speaking of controlling processes...

a *must* see:
the corporation, mark achbar, jennifer abbott & joel bakan.

"In devastation there is opportunity. When the September 11th situation happened, the first thing you thought was, 'Well, how much is gold up?' "

"Within less than ten years, a handful of global companies will own the genes that makeup the evolution of our species."

"I said, you know this is news. This is what the people need to know." He replied, "We just paid $3 billion for these stations-- the news is what we say it is." ~A Floridian journalist whose story about bovine hormone products causing cancer was censored; he was fired.

Bow your heads, the corporations will now lead us in prayer.

View the trailer and excerpts of the film.

"Capitalism today commands the towering heights and has displaced politics and politicians as the new high priests and reigning oligarchs of our system."

madagascar

and see madagascar! it's frickin' hilarious. plus it has *cute and cuddly* penguins.

Normal Processes

this is a paper i wrote for Laura Nader's (name-dropping) anthro course this semester... it's on my wonderful home town. i apologize because this is not the final version so it's got some errors; but it's pretty close. i'll see if i can rustle up the one i turned in. the course was "controlling processes," studying social, cultural, and ideological control. this is the focus of my paper. check out especially the appendices, which track statistical information regarding underage alcohol ticketing and drug ticketing. why do you people live there?! ;)

click here!

yes, i noticed the misspelling of 'fluctuated' ('fluxuated') in the appendix. i just wanted to point out to everyone how awesome i am at spelling anymore. it's the french.

Odds...

Featured article of the day:
The Silent Media Curse of Memorial Day, Norman Soloman.

Another strike in Berkeley... means i get the day off. Finally applied for visa, sent in ridiculous amounts of papers to the study abroad office... pop quiz: name the nearest place you can get a money order. (if you guessed more than 3 times incorrectly, you still beat me).

Tocqueville's pretty good-- gotta hand it to the guy, some great insights. Here's one: "A nation that asks nothing of its government but the maintenance of order is already a slave at heart, the slave of its own well-being, awaiting only the hand that will bind it."

He's talking about Americans, of course.

pretty cool little site...

PostSecret. Check it out.

thank you, mom & dad

...for my wonderful graduation present!*

love and smiles, bibs.

*when driving around with said present, one should not leave it parked, top down, in oakland.

yes men

anti-globalization movement infoblurb, the yesmen on the yesmen.

"Here is the true story of how Andy and Mike—a couple of semi-employed, middle-class (at best) activists with only thrift-store clothes and no formal economics training—posed as spokespeople for the World Trade Organization.

In 1999, just before the big protests in Seattle, Mike and Andy set up a parody of the WTO website at the domain GATT.org.

Some people mistook it for the real thing and wrote in with questions about all sorts of trade matters. Finally, Mike and Andy found themselves invited to conferences to speak as the organization they opposed. They scrounged up their savings, bought plane tickets, and went.

As the World Trade Organization, Andy and Mike delivered shocking satires of WTO policy to audiences of so-called “experts.” At an international trade law conference in Salzburg, Austria, they (i.e. the WTO) proposed a free-market solution to democracy: auctioning votes to the highest bidder. On the TV program CNBC Marketwrap Europe, the WTO announced that might equalled right, that a privatized education market would help replace Abbie Hoffman with Milton Friedman, and that there ought to be a market in human rights abuses. At a textiles conference in Tampere, Finland the WTO unveiled a 3-foot phallus for administering electric shocks to sweatshop employees. At a university in Plattsburgh, New York the WTO proposed that to solve global hunger, the poor should have to eat hamburgers—and then recycle them up to ten times. And at an accounting conference in Sydney, Australia, the WTO announced that in light of all its mistakes, it would shut itself down, refounding as an organization whose goals were not to help corporations, but rather to help the poor and the environment."
next >

Shocked

...that Newsweek is taking the heat for this one. The newspapers in this country have no backbone-- oh wait, sure they do. It's called corporate sponsorship.

Story:Newsweek reports that US officials are desecrating the Koran. Massive protests around Muslim world. Insert coercive measures from advertisers, denial from the White House (do we ever get anything else?), slander from competing magazines, add in the recent martyrdom of journalism...

Suddenly we've got newspapers willingly taking the blame for US-governmentally-authored, sponsored, and implemented violence.

