Things Don't Have To Make Sense

"This Is Not Who We Are"

Fri, 11 May 2012 19:29:23 -0400

Dan DeWalt examines the top catchphrase of 2012:

“This is not a reflection of who we are or what we stand for.”

– Jeff Gearhart, Wall-Mart general counsel, on the firm’s Mexico bribery

[Torture] “is not the norm.”

– Mike Pannek, Abu Ghraib prison warden.

“This is not who we are.”

– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the US massacre of 16 Afghan villagers.

“This is not who we are.”

– General John Allen, commander of forces in Afghanistan, on Koran burning

“This is not who we are.”

– Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on troops posing with enemy body parts

“This is not who we are.”

– Secretary of State Clinton, also on troops posing with enemy body parts

Spying by the New York Police on Muslims in Newark, NJ, which the Newark Police Chief was alerted to, is “not who we are”

– Newark Mayor Cory Booker

“I can tell you something all of you know already – that using pepper spray on peaceful protesters runs counter to our values. It does not reflect well on this university and it absolutely is not who we are.”

– UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who ordered campus police to use force to clear peaceful student occupiers from the campus, leading to pepper spraying of students

Ripping families apart by deporting the undocumented parents of American-born children is “not who we are.”

– President Barack Obama

“This larger notion that the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everybody’s money, and let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone they’re on their own — that’s not who we are.”

– President Barack Obama

“You can’t say, well, we developed trade and the economic relations first and the disregard of human rights. That’s not who we are. We are the United States of America.”

– Sasha Gong, director of the China branch of Voice of America

The latest PR catch phrase from business, administration, military, state and local officials after some atrocity or other is that whatever happened, it is certainly “not who we are,” a phrase initially uttered by the Vietnam War commander, Gen. William Westmoreland, with reference to the My Lai slaughter of 400 women, children and old men, all civilians, by a group of US soldiers.

[Continued at Counterpunch]

WTF theillustratednerdgirl: deliciouskaek: fralcon: Here are...

Sun, 06 May 2012 19:44:11 -0400

WTF

theillustratednerdgirl:

deliciouskaek:

fralcon:

Here are some pictures of the “Angola Prison rodeo”, where prisoners compete to win packs of smokes and a few bucks. By sitting in a poker table while a bull charges them. The goal? To get the poker chip hanging off its horns.

These people aren’t cowboys, or glorified participants in a well respected tournament. These prisoners are shuffled over to this thing to be trampled by raging bulls for SMOKES, and maybe a hundred bucks. This is not something that would happen to anyone other than prisoners, and is part of an institution that systematically devalues their worth as people.

The rodeo rakes in millions of dollars a year, and that’s just the beginning of how shady the place is:

That year, the rodeo produced $2,463,822 in revenue.

But for all the hair-raising moments, the most unsettling part may be the strange symbolism of the opening pageantry. Putting a Confederate flag in a black man’s hands on a former slave plantation seems a little too deliberate for an institution that claims to have shed its darker past.

“I have always said, and I continue to say, that if slavery had persisted up until 2010, into the modern day, that would probably have been a well-run slave plantation,” Wilbert Rideau says. “I think it would have evolved into what exists right now at Angola.” We’re in his living room in Baton Rouge, with his wife, Linda.

Angola was a plantation first, housing slaves who cut sugar cane for the master. At the end of the 19th century it evolved into a prisoner lease system, with sentenced prisoners being rented to area companies. In 1901, Angola officially became a state-operated penitentiary, but in name only. It remained a plantation, with prisoners crowded into large wooden buildings and working from sunup to sundown in sugar cane and cotton fields—rain or shine, 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011…ana_prison.html

“Angola is disturbing every time I go there,” Tory Pegram, who coordinates the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3, told Truthout. “It’s not even really a metaphor for slavery. Slavery is what’s going on.

Angola is not alone. Sixteen percent of Louisiana prisoners are compelled to perform farm labor, as are 17 percent of Texas prisoners and a full 40 percent of Arkansas prisoners, according to the 2002 Corrections Yearbook, compiled by the Criminal Justice Institute. They are paid little to nothing for planting and picking the same crops harvested by slaves 150 years ago.

http://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/04…tation-prisons/

ETA: the colorlines link above doesn’t work, but here is another article they wrote about it.

ETA2: the redphoenix link doesn’t either. here’s the actual article.

Oklahoma has a prison rodeo. They have the prisoners try to snatch a bandanna off the bull’s horn for $100.

What Do Survivors of Kony/The LRA Want?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:49:00 -0400

“As someone whose brother and cousin were abducted [by the LRA] and are among the thousands of disappeared whose fate is unknown, I join with other Ugandans who hope our relatives are still in captivity and will come back home alive […] My own father is deeply traumatized due to my brother and cousin’s abduction, and every time he hears about any report of killing LRA rebels he is not sure whom they have killed and wonders if people are celebrating his beloved son’s death […] Restoration of communities devastated by Kony is a greater priority than catching or even killing him.”

