Mimesis, Tariq Ali/Iraq, Celtic Rats, SF Fandom and Internet Explorer
Hey, writers, editors, readers and other bookish people ... This is a great opportunity for you:
Inaugural Meeting for Mimesis Publishing Cooperative
This meeting is to establishing a Publishing Cooperative dedicated to scholarly works for discerning readers.
It is recommended that we adopt the government guaranteed model rules for a non-trading cooperative.
July 3, 3pm at Borderlands (Augustine Centre, 2 Minona Street Hawthorn - 5 minutes walk from Auburn Station)
The meeting is estimated to take less than 1 hour.
Please attend to indicate your interest in this project.
Last night I attended the Tariq Ali public meeting at the Melbourne Town Hall, which was filled to capacity. Ali's main points were as follows. (1) The so-called new soverign government is merely a puppet government for the occupying forces. (2) The intelligence of the Iraqi resistance and the speed at which it has been organized is unexpected and extraordinary. (3) The war requires massive support in the media of occupying countries (which, it should be added, hasn't been received). (4) The resistance will grow, the puppet government will become more repressive and the occupying forces will become more reliant. (5) The United Nations has become servile to the United States (see Security Council resolution 1546). (6) Noone who has experienced colonial oppression has been surprised by the torture photos or the results of the occupation. (7) The war is a demonstration of US imperial power - thus some other imperialist nations opposed it. And most importantly (8)The result of the war will determine international politics for the 21st century. After the meeting I managed to get Ali's signature on 1968 Marching in the Streets, a great dairy/photo journal of the international protests of that very eventful year.
Saturday evening was spent with a small cadre of science fiction fans for Tim Richards' fourtieth birthday gathering at the ScuBar, who provided food as only a science fiction fan can provide. There is one of the worst photos of me ever taken at the birthday pics site.
Saturday day was spent in Beveridge with![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smilesnspiders, and a small cadre of others including ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cold_echo, baralier, littlecountess, kerberos_3 and vampiiria. There were a dozen of us all told, and the afternoon was spent at the Kilmore Celtic festival which had bagpipes, young lasses dancing, various Celtic prints and other kitsch. I noted the typical lack of Breton influence among the anglophone Celts. Hmmph. Anyone would think that this - the largest collection of Celts in the world - didn't actually exist.
Apart from the Celtic festival we spent quite some time at smailesnspiders.caseopaya and I had to leave at very early in the morning - one train at 0700 and the next wasn't until 1330 - and were duly informed that our rats weren't supposed to be on the V/Line as they were considered livestock! Anyway, the conductor turned a blind eye on the dear beasties, and attended the rat weigh in - Monte at 490 grams, Mouse (yes, a rat called 'Mouse') at 565 grams and the fattest rat of them all, Harley at 570 grams - and he's lost weight!.
Sunday's presentation at Church was not a particularly good presentation on the current situation in Cuba (it had more to do with the history than the current situation). However, they managed to contribute to my march towards becoming Rev. Dr. tcpip continues. On August 1st I'm giving a presentation at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on "The Future of the Human Species" (artificial intelligence, genetic engineering etc) and on August 8th I'm conducting the service.
Brain breaker of the week is work-related and it's not funny. Fromreddragdiva. Stop using Internet Explorer. No, really. This is serious. And as part of a running history of IE security flaws it really is time you changed your brower.
This meeting is to establishing a Publishing Cooperative dedicated to scholarly works for discerning readers.
It is recommended that we adopt the government guaranteed model rules for a non-trading cooperative.
July 3, 3pm at Borderlands (Augustine Centre, 2 Minona Street Hawthorn - 5 minutes walk from Auburn Station)
The meeting is estimated to take less than 1 hour.
Please attend to indicate your interest in this project.
