autonomous alternatives to the statist quo in English
I arrived in Olympia at precisely 11:20 on New Years Eve of 2003. I had spent the day going from Austin to Denver to Portland and then up to Seattle because of a stolen wallet that stranded me in Texas.
Just a quick thought…
The Futian People’s Court in Shenzhen, China, handed down sentences to 11 ringleaders of the world’s largest software counterfeiting syndicate today.
The pirates were responsible for manufacturing and distributing more than an estimated $2 billion (£1.4 billion) worth of ‘high-quality’ counterfeit Microsoft software.
Their sentences, which ranged from a year and a half to 6.5 years, are the longest ever handed down for intellectual property crimes in China.
…on behalf of American corporations, mind you.
First, consider that Chinese courts are handing down rulings at the behest of an American corporation. Then consider that the common argument in favor of the state is that some organization needs to have a monopoly on the use of force in a given geographical location.
Excuse me while I attempt to shake this overwhelming sense of irony. Fill in why.
Post about "Night of the Iguana" by Tennessee Williams and John Huston, post about "Boudou Saved from Drowning" by Jean Renoir. Night of the Iguana. Can't get much better than this. From a play written by Tennessee Williams, directed and co-adapted by John Huston, and starring Richard Burton. About a disgraced (but not defrocked) Episcopalian Minister who winds up directing tours of church
The connection between the rulership of Napoleon and 20th century Fascist movements featuring the adulation of a strong, single, dictator.
1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! 'Cause people often talk about being scared of change/But for me I'm more afraid of things staying the same/'Cause the game is never won/By standing in any one place for too longStandout tracks: Jesus Of The Moon, Moonland, We Call Upon The AuthorSoundtrack for: almost everything I thought or felt in 20082. Portishead - ThirdI'm worn, tired of
Chabad-style Chanukah menorah atop the Agriprocessors facility in Postville, Iowa
When New Voices magazine published its recent issue excoriating the Chabad Lubavitch movement for its regressive practices, some critics said it was inappropriate and unfair of the publishers to hold the renown hasidic sect responsible for the Agriprocessors scandal. Many in the Chabad community claimed — as one friend of mine did in a recent conversation about the unrighteous behavior of a fellow Chabad hasid — that “when an individual acts as an individual, there seems to be little reason to mention their lineage or affiliation.”
Chabad’s defenders can no longer advance this argument, however, whereas yesterday JTA reported that a group of top Chabad officials have started a legal defense committee to aid the Rubashkin family which owns and operates the Agriprocessors facility.
In explaining the rationale behind the creation of the committee, Rabbi Shea Hecht told JTA:
We are a group of guys who, No. 1, are looking to help Rubashkin get out on bail, and No. 2, to voice our concern because we believe that much of this attack is not just an attack on the Rubashkin family and Agriprocessors, but it’s really an attack on kosher food. And it’s questionable if it’s one step beyond that — an attack on Jews.
By making this statement Hecht is claiming — not only on behalf of Chabad, but as a spokesman for a preeminent American Jewish institution, on behalf of all American Jews — that Sholom Rubashkin’s arrest has nothing to do with his culpability for employing hundreds of illegal laborers, violating their rights as employees, running an identity theft mill and engaging in bank fraud, among the other charges for which he has been indicted. Rather, it has to do with the fact that the goyishe government and people of the United States secretly hate Jews and wish to persecute them for their religious practices.
This line of argument, which has also been advanced directly by the Rubashkins and their supporters, reminds me of the ultra-Orthodox community’s response to the Summer 2006 arrest of Yisrael Wallis, the then-19 year-old yeshiva student who murdered his three month-old infant by throwing him against a wall.
Immediately following Wallis’ apprehension, three of Israel’s most revered rabbinic authorities, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Shmuel Auerbach and Chaim Kniyevski, issued a statement condemning the arrest, calling it a “blood libel” and thus inferring that the secular State of Israel was engaged in an antisemitic attack on the religious Jewish community.
Many ultra-Orthodox Israelis proclaimed the entire incident was a plot by the secular Zionist government to negatively portray their community and rioted in the streets of Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, threatening to “make Jerusalem burn” if Wallis was not released forthright.
Others, like the American Jewish authors of the Agudath Israel-connected blog Cross-Currents, offered various arguments in Wallis’ defense and countless protestations at the media’s portrayal of Wallis as a cold-blooded killer, even after his confession.
Wallis has since been found guilty of manslaughter (a reduced charge likely intended to stave off further rioting, like O.J. Simpson’s 1995 acquittal) and sentenced to six years in prison.
