~ firefly-dreaming a virtual home to learn (or teach!) alternative methods of solving problems we find facing us each day. By sharing ideas & knowledge on living with less stress, more joy & embracing tolerance & compassion we are working towards building a sustainable future for all living beings.
More new toys on the horizon from Raytheon of Waltham, Massachusetts to make the coming police state terror goons as efficient as possible when dealing with those dirty f'ing regular people sleeping in parks unreasonably expecting that their constitutional rights will still accrue in the new world order.
Yoo ain't seen nuthin' yet...
Raytheon has a patent pending now for a new police shield that produces a low-frequency sound which resonates with the respiratory tract, making it hard to breathe. According to the patent, the intensity could be increased from causing discomfort to the point where targets become "temporarily incapacitated".
Eric Dolan at RawStory reports that "Eighty-four-year-old activist Dorli Rainey spoke to Countdown host Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night after being pepper sprayed by police the previous night during an "Occupy Seattle" protest."
The protest was formed in downtown Seattle in solidarity with "Occupy Wall Street" after it was raided by authorities. Police claimed they gave warnings to protesters for blocking streets during rush hour before trying to disperse them
Rainey said the protesters had decided to leave the intersection, and that police almost certainly knew this because of the protester's "people's microphone" method of communication. But before they could leave, police moved in and fired pepper spray at the crowd.
[snip]
Rainey, who grew up in Nazi Germany, expressed her displeasure with the mainstream American media, who only reported "soft, fluff entertainment" instead of hard-hitting news.
[snip]
"It would be so easy to say, `Well I'm going to retire, I'm going to sit around, watch television or eat bonbons,' but somebody's got to keep 'em awake and let 'em know what is really going on in this world," Rainey said.
Near a month has passed since the Save Our Schools storm swept through Washington District of Columbia. As with all squalls the effects of such an event linger long after the winds die down. A physical space cleaned-up after a tempest takes place does not erase the memory of what occurred. Be it a blast of air or an action, the calm does not close a chapter in our lives. The current, commitment, the cause, and our concern do not wane with time, that is, unless we choose to move on or tell ourselves that that is possible. I believe the notion the past is past is fallacious. Our past permeates the present and is a foundation for the future. Thus, for me, the thought, and the March to Save Our Schools are strong. It survives as is evidenced by the now named Movement.
I believe the Movement did not begin with the March. The happening was but a moment, albeit an extremely significant historical occurrence. The energy exhibited on July 30, 2011 was an expression of what preceded it and illustrates what will follow. Determined not to invite the doom of a forgotten precedent, demonstrators such as I reflect on what was. Together we will build a better potential for our progeny. May we begin to extend the journey today? Ask yourself what you saw, did, felt, tasted, touched; tell your Save Our Schools March story. I offer mine as a gift to you.
I ask and answer questions presented to me. Whether you were in Washington, District of Columbia for what some characterize as the main event, at another Demonstration elsewhere, or connected only through the tube, YouTube, radio, and papers, what did you perceive, receive, or retrieve? Please share your personal story!
May our offspring, schools, society, and we, grow greater through our caring and sharing. Let the past, the procession, and the prospect be our guide.
I went to a protest in Philadelphia this past Saturday, and it was more disheartening than anything else. It was against the wars and various other injustices, with a special focus on he recent FBI raids of peace activists and Pennsylvania Homeland Security spying on innocent civilians and activists.
By the end of it, I kind of just felt like going up to the megaphone and asking, "How much moral outrage can one person muster? There are more people handing out fliers here than not, and with this country committing so many disgusting, outrageous acts, I don't blame you." I won't lie, I handed a few out myself. Yet the contrast between the righteous causes featured in the speeches and on the signs and on the fliers and the, as a fellow protester said to me, "complete lack of solidarity" was striking.
Hello all - hopefully I can make this into some kind of a short series or get someone to help me with this, but if not you'll probably see at least one more diary on the subject from me. Basically, here's a post where I'm trying to assemble all the information for protests that you need to know in order to take action against BP and for some kind of a clean energy future.
Go below the fold for a list of events/websites/facebook pages/etc.
(Just because of my own time constraints, I've only listed events in the US)
Everyone seems to know that the tea party "movement" had a rally on the steps of the capitol yesterday. They got in the face of a few Congressmen and now every Beltway media outlet from the Washington Post to Meet the Press is talking about it. But there was another protest in town yesterday. Thousands of people showed up in front of the White House to tell Obama (and Congress) to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to treat Palestinians fairly, and to generally end the US military empire.
MSNBC estimates that somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 tea party people showed up at the capitol building. Yet the low end of the estimates for the number of people who showed up at the peace demonstration (including myself) is about 2,500, and the high end is about 10,000. Where's our moment on Meet the Press? Where's our article in the New York Times?
(Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind. Daisaku Ikeda - promoted by newpioneer)
This is going to be an action packed weekend in DC and around the nation. On Friday, there will be protests of Yoo. On Saturday, there will be a massive antiwar demonstration (there will also be demonstrations in Philly, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and South Dakota, among other places). On Sunday, there will be a large march for immigration reform. And there will be other related events around the country, along with the small protests and events that happen all the time.
So join me below the fold to see how you can effect change this weekend.
In a recent diary by Cassiodorus, one point of his in particular struck me:
Thus the comparison between the Great Depression and the current Great Recession falls flat, because the popular upheavals of the 1930s are only in evidence today among the least helpful segments of the population. This of course is a major reason why we can expect no FDR-like President to save us from the...economic collapse...
...During the 1930s...intellectual figures such as John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, Kenneth Burke, and Richard Wright were actual socialists and not just mere liberals offering occasional plugs for John Kerry.
Another prominent socialist, albeit a bit later than the Depression, was Albert Einstein. He was an all around brilliant man, someone whom I admire greatly. And he wisely said this, although today it would probably be considered way too radical for anyone respectable to utter:
More new toys on the horizon from Raytheon of Waltham, Massachusetts to make the coming police state terror goons as efficient as possible when dealing with those dirty f'ing regular people sleeping in parks unreasonably expecting that their constitutional rights will still accrue in the new world order.