Last night I attended the Tariq Ali public meeting at the Melbourne Town Hall, which was filled to capacity. Ali's main points were as follows. (1) The so-called new soverign government is merely a puppet government for the occupying forces. (2) The intelligence of the Iraqi resistance and the speed at which it has been organized is unexpected and extraordinary. (3) The war requires massive support in the media of occupying countries (which, it should be added, hasn't been received). (4) The resistance will grow, the puppet government will become more repressive and the occupying forces will become more reliant. (5) The United Nations has become servile to the United States (see Security Council resolution 1546). (6) Noone who has experienced colonial oppression has been surprised by the torture photos or the results of the occupation. (7) The war is a demonstration of US imperial power - thus some other imperialist nations opposed it. And most importantly (8)The result of the war will determine international politics for the 21st century. After the meeting I managed to get Ali's signature on 1968 Marching in the Streets, a great dairy/photo journal of the international protests of that very eventful year.
Saturday evening was spent with a small cadre of science fiction fans for Tim Richards' fourtieth birthday gathering at the ScuBar, who provided food as only a science fiction fan can provide. There is one of the worst photos of me ever taken at the birthday pics site.
Saturday day was spent in Beveridge with
smilesnspiders, and a small cadre of others including cold_echo, baralier, littlecountess, kerberos_3 and vampiiria. There were a dozen of us all told, and the afternoon was spent at the Kilmore Celtic festival which had bagpipes, young lasses dancing, various Celtic prints and other kitsch. I noted the typical lack of Breton influence among the anglophone Celts. Hmmph. Anyone would think that this - the largest collection of Celts in the world - didn't actually exist.Apart from the Celtic festival we spent quite some time at smailesnspiders.
caseopaya and I had to leave at very early in the morning - one train at 0700 and the next wasn't until 1330 - and were duly informed that our rats weren't supposed to be on the V/Line as they were considered livestock! Anyway, the conductor turned a blind eye on the dear beasties, and attended the rat weigh in - Monte at 490 grams, Mouse (yes, a rat called 'Mouse') at 565 grams and the fattest rat of them all, Harley at 570 grams - and he's lost weight!.Sunday's presentation at Church was not a particularly good presentation on the current situation in Cuba (it had more to do with the history than the current situation). However, they managed to contribute to my march towards becoming Rev. Dr. tcpip continues. On August 1st I'm giving a presentation at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on "The Future of the Human Species" (artificial intelligence, genetic engineering etc) and on August 8th I'm conducting the service.
Brain breaker of the week is work-related and it's not funny. From
reddragdiva. Stop using Internet Explorer. No, really. This is serious. And as part of a running history of IE security flaws it really is time you changed your brower.
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I just know they are going to be in the mornings....*groan*
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Only just in the morning - and in the city, too (110 Grey St East Melbourne) - ... 11am
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Alas, no. Can't do.
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I'll post a copy of the presentation, and I believe it'll be repeated on 3CR radio on 10.30am the following Saturday....
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It's not that great a one of me either - so you aren't alone!!!
had to leave at very early in the morning
Nothing like a bit of sleep deprivation to make the weekend complete. ;P
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Ah yes... The 5.50 am wakeup, being the main reason we didn't go to Stean's party... I forgot to mention that...
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You have now!!! ;P
Still making my way through all the MS stuff..... might have to forward it - but I doubt it will make any difference - they'll just say there "isn't enough support for other platforms" *sigh*
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We're not suggesting that they change their operating system, just their web browser..
And if they don't want to change their browser you can ask them whethere they want to hand over the passwords for their electronic banking. If they say "no", tell them they can't have it both ways.
Secure passwords OR Internet Explorer. Not both.
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we all have the same passwords for everything!!!!
Ow! Ow! Ow! You're an insurance company?
You should post that to www.fuckedcompany.com (compulsory reading that site)
BTW, it's not just the passwords for your desktop or the network that's at risk... It's offsite connections as well. Like westpac.com.au etc...
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Tell me about it!!!! We all have the same log on id's for the network, Lotus Notes, the so called protected word files - everything. If we are caught having changed any of this we are in trouble.
