are sick monkey habits we need to break.

Speaking of sick monkey doings ... killing people you don't even know is so lame. And how dumb is it to kill people we love? The whole notion of killing a woman so nobody else can have her is offensive. Is she your stolen property? Your escaping slave? Please. If a relationship isn't working, walk away. Life is too short to fight about it. If you feel the need to confine or spy on your partner, the relationship is already over. Trade up. Each breakup is an opportunity to have a better relationship next time. Captivity is a cage for two.

Also, let's stop treating fear and anxiety as diseases we should take drugs for. Life is scary. Be brave. Offer aid and comfort to others. Expressing emotions with weapons, spewing hate, and surrounding ourselves with nice safe police states and pain killers are all symptoms of unbridled fear and lack of self-control.

Today's murdering coward at Virginia Tech, although responsible for his own idiotic decisions, is also a symptom of our collective sick monkey condition. It takes a better kind of human to face life with open hands, mind, and heart.

Every single death is someone's heartbreak. I grieve with and for us all today.

The New york graffiti war (wtf?)

"...as the works of popular public artists rise in value, so do the neighbourhoods around them. The work of popular street artists, inadvertently or not, spurs processes of gentrification and urban renewal. In New York, the majority of chosen works have been in the Lower East Side, a neighbourhood akin to Montreal?s Plateau, where trendy bars, vintage clothing shops, and small boutiques reign. The street art is used as a selling point, helping to reconstruct the image of the neighbourhood into one of bohemian charm, art, and culture."

Who would have thought that people would drop the broken windows litany and start kvetching that unauthorized painting causes property values to rise? Or maybe it's only stickers and stencils that are good? So ... a balance of graffiti with the street art would maintain equilibrium? I'm having trouble following the logic, if any. Except, of course, someone with little going for them but no-style splashing and a manifesto has somehow gotten fame (again). Now that I do get.

It makes you wonder, though, whether graffiti and property value are actually related at all.

If so, I guess the vigilante has the situation well in hand. Buy the local art and your neighborhood value goes up. Destroy the local art and your neighborhood remains ugly but cheap for the art-destroyers.

Maybe we should just aim for one nice, even coating of outdoor art in all our neighborhoods and stop this game now.

Idiots paint on petroglyphs

Painting on rocks is so stupid anyway, but to mess up an irreplaceable, ancient, Native American sacred site ... those kids are too dumb to be allowed in college.

Gallery owner beaten for showing political art - Russia

According to the Moscow Times (!):

"Ultranationalists donning heavy boots and knit caps stormed one of the city's best known art galleries Saturday, beating owner Marat Gelman and destroying paintings by the Georgian-born artist Alexander Dzhikia.

[...]

"On Sunday, Gelman dismissed the suggestion that there might be a tie between Saturday's attack and the Friday detention of the artworks at Sheremetyevo-2 airport heading from his gallery.

Matthew Bown of the Matthew Bown Gallery in London was transporting the 11 pieces of art from the Guelman Gallery for a London show when he was ordered off his plane and questioned by police at the airport, the gallery said in a statement posted on its web site.

Officials confiscated the artwork, telling Bown he had been detained because several of the pieces "contain representations of heads of state," the gallery statement said." [Brown was allowed to leave Russia later, but without the paintings.]

Gelman is up on charges as well, because (from the TimesOnline.co.uk)

"His gallery was visited on Friday by Customs officials, who confiscated caricatures on display of President Putin, President Bush and Osama bin Laden. The works were due to be exhibited in London.

One photo collage showed the three men lying together on a couch wearing only boxer shorts and socks. Mr Guelman said that officials had told him that they were considering a criminal prosecution for insulting the President of Russia."

[Kind of makes your hair stand on end, doesn't it? They are threatening to arrest the gallery owner beause of someone else's dangerous paintings. Paintings were killed by ultranationalists! Wherever ideas are illegal, they become extremely important. Be very happy if your country lets you paint or talk about whatever you want -- it's a right we all have to fight in order to get or to keep. - Susan ]

$c13nt0logy exposé movie, free online

Download it because you can. 1 hr playing time, several formats and sizes.

$c13nt0l0g

Oh, and free online South Park episode just banned in the UK is too funny.