Las Vegas Anarchoblogs

• The Dialethic Right. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-04-28). Two things conservatives like to say: Our constitutional rights aren’t granted to us by government. Our rights come from God, and the Constitution simply recognises them. Illegal immigrants and terrorist suspects don’t have constitutional rights because they’re not American citizens. (Linked Wednesday 2010-04-28.)

• Remembering Corporate Liberalism. rechelon, Invisible Molotov (2010-04-24). “Remembering Corporate Liberalism” by Roderick T Long “During the first half of the 20th century, there was a widespread perception that big government and big business were fundamentally at odds. Free-market individualists generally regarded themselves as defenders of peaceful business interests against the rapacious state. Those on the left saw... (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• XKCD "Hell" implemented in flash. Hacker News (2010-04-29). Comments (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• Anarchism 101. You, Anarchoblogs (2010-04-16). I love how people who would barely pass an 11th-grade civics test like to taunt anarchists with the ever-so-damning, irrefutable line “But how would you prevent a warlord from rising to power, in Anarchy?” and then act as if that is such a complete and well-thought-out argument that it pre-empts... (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• trying to find embeddable video, but rachel maddow - who, Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-04-15). trying to find embeddable video, but rachel maddow - who, actually, i like to watch - is incessantly touting her show on timothy mcveigh: it's all about the dangers of "anti-government violence." i guess really they focus-grouped the phrase "anti-gov" and now use it as a synonym for insanity. but... (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• Insert "Won't Get Fooled Again" Reference Here. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-04-29). Charlie Savage reports: The Obama administration is seeking to compel a writer to testify about his confidential sources for a 2006 book about the Central Intelligence Agency, a rare step that was authorized by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The author, James Risen, who is a reporter for The... (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

For those who have been following some discussions elsewhere, this one goes out to dukemeiser. Because Axe Cop is the world’s greatest defender of the Bush-Obama doctrine of surveillance and Homeland Security:

What I like about the comic is that it really does seem to be a pretty accurate representation of how War on Terror-hawks think the world ought to work. Why shouldn’t it? To hell with courts and civil liberties and all those other chickenshit liberal axe-blocks. Since the government has a list of ALL THE BAD GUYS, wouldn’t you want them to chop their heads off?

And I’ve got to say, the kind of police-state and assassin-state policies that they insist on as simple common sense really do sound like something that you get when some bright policy wonk comes up with some legal verbiage and precedents to trick out an idea which, at its core, is something that he got from the ideas and fantasies of his 5 year old little brother.

Prisoners are Humans too!From: Las Vegas SunBy Cy Ryan Thursday, April 29, 2010CARSON CITY – To make budget cuts, Nevada prisons have removed staff from visiting towers and cut back on training, said Howard Skolnik, director of the state Department of Corrections. He told the Legislative Interim Finance Committee tensions are growing at the High Desert Correctional Center at Indian

Interview with Marritte Funches, by Nevada Prison WatchQ. For people who don´t know who you are, can you tell us a little about yourself? A. Okay, well first I´m a convict committed to the education of young people in prison, putting an end to the gangster death style destroying the lives of our youth. And I am a prisoners rights activist committed to prison- and judicial reform.Born and raised

• ALL At NYC Anarchist Book Fair. DarianW, DarianWorden.com (2010-04-20). Alliance of the Libertarian Left folks from New Jersey, New York, and New Hampshire converged at the 2010 NYC Anarchist Book Fair. This is the first time ALL had a table at the event. We had a good mix of cheap and free literature: The table got more organized as... (Linked Tuesday 2010-04-27.)

• *"It is the responsibility of writers to listen to gossip and. Masha, Cyganeria (2010-04-26). "It is the responsibility of writers to listen to gossip and pass it on. It is the way all storytellers learn about life." ~Grace PaleyOne of the benefits of working a side job as a writer is the constant exposure to people and their stories. My co-workers are people I'm... (Linked Tuesday 2010-04-27.)

• The Big Anarchist Survey. DarianW, DarianWorden.com (2010-04-21). I hope lots of anarchists fill out The Big Anarchist Survey. It won’t take long, and the survey writers provided space to write in answers and comment on the survey itself. (Linked Tuesday 2010-04-27.)

• A (comparatively) cheerful post, for once: Naomi Wolf and the Tea Parties. John Markley, The Superfluous Man (2010-04-21). My feelings towards the Tea Party movement, and the public protests against the current administration's policies in general, have generally been favorable but pessimistic: It's nice to see a popular movement opposing the galloping statism of the bailouts, the stimulus, and health care "reforms," but my expectation has been that... (Linked Tuesday 2010-04-27.)

• Apple IIe Twitter Terminal. Daring Fireball (2010-04-28). Awesome. (Linked Wednesday 2010-04-28.)

I was sitting in my garden this afternoon thinking about a bumper sticker I had seen recently. It proclaimed simply, Compost Happens. I can not think of this without that scene from Forrest Gump creeping into my mind. You know, the one where Forrest gives the idea for the ubiquitous hippie saying, Shit Happens.

Well, they do both just happen. And often they are the same thing!! Many manures make excellent compost, cow, horse, poultry, even human! Rabbit is a lucky one that needs no composting. Just add directly to your garden.

Generally though, compost simply refers to the act of decomposing carbon based matter into soil. Just about everything can be composted; some just take a lot longer. Manure, food scraps, yard waste, leaves, newspaper, coffee grounds, wood shavings, even animal bones and bodies. Usually, in a home environment composting bones and meat would attract pests and encourage funky smells. Animal foods and wastes should be composted carefully and thouroughly.

Starting a compost pile is simple. There is no need for a bin, unless you choose. We started with an open pile, eventually enclosing it with cinder blocks, when it go too large to stay in one spot, as shown below.

Layer the above materials in your pile, try to keep it even parts wet nitrogenous materials (produce, grass, coffee, urine) with dry carbonaceous materials (straw, newspaper, cardboard (not waxed), nut shells, yard waste/dry plant materials). Keep adding materials as you have them and keep it moist, if necessary to your climate. We have an extremely dry climate, so watering is necessary. In a moist climate, a cover may be necessary to keep rain out.
When your pile is large enough, 3′x3′x3′, you can start a new pile and finish this one into soil. To do this, stop adding new materials, keep evenly moist and stir it up every couple of weeks. In a few short months it will look like dark brown/black rich soil. Spread it around your garden, top dress houseplants or plant straight into it. An old compost pile is a perfect place for a new tree.

Urine is another free waste fertilizer. Urine is a fantastic source of nitrogen. Diluted with 10 times water, urine is a perfect fertilizer directly applied to houseplants and your garden. Undiluted it could burn plants up, but diluted it’s like free Miracle Gro.

Compost and Shit. They just happen. The substances that come from the each know to return to her when they are done. It’s like the Earth calls back that which came from her. As naturally as those things came from the ground, they return to enrich the soil and provide new life. It’s a circle, in nature, that never ends.

Only in civilized society do we completely ignore this necessary cycle and ignore the health of our soils. Help me change that, one backyard farm at a time.

Hot Pursuit. Daily Brickbats (2010-04-27):

San Antonio, Texas, police say Officer Gabriel Villareal has been suspended indefinitely, but they refuse to say why. However, a woman, who was not identified by local media, says he showed up at her door one day saying he was responding to a 911 call. She said she hadn't called....

In which Officer Gabriel Villareal, stalker in uniform, uses his powers as a police officer to hunt down a San Antonio woman's address, barge in on her unannounced, and harass her in her own home. If you or I used our own private resources to pull a stunt like that, we'd be prime candidates for a restraining order and might well end up arrested on stalking or menacing charges. When Men In Uniform use their own far more extensive resources, as well as the implicit threat of their legal and physical powers, to inflict their unwanted attentions on unwilling women, suddenly it's a private administrative matter, to be handled behind closed doors by the Department.

• What a Fool Believes. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-04-23). Arizona Governor Jan Brewer explains why we shouldn’t worry that her state’s new law (allowing the police to demand identity papers from anyone who looks like they might be an “illegal” immigrant) won’t lead to racial profiling or other abuses (as if “the thing itself” were not abuse enough …):... (Linked Friday 2010-04-23.)

• No More Looking Back...Unless You've Embarrassed Us. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-04-16). Julian Sanchez has posted some sharp comments about Thomas Drake, the NSA whistleblower facing charges for leaking information to the Baltimore Sun. Sanchez concludes: the contrast between the reaction to Drake and the non-reaction to other forms of lawbreaking makes the standard in effect for Bush-era misdeeds clear: If you... (Linked Saturday 2010-04-24.)

• Because They Can. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-04-24). The TSA at work. (Linked Saturday 2010-04-24.)

• Ugly Viral vs. Pretty Viral. Mike Sellers, Online Alchemy (2010-04-15). Recently I encountered yet another app on Facebook that required me to “become a fan” and install the app before I could even see what it was, much less whether I liked it enough to become a real fan. Sorry, no. That’s not viral except in the meanest, ugliest sense.  Like... (Linked Sunday 2010-04-25.)

So, what about helping prisoners get medical care? We hope this is not another cover up or lost chance to get at least medical reforms to Nevada prisons.Associated Press, via Review JournalApril 21, 2010The state of Nevada and American Civil Liberties Union are trying to finalize an agreement to settle a class action lawsuit over medical care for inmates at the maximum security prison in Ely.An

From: LVRJPosted by John L. SmithWednesday, Apr. 07, 2010 at 12:36 PMA mistrial in U.S. District Court has been declared in the civil rights case in which former state corrections officers accuse Nevada prison officials of harassment and creating a hostile workplace.Federal Judge Philip Pro on Wednesday sent both sides back to work and scolded them for attempting to introduce exhibits into