Which article do you recommend I send to our "IT Department" (I use the term very loosely)?
Might just visit that site and see if I can't post something there (care to tell me how to email anonmously??)
Time for me to do all my banking stuff at home then.....
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Next time we will organise it a little more sleep in friendly (-:
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Good luck in finding a new home for you and your boys too! *hugs*
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Why is this meeting the day after the one Abyss that I plan to attend this year?
Is there any further information available about this project? My interest is piqued.
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Because last week I was in Kilmore and the week after I'll be in Sydney for Ruxcon?
Hey, it's on at 3pm... That's pretty late ;-)
Is there any further information available about this project? My interest is piqued.
Heh. I thought of you when I wrote 'editors'... OK, basically it's a collective for self-publishing - which means the authors have quite a bit of freedom concerning content and style - the only thing that I imagine the Committee of Management would worry about would be (a) copyright, defamation etc (b) a complete lack of editing (in which case we would recommend they go to one of our preferred editors) or (c) it's (ahem) a lot below our preferred standards (we want to do the Poetic or Prose Edda, not Hagar The Horrible).
How does all that sound?
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Feel free to email me at penny at vurt dot net, if it would be easier than LJ comments :)
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No, it's a shame, but I haven't been in contact with him for a couple of years - you must forward his email on so I can chat with him. Great to heart that he's organizing the Tariq meeting, the old trouble maker... You missed a good night, but noone would seriously expect you out on the town so close to post-op... I suspect he'll be here again soon.
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Exactly what the Stalinists said about West Germany.
(2) The intelligence of the Iraqi resistance and the speed at which it has been organized is unexpected and extraordinary.
According to the opinion polls, they are doing worse at hearts and minds than the Coalition and much worse that the new (admittedly untested) government.
Since much of the resistance isn't Iraqi but deployment of external jihadis already on a warfooting, not so surprising.
Given the disbanding of previous army and police, even less so.
(3) The war requires massive support in the media of occupying countries (which, it should be added, hasn't been received)
Which sould suggest it doesn't, then, wouldn't it?
(4) The resistance will grow, the puppet government will become more repressive and the occupying forces will become more reliant.
What limited domestic support will collapse further, since there is indisputably an Iraqi government and the foreign nature of the jihadis will become more stark.
(5) The United Nations has become servile to the United States (see Security Council resolution 1546).
As during the debate over the intervention in the first place?
(6) Noone who has experienced colonial oppression has been surprised by the torture photos or the results of the occupation.
There was nothing particularly colonial about the prison photoes. In fact, it was much worse under Saddam. As for the results of the occupation, the people with genuine colonial experience -- the British in Basra, have done much better.
(7) The war is a demonstration of US imperial power - thus some other imperialist nations opposed it.
The Franco-Germans would be awfully miffed at this description, particularly the Germans. As it happens, I think that the EU global governance agenda is indeed weltpolitik mark II.
At some level, it is an American imperium. At another, it is far and the way the least imperial of all imperial powers.
And most importantly (8)The result of the war will determine international politics for the 21st century.
Or some proportion thereof. Yes, of course. The notion that a US defeat will lead to a good situation is naive in the extreme, a flagrant failure to grasp the patterns of history.
Apart from more general patterns, consider the major Cold War conflicts from the Western alliance perspective: Korea was a draw (very good for the people of South Korea, very bad for the people of North Korea), Vietnam was a loss (very bad for the people of Indochina), Malaya and Nicaragua were wins (good for both populaces), Afghanistan was a win (bad for the Afghans, due to far too much being subcontracted out to the Pakistanis and the Arabs paying two-thirds of the cost: it was actually an Islamic win with American assistance).
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Which doesn't mean even if the Stalinists were wrong that this assessment is in the same category.