*This is not free speech. This is thought control.*

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And newspapers are willing to put their industry's legitimacy on trial as well. This has been a recent tactic of the ever-ingenious current administration. You really have to hand it to them, they've done more to control public discussion than... well, than anyone in my recent memory.

Just-in survey: i Google-news-ed newsweek. Virtually ALL of the US media (ABC, NYTimes, Yahoo, Reuters, local papers) are reporting about the retraction. Where's the discussion on the violence?

Right, in the international papers where it belongs. This article came out in January discussing tactics involving smearing menstruation blood on detainees and forcing them to pray (a grave sin for Muslims). Numerous reports have been coming out for months discussing the alarming suicide-attempts there. Other reports discuss how female guards engage in sexually-explicit acts to embarass and desanctify detainees.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This editorial says it well.
The White House has gone ballistic over the retracted statement in the May 9 Newsweek that "investigators probing abuses at Guantanamo Bay have confirmed" that "interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects, placed Qur'ans on toilets and, in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet." White House spokesman Scott McClellan flat-out said Newsweek was responsible for causing the rioting in Afghanistan that led to at least 17 deaths. Newsweek editors appear to have accepted that responsibility. They shouldn't have; the White House is simply changing the subject from abuse at Guantanamo to Newsweek's journalism. It would have been prudent, and more responsible, for Newsweek to have confirmed the story with a second source; that failure gave the White House the opening it has now seized to such good effect.
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Instead, newspapers in this country are writing their own eulogy.

Liberation 2005

The Vivirito Times
17 May 2005

After nearly six months of concerted effort, a certain UCB student is proud to announce that library records indicate she has only eighteen books currently charged out. Her apartment, officespaces, gym locker, and boyfriend's car and studio are all joining in a celebration for what they dub "Liberation 2005: Words off our Backs."

Elizabeth had nearly 280 books charged out at the peak of her thesis-writing last semester. Most of them occupied floor and desk space in her room. "Well, when you have a ten-page bibliography there's only so much you can do [with all the books]. I began lining them up along my walls, but I had to start doubling them up after a while. I finally caved down and bought a bookshelf."

But even that could hold only so many. The books, she insists, started taking on a life of their own. Although friends have indicated in the past that Elizabeth sometimes misplaces things-- both physically and psychogenically-- she believes they mobilized on their own accord.

"A good number of them were social theory books, so they had to have been getting ideas. It would not have been hard for them to know how to organize with Gramsci, Marx, and Foucault as instigators." Books poured from her room and infiltrated several other spaces she frequents.

Liberation 2005 is actually a backlash movement against the Gramsci-Marx socialist movement. When asked for comment, her floor said, "The books were heavy. They argued all the time and used words like 'hegemony,' 'alienation,' and 'panopticon'. We [her furniture] felt they didn't understand us, the workers. We were left out of the discussion and we were still doing all the work."

Elizabeth is largely indifferent to the politics that have been going on inside her walls. "I'm a woman," she said. "Their politics do not affect me."

But others protested. "She's just happy that her floor space is back, so she can continue to exploit it" some said. The books agreed, noting that she "used" them too.

In the spirit of the celebration, she thanked her rolling luggage and her back for their assistance on the multiple trips to return the books. She notes that she still has more books to return before she leaves the area but finally sees an end in sight. And regarding the clashes?

"I'm sorry it had to happen. I was naïve to think that I could bring the two spheres together, but clearly the intellectual and the working classes are pitted in an eternal strugle against each other-- one that transcends humanity. I'm just thankful to have corporate capitalism working for them both."

If you haven't already heard...

This just in from the British press... (of course not _ours_ we support self-censorship)
1. By mid-July 2002, eight months before the war began, President Bush had decided to invade and occupy Iraq.

2. Bush had decided to "justify" the war "by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD."

3. Already "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

4. Many at the top of the administration did not want to seek approval from the United Nations (going "the UN route").

5. Few in Washington seemed much interested in the aftermath of the war.

Another article.

Local News

In other news, another Vivirito child has set the record for number of blown tires on the same Interstate. The tally is at three, and watchful family members wait for the final tire of this set to go.

The VT was unable to contact child for comments.

In Erin's Own Words...

We had a party for my teacher cause its his last year here, so some kids set up a golf course, and my friend swung the golf club and it hit me on the side of my forehaed. I had to get stiches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am NOT lieing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I only got 3 stitches tho, they come out monday. the next day I puked at school and went home. today I puked at school too. I 'm sick! I had a headache too. It was because I don't where my glasses anymore. This week was the worst week of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Erin P.S. Take The quiz!!!!! Of course, you probalbly know most of the answers! ! see ya!