Clearly the response of the ultra-Orthodox community to Wallis’ arrest was reprehensible, outrageous and entirely disconnected from reality. Any honest person would readily agree that the prosecution of a child killer who happens to be haredi is not, in itself, an indictment of ultra-Orthodoxy, Judaism nor the Jewish people. As such, I find arguments like Hecht’s not only insulting to my intelligence, but insulting to me as an American and as a Jew.
America is the only place in the world outside of Israel where Jews have attained such a level of freedom, security and prominence that we are considered an inextricable element within the fabric of the society. To denigrate this nation as antisemitic (particularly as Chabad hypocritically coddles the antisemites on the Evangelical Right) is a grave insult to non-Jewish Americans, who have lavished tolerance and acceptance upon us and invested mightily in our State of Israel. It is also a violation of Agudas Chassidei Chabad’s own articles of incorporation, which advocate an “appreciation of and adherence to the spirit of Americanism and Democracy.”
Worse yet, this dilution of the meaning of antisemitism is an insult to the victims of antisemitism the world over who have been subjected to true Jew-hatred as exhibited in gross discrimination and violence. To abuse the cry of antisemitism in this case is not only completely disingenuous, it is a cynical ploy intended to intimidate the prosecution with the imagined threat of a P.C. backlash.
Furthermore, in light of the fact that it was this administration’s Justice Department that was responsible for the investigation and raid which led to Rubashkin’s arrest, it is also an insidious insult to the Jewish community’s supposed B.F.F. George W. Bush, who despite all his shortcomings and nefarious actions has, at the end of the day, been the most Jew-friendly President in the history of the United States. Suggesting that he authorized a “blood libel” against Rubashkin just goes to show that if it’ll save one of their own, the ultra-Orthodox will throw anyone under the bus. Even the President.
The lengths to which the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox will go to preserve their sense of self-piety never cease to amaze me. The Jewish people are obligated to give rebuke to the members of their community who violate our laws and values and bring shame upon our people. To instead cover up for their misdeeds under the cloak of righteousness — whether by using the injunction against lashon harah (evil speech) to stifle whistleblowers and public debate or by using the cry of “innocent until proven guilty” to promote deniability until the bitter end — seems to me to be an inversion of the spirit of the law and an ethical and moral failing on the part of those who imagine themselves to be the mightiest exemplars of the expression of G-d’s will in the world.
In my estimation, that is a worse disgrace and does far more harm to the reputation of the Orthodox community than even the covered up crimes themselves.
Janine James, née Lindemulder, is an adult film star better known to fans simply as “Janine” and famed largely for her performances in all-girl scenes such as those in Vivid Video’s Where the Boys Aren’t series.
Janine’s going to federal prison for six months for tax evasion.
Janine, political prisoner
From The News-Review, Roseburg, Oregon:
An adult film actress [...] was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for tax evasion.
U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin also ordered Janine M. James, 40, to live in a residential community corrections center for up to six months after her release from prison and to serve one year of supervised release.
[...]
Known in the adult film world as Janine Lindemulder, James pleaded guilty last summer to intentionally failing to pay her income taxes. During her sentencing in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cardani said James currently owes $294,000 in back taxes.
James, who first appeared in Penthouse magazine as the Pet of the Month in 1987 and later appeared in more than 50 adult films, was given until March 10 to report to prison.
I feel safer already.
Many people oppose pornography, saying that it’s degrading to women. In some cases, that’s very well-founded. In many others, it’s either untrue or irrelevant, reflecting the speaker’s own tastes rather than anything the rest of us need concern ourselves with.
As for degrading, though, what could be more degrading than writing this, as Janine did in her letter to the court?
“At this low point in my life, I tried to create the lifestyle I thought was taken from Sunny when her father left me for Sandra Bullock. That was a big mistake,” she wrote. “I was hurt and confused and made bad decisions about how I spent my money, ignoring my back taxes. I was threatened and intimidated by Jesse’s wealth, afraid I might lose my daughter to that wealth someday, and tried to ‘keep up.’”
Sunny is Janine’s almost-five-year-old daughter by one Jesse James, some other celebrity type, and will be placed in the custody of James and Bullock while Janine serves her time in the State’s cage.
Certainly, crimes have been committed here. But not the fantasy crime that was prosecuted — failing to timely bend over for your master — and that Janine will suffer for by being locked in cages away from her daughter for six months of her life and being forced into a State brainwashing program in the guise of a “halfway house”. The real crimes here are those of people like U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin, the IRS agents and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cardani, quoted in the article:
United States Criminal Christopher Cardani
“While [Wesley] Snipes failed to report far more income than defendant James, her tax defiant conduct is similarly offensive. She has demonstrated an attitude of greed and privilege, and has taken advantage of her status as a high profile figure, while at the same time wantonly ignoring her obligation to pay taxes,” Cardani wrote in a pre-sentencing memo. “A meaningful sentence is necessary to get the message to her and others that no one is beyond the law and they must pay their taxes just like everyone else.”