According to the opinion polls,
Whilst I'm not one to put much faith in opinion polls conducted in a country in a state of war, the following gives some indication.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-28-poll-cover_x.htm
since there is indisputably an Iraqi government and the foreign nature of the jihadis will become more stark.
Well this will be the test then. If the Iraqi government is perceived as legitimate and whether the opposition is actually foreign.
As during the debate over the intervention in the first place?
I seem to recall they were pretty pathetic then as well..
There was nothing particularly colonial about the prison photoes.
Members of Sinn Fein would beg to differ!
The notion that a US defeat will lead to a good situation is naive in the extreme, a flagrant failure to grasp the patterns of history.
It all depends on what you call "good" and "bad" results. For example, I consider the victory of the NLF to be good for the people of Indochina and the actions of the US in Nicaragua were positively shameful for any government that suggests that it supports democracy and human rights.
Responses
(2) I didn't claim that the occupation had remained popular, merely that they were more popular than the insurgents. It is precisely because the insurgents lack popular support that they are attempting to sabotage the process.
(3) Not all the insurgency is foreign, just much of it.
(4) The question was whether the UN was being 'servile' to the US. Given they denied the US the authorisation it put a lot of effort into getting, clearly not.
(5) If Abu Ghraib was worse under Saddam, which it was, and if prison abuses occur in all sorts of context, which they do, then it is not one particular form.
(6) Vietnam was not an NLF victory, it was a North Vietnamese victory. It resulted in the Khmer Rouge megacide, millions of refugees and the imposition of series of corrupt tyrannies which are now attempting to create the sort of economies that millions tied in the attempt to not have.
The refugees themselves express what the outcome was.
As for Nicaragua, while one can't endorse the whole package, the Sandinistas were put under sufficient pressure as to allow a free vote. Which, like Pinochet, they abided by.
Re: Responses
1) Come now, it is difficult to suggest that this is not a puppet regime. The government has no control over the action or presence of the US military. The US maintains an overseeer role over the Iraqi security forces. Ultimate control over the oil resources remains with the US and other companies under contract.
This is what sovereignity is supposed to mean:
Sovereignty (Webster)1 . Supremacy in rule or power. 2 . Power to govern without external control 3 . The supreme political power in a state.
None of this is the case in Iraq - but it was in West Germany.
2) I take your point, but one comment which Ali made was that an organization that large and that coordinated could not operate without substantial popular support - there would be information leaks everywhere.
4) Most recently the UN security council resolution notes that the US presence in Iraq can only be terminated by a vote of the Security Council. Where the Bush Administration can control the outcome with its veto power.
5) Apart from initiating an illegal war, we have no witnessed in recent weeks the killing of civilians (Falluja), torture (Abu Ghraib) and the bombing the wedding party (Maghar al Deeb).
It will be interesting to see what Amnesty International has to say in this years report compared to the final year of Saddam's rule.
6) Following the 1969 US bombing of Cambodia, which killed thousands of civilians and the 1970 invasion by the US and South Vietnam, Cambodia was dragged into the Vietnam war. The US-backed General Lon Nol deposed Prince Sihanouk, when then threw his weight behind the Khmer Rogue, which had hitherto been an utterly insignificant force.
This resulted in Khmer Rogue gaining strategtic and political ascendency, eventually resulting with Phnom Penh falling to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975. Following numerous border incursions and the intolerable human rights abuses the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1978. The United States (and in particular the PRC) gave continious support for the Pol Pot regime (even when it was deposed) in the international arena.
The United States is entirely responsible for the creation and success of the Pol Pot regime. The Vietnamese are solely responsible for it being overthrown.
Publishing
Though I already have one publishing company, and even my own Borderlands, so my interest is more to compare rather than with a view to getting directly involved in another publishing venture.
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Apostasy!
Becoming an apostate also makes you an "official enemy" of the church along with having your baptism and confirmation annulled. Unfortunately for the RCC there is no neutral ground - you're either with them or an enemy apparently.