Remarkable Week for Viv Child

The Vivirito Times
13 May 2005
focus section

This is one of those stories that tugs at your heartstrings. If anyone is deserving for an award for making it through this past week, it is Erin Michelle.

She has suffered a series of health mishaps that would leave a normal person in bed for days. But Mishy Moo is currently active and playful in the face of adversity. "It's amazing," said her mother, "She has had such a tough week-- medically-- made harder only by her intolerant siblings. She did not make it through a full day of school."

Erin started off the week with one tooth filling-- not so bad considering how many it could have been given the Vivirito kids' hygiene habits.

But Tuesday it really began to slide downhill. At a party for a teacher (shortly after her mother had left school), Erin was whacked in the head with a golf club. Mother was called by the school nurse-- who is beginning to know her number by heart-- and asked to return to school to pick up her daughter. Later in the day, Erin received stitches for the gash in her head.

"I expected to see blood running down her face, the way the nurse described it," Mother said. "The wound wasn't that bad, but it was pretty deep." Erin was beside herself for missing the teacher's party.

"I just couldn't believe it happened to me on this day," she said, "of all days." But she received the stitches and returned to school on Tuesday morning.

That afternoon though mother received another call from the nurse. Erin was in the office complaining of a headache. Mother sent Father to school with some asprin to relieve the poor girl of her pain. Half an hour later, Father returned with Erin and vomit on the van floor.

Mother had been called into school to substitute Thursday morning but was not needed; she then went to run errands. After two days of stomach sickness Erin again attempted school that day only to again call home with another complaint of a headache. Father had mother's cellular telephone, so he was again designated to pick her up in yet another fit of vomiting.

Friday morning Erin did not attempt to attend school.

It remains uncertain whether the cause of Erin's nausea was a flu bug, a concussion, or migraines.

But perhaps the biggest tribulation of Mishy's dilemma was the constant berating of her by her siblings, especially one brother. "He was slobbering away at his cereal while they were at the computer," Mother recalls, "when she asked me to ask him not to eat by her."

Michael responded with hostility, claiming that the suggestion for him to move was "ridiculous" and suggesting that the request was "selfish" and "bratty."

For Erin to deal with such hostility during a week of such arduous health-related problems is truly an attestment to her character. The VT hereby salutes Erin for her bravery in the male-dominated and patriarchial-abiding household. If it cannot offer anything else, let these words, and free frostys at Wendy's, console her.

Nobody-- except maybe her courageous mother-- deserves a salute more than poor Mishy. This is ours, from all of us at the Vivirito Times.

sry...

if you're looking at this page and it looks HORRID. if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, the neon colors and ridiculous bullets are your own fault. if you are using mozilla firefox like i asked you to, i sincerely apologize for the harshness on the eyes...

the bus

so i'm _forcing_ myself to read crime and punishment, which is why i've been spacing out so much lately... but i came up with this.

reason #452 why i love living in a big city... busses. okay, well, maybe it's the people *on* the busses. there were these two high-school kids on the bus today, one reminded me of a pre-pubescent evan nave with longer, curlier hair, and the other was a girl. they were talking about sci fi books, among other things. this girl is awesome; i've seen her on the bus before. she is always reading and has at least another book poking out of her bag. but where do these people go? where do sci fi readers go after high school? so i got to thinking about this unlikely cult... i know a few. i know a few, and what's scary is that they're really _smart_ people, and they look at the world with a tilt of their head... y'know what i mean? well, except my 40-ish flatmate who drinks tea and vodka in the eveningtime, is in a medieval folk band, and attends the *festivals*. y'all know which kind i mean. the lute-and-mute-cornett-with-a dash-of-the-recorder-and-maybe-the-bagpipes music with long, flowy hair all around, carmelized snacks, and the people got just a little too into the smells of the epoch renaissance faires. yeah, you've all been there.

well, i've digressed. but really, were have all the medievalers gone?

Social Security

Bush in 30 Years

Merchants of Cool

Douglas Ruskoff, a Frontline Film. Watch it here!

Teenagers are exposed to over 3,000 ads per day, and over 10 million ads in their lifetime.