You smug prick, Cardani. You want an image of “greed and privilege”? Take a good look in the mirror. You fucking tool. People have an “obligation” to pay taxes in the same way they have an “obligation” to hand over 100% of everything when a mugger sticks a gun in their face and says: “Give me all your money!” — that is, no obligation whatsoever.
For further degradation, head on over to the Luke is Back blog (warning: barely safe for work), where Luke reports on this story back in August when Janine pled guilty as part of an extortionate plea agreement. Commentary on the posting includes such illuminating gems as:
What in the world possesses people to refuse to pay their taxes? All these people volunteer to join the military and die for the nations cause and pieces of white filthy trash like Janine selfishly try to circumvent the system that pays for it.
and
Dumb, antisocial whore.
Way to blame and degrade the victim while feeding your own statist, sexist delusions, guys.
Free Janine! And all political prisoners!
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If there is one thing that annoys me when seeing arguments against Communism is persistent ignorance. We’re not talking about simple ignorance where someone is not aware of a fact, but the kind of stubborn insintense on false ideas even when one has explicitly been told that they have it wrong. At this point we’re not simply talking about someone who has it wrong but about someone who is unwilling to learn.
Witness now this obtuse argument from BadTux who tries to explain why Communism is doomed to failure with arguments even a cursory look at an introductory text to Marxism should have put to rest.
He flies right off the bat by separating the political aspect of Communism from the economic, not obviously undertanding that this is impossible. Communism is not simply an economic system but a complete one, ecompassing social, political and economic aspects. You cannot disconnect the economic aspect of Communism from the social simply because it requires a specific type of society to work.
Communism is about having a classless, stateless society. It’s that simple. If you have a state or separation of classes, whether in the form of government bureaucrats or simple capitalists, you cannot claim to be in Communism. In any sense. It’s that simple. So by taking the economic aspect of the Soviet Union and calling it “Economic Communism”, you are using a flawed system as an example.
Next, we have the argument of how people would not join communes by themselves and they would have to be forced. Something which is of course totally away from any historical reality. If BadTux had bothered to actually read the History of the Russian Revolution he would have seen how “few” people were willing to to form soviets. The reality was that people were joining Soviets by the thousands, both the proletariat in the cities and the peasants in the armies. They were very much the majority and did not have to use any force.
He at least tries later to improve the validity of his article by talking about “modern communism” not realizing that there is nothing “modern” about it but rather that the original idea was about industrial societies. The idea for Communism was that it always required an industrialized society before it could take hold. This was the original idea from the time of Marx. The lack of a big proletariat in Russia and China was a large, if not the largest reason why the revolutions failed. A feudal peasant population is incompatible with Communism.
Then we’re treated to the impossibility of handling the modern production under communism simply by bringing up all the elements required for a product. But that’s just it. There’s no explanation of why this makes it impossible other than the inability of the author to think about it.
And with these arguments we are then told “So this, then, explains why communism as an economic system has failed every time it has been tried” and then goes on to bring the Soviet Union as an example. So he has failed to grasp what Communism even is, and then brought up State Capitalist society as proof. Incredible!
We then continue with the “other aspect” of Communism which is the political which apparently has been shown to fail…in a capitalistic society. What BadTux does not realize is that Communism does not work on an per-nation basis. Communism has to be achieved internationally so as to not have the need for standing armies or a state apparatus. Even Lenin recognised the need for International movements for Communism and this is what he was counting on. He knew that if that did not happen, the Russian Revolution was in a really tight spot.
It is no worth looking at individual communes in a Capitalist society as they are not the point or an example of socialism. Their struggle to survive in a Capitalist society is what creates contradictions among the people within. This “problem of power” that BadTux keeps referring to does not exist in a society where people can easily leave a syndic they do not like and immediately join another or form their own.
And indeed. there is no better example for this than the Free Software movement. Therein you have groups of people clustered around any specific application and you have a benevolent dictator at the top. This “leader” or group of leaders that BadTux claims would always cause problems and dissolving the group. However not only does this work our, but it works admirably. When the leaders are indeed benevolent, the group prospers and keeps them in their place due to their abilities. If the leaders misbehave enough however, the dissatisfied people simply fork the project and start a new group. What “problem of power”?
This is why such arguments from ignorants are so annoying. You end up having to refute arguments which have nothing to do with Communism at all. This is not productive at all to the Communist who does not learn anything new but rather has to waste time pointing out strawmen left and right. Argue why the Labour Theory of Value is wrong. Argue how exploitation of the worker does not exist. Argue, in short, for things that Marxism actually explains and proposes, not whatever half-truths you gathered from school and popular news sources.
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