Victor Ochen, Ugandan citizen and founder of The African Youth Initiative Network

Our Mission: Pay Close Attention Without Learning Anything via...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:05:00 -0500

Our Mission: Pay Close Attention Without Learning Anything
via Wired: “Every Day, Army’s Panopticon Drone Will Collect 80 Years’ Worth of HD Video”

WTF

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:15:22 -0500

WTF

BREAKING: There Is Only One Human Right Left

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:44:00 -0500

DESTRO ft. The Baroness- “Get Money” - watch more funny videos

The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice, etc etc: “Hedge funds invested in Greek sovereign debt are reportedly considering suing Greece in a European human rights court to ensure they get their full investments back. The New York Times reported Thursday that some hedge funds are mulling the legal tactic in response to proposals by Greek fiscal policy makers that would require all Greek bondholders to take losses as debt-burdened Greece attempts to clean up its balance sheets. The funds would file their cases in the European Court of Human Rights, according to the report, alleging that Greece had violated bondholder rights.” http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/01/19/hedge-funds-may-pursue-human-rights-cases-against-greece-nyt/

Movie Review: “Machete Maidens Unleashed” is rated...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:07:00 -0500

Movie Review: “Machete Maidens Unleashed” is rated 100% A+. It’s an insane documentary and it’s on netflix instant watch.

"The worst thing you could do would be to somehow take the most terrible people in the world, and..."

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:22:00 -0500

““The worst thing you could do would be to somehow take the most terrible people in the world, and make them even greater douches than they already are. Find a way to zero in on all of their ugliest faults and vices, and just… just amp them up beyond belief. That would be something.””

- I Was Shitting You People - A Message From Ayn Rand

JENNY HOLZER IS ON TWITTER

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:09:21 -0500

I LIKE WHEN SHE TWEETS “LOOKING BACK IS THE FIRST SIGN OF AGING AND DECAY.”
THE IMAGE IS FROM MOMA.

I Looked Up "Thing" On Wikipedia

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:32:13 -0500

The Thing was a covert listening device designed by Leon Theremin.

Wikipedia goes on to explain:
“Theremin’s device was used by the Soviet Union to spy on the United States. The device was embedded in a carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States. On August 4, 1945, a delegation from the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union presented the bugged carving to U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman, as a “gesture of friendship” to the USSR’s World War II ally. It hung in the ambassador’s Moscow residential study until it was exposed in 1952 during the tenure of Ambassador George F. Kennan.[3] The existence of the bug was accidentally discovered by a British radio operator who overheard American conversations on an open radio channel as the Russians were beaming radio waves at the ambassador’s office. The Department of State found the device in the Great Seal carving after an exhaustive search of the American Embassy, and Peter Wright, a British scientist and former MI5 counterintelligence officer, eventually discovered how it worked.[4][5] Had the device never been discovered, it could easily have worked indefinitely.”

Thank you Dan Murrell for finding the most embarrassing moment...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:18:13 -0500

Thank you Dan Murrell for finding the most embarrassing moment of my life and putting it on the internet (this footage is from 1999). George, Alex and I paid full ticket price just to see the Phantom Menace trailer. I don’t think we even stayed for the movie. When the trailer ended we ran out of the theater dorking out and this camera guy caught us.

channel101tumblr:

See James Atkinson and George Edelman in happier times.

Side note: Just hit 250 followers.

Dear PBS Frontline: I love you.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:45:02 -0500

Also you have an offline media clip @35:43 in Flying Cheap (during the Valujet “watery graves” press conference in the Everglades) [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/].

Weird.

Important. channel101tumblr: juliavickerman: DON’T CARPOOL. An...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:30:58 -0500

Important.

channel101tumblr:

juliavickerman:

DON’T CARPOOL. An important message from Kelsy Abbott, James Atkinson and John Olsen.

The Channel 101 Awards last night were amazing.

DON’T

let’s get...

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:45:31 -0500

let’s get willy

aaronmoles:

nicocolaleo:

davidseger:

2011 Channel 101 Channy Awards
December 10th 2011
Doors 6:30 - Show 8:00

Awesome poster by Julia Vickerman

RSVP: channies2011reservations@gmail.com

It’s almost time for the event of the year!!! Get your RSVP in now, bitches!

Consider my ass reserved based on this poster alone. Not that I wasn’t going to anyway.

I edited a cat video!

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:06:06 -0400

I edited a cat video!

I liked editing this even though it disturbed me.

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:01:16 -0400

I liked editing this even though it disturbed me.

I also edited this.

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:59:23 -0400

I also edited this.

I edited this. The dog is a good actor [The humans are good...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:18:54 -0400

I edited this. The dog is a good actor [The humans are good too].

Hey I edited this.

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:16:41 -0400

Hey I edited this.

I edited this and it will be on TV soon! [October 5th]

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:14:32 -0400

I edited this and it will be on TV soon! [October 5th]