"Teenagers are the hottest consumer demographic in America. At 33 million strong, they comprise the largest generation of teens America has ever seen--larger, even, than the much-ballyhooed Baby Boom generation. Last year, America's teens spent $100 billion, while influencing their parents' spending to the tune of another $50 billion."

"It's one enclosed feedback loop," Rushkoff says. "Kids' culture and media culture are now one and the same, and it becomes impossible to tell which came first--the anger or the marketing of the anger."

"Rather than empowering youngsters, the incessant focus on their wants and desires leaves them adrift in a sea of conflicting marketing messages."

The War Business

by Chalmers Johnson.
This article is amazing. Please read!

• "Munitions making and war profiteering have supplanted the energy and telecoms deals pioneered by Enron and WorldCom in the late 1990s as the most efficient means for well-connected capitalists to engorge themselves at the public trough. To call these companies 'private,' though, is merely ideology. Munitions making in the United States today is not really private enterprise. It is state socialism."

• This ‘sepoy strategy’ once involved training ‘native’ troops to serve in regiments commanded by British officers or in imperial Indian regiments thought to be loyal to the British crown, which were normally composed of Sikh and Gurka mercenaries…
• The Americans tried their hand at sepoyism in Vietnam in 1962… and in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989, the CIA supplied mujaedeen (‘freedom fighter’) groups with more than $2 billion worth of weapons…
• Soviets + US abandoned Afgh; mujadedeen Islam fund turned against US
• It is possible to think of the suicidal attacks of 9/11 as a contemporary version of the Sepoy mutiny.

• Sepoys are useful, but real money is in governmental contracts.
• Vinnell Corporation received $48 million to train Iraqi army…
• International Peace Operations Association—a name George Orwell would have cherished, is made up of private military companies, the revenues of which will rise to $202 billion by 2010.
• DynCorp ‘trained’ Haitian police after US intervention in 1994. By 2002 it was the nation’s 13^th-largest military contractor, with $2.3 billion in revenue, 96 percent of it from contracts and subcontracts with the US government.
• Camp Bondsteel in the Balkans costs $180 million to operate… it seems too large and permanent an installation merely to meet the requirements of peacekeeping in southern Serbia, amission that President Clinton asserted would last no longer than six months and that Bush said in his election campaign he wanted to eliminate. As it happens… it is located astride the rout of a $1.3 billion pipeline project.
• “military-petroleum” complex
• Halliburton went from paying $302 million in taxes in 1998 to getting an $85 million tax refund in 1999 from relocation offshore.

• When G. Washington warned in 1796 that ‘overgrown military establishments’ are ‘inauspicious to liberty,’ he had something quite specific in mind. He feared that the US might develop a state apparatus, comparable to those of the autocratic states of Europe, that could displace the constitutional order.
• The military-industrial complex is an appropriate place for high-ranking military officers to ‘retire’—circulation of elites
• “We have a military presence in 120 of 189 member countries of the UN, including large-scale deployments in 25 of them.”
• “This is the future. When war becomes the most profitable course of action, we can certainly expect more of it.”

Happy B-Day, Nick!

Go here.

Life plans...

okay, so lots of questions lately as to what i'm doing this summer/ where i'll be. here's an as-close-as-i-can-get-it breakdown:
[and doods this is as much for you as me, my calendar is falling apart... wherever i left it... it's there, falling apart...]

050505: cnm
May 13-May 18: Finals
May 20: Commencement @ 9am
May 23- July 1: Teaching/TAing/Reading, (pick your jargon) "Social Theory and Cultural Analysis"
OH TBA
June 3: GRE
then KIKI comes! (woo-woo)
mid-July: down to SD in SoCal for some rays and a free pad (double woo)
end-July: IL with the fam
August: cornfest? really hope i get to hit that one. this is really the highlight of my summer, folks. The event includes the sale of more than 16 tons of sweet corn cooked by an old steam engine and provides some of the best blues bands in Central Illinois.
mid-August: Hungary.

the life i lead.

[tomorrownickbday endmaylaurenbday sometimejuneb'sbday julymattjakemikemomerinbday definitelyforgettingsomeotherbdays]

CONGRATS, MOM!

...for your admission to grad school!

As of this fall, mom will be attending the Graduate School of Developmental Psychology at ISU! (It's about time they recognized your qualifications...) BONUS: Tuition waiver. Look for her sporting her chic, mother-of-seven-back-in-school-and-still-hip look in August... and congratulate her before that. (Leave comments here!)

We're all so proud of you!