zizek on democracy now.

Quoted: Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek is author of more than fifty books. His latest is _First as Tragedy, Then as Farce_. He spoke at Cooper Union in October.

Quoted: Two people were arrested at a Montreal protest against former U.S. president George W. Bush, who addressed the city's chamber of commerce on Thursday.

I found out about this protest several hours too late.

George W. Bush in Montreal: Persona Non Grata!

- Collectif Échec à la guerre -
Montreal Rally Against George W. Bush
Thursday October 22 -- 11:00 am-1:00 pm
Queen Elizabeth Hotel, 900 Boul. René Lévesque

The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal is inviting its wealthy members and friends ($400 a head) to a Conversation with George W. Bush on October 22 where he "will share his thoughts on his eight momentous years in the Oval Office and will discuss the challenges facing the world in the 21st century."

We denounce that invitation from Montreal's business circles to George W. Bush, whose policies were in violation of international law and led to such suffering worldwide.

He isnt even president anymore and he is still followed by angry protesters (even in Alberta!). Poor bastard.

Quoted: Former U.S. president George W. Bush arrived to a loud and unfriendly welcome at the Shaw Conference Centre in downtown Edmonton on Tuesday.

Previously untranslated "War Diary" excerpts from Sartre's diary. (great first paragraph).

I have not seen the war, which seems impossible to grasp, but I have seen the world of the war. It’s simply the militarized world. The meaning of things has changed. An inn is still there, it’s still decked out and welcoming, but its welcome is empty; in other words this possibility self-destructs and becomes absurd. An inn welcomes people in exchange for money and evokes a bourgeois freedom, the freedom of money. But the world of war is a world without money and without freedom. This inn has been requisitioned by the Administration. Soldiers are staying in it, they don’t pay and they don’t stay there freely. For anyone who reads the word ‘Commissariat’ written on its front door, the inn evokes a new meaning: that of gratuitous compulsion. At the same time it has become a pure implement—in other words, whatever former luxury the object possessed, it