slackbastard

On Tuesday 23rd of February — coinciding with the 34th anniversary of ACDC’s famous film clip shoot down Swanston Street — S.L.A.M (Save Live Australian Music) is organising a protest in support and celebration of the music scene in Victoria where current liquor licensing laws threaten to pull the plug on live music.
We will meet [...]

“Where scholars deny genocide, [they] contribute to the deadly psychohistorical dynamic in which unopposed genocide begets new genocides.” ~ Roger W. Smith, Eric Markusen and Robert Jay Lifton, ‘Professional Ethics and Denial of the Armenian Genocide’ (1995)
“There is no horror, no cruelty, sacrilege, or perjury, no imposture, no infamous transaction, no cynical robbery, no bold [...]

Alistair Hulett died at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow on Thursday evening, January 28, 2010.
Singer, songwriter, socialist.
I only saw Alistair play live once, at the Celtic Club (1887–), some time in the early ’90s. He gave a great performance. One day I’ll upload the Benefit Single For the Campaign Exposing The Frame Up Of [...]

Howard Zinn died yesterday.
Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death on December 9, 1981.
He remains on death row.

Supreme Court opens door to Mumia’s execution
Jeff Mackler
January 26, 2010
In a dangerous decision and a break with its own precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court, on Jan. 19, opened the door wide to Pennsylvania prosecutors’ efforts to execute the innocent [...]

If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.
Bill Moyers interviews Howard Zinn, December 11, 2009.
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies [...]

About Australia: The National Anthem…

William lauds ’spirit of Australia in its purest form’, David Rood, The Age, January 22, 2010.

See also : The website of Robbie Thorpe, committed activist on issues relating to Australian history, Indigenous sovereignty, lack of treaty, land-rights justice, genocide and national denial. Robbie is from the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai [...]

That the guitarist and vocalist for neo-Nazi ’skinhead’ band Kill Baby Kill (KBK), Dieter Samoy, is dead is not exactly news: he hanged himself last week. But it is news for some in Belgium:
Zelfmoord Brugse skinhead (28) na veroordeling racisme
Veroordeelde racistische aanval stapt uit het leven
Suicide d’un skinhead condamné pour une agression mortelle et raciste
Suicide [...]

By way of imagining the real world, Southeast Asia Sounding: 1/18/2010:
I previously mentioned a review of the “Chomsky/Cambodia” debate. For those not familiar with this eternally recurring ideologically-driven nightmare, Noam Chomsky, internationally the most respected intellectual in the world (if one is to judge by citation, a common measure), is repeatedly accused of having been [...]

Update : chookie69 has (six) more vids from Sunday’s protest rally. Mad props to Brumby, MacLellan, Robinson & Wynne for protecting working families in Collingwood by finally putting a stop to the “incredible levels of violence” (Victoria Police) which have spilled out from the venue over the last few decades. See also : Nostalgia and [...]

After Pat Robertson does what crazy mentalists do, journalist Lisa Miller responded, pointing out that Haiti is “surely a Job among nations” (Why God Hates Haiti, Newsweek, January 15, 2010). After listing the appalling conditions Haitians endure and the recent series of (quasi-)natural disasters that preceded this latest devastating earthquake, Miller writes: “This litany doesn’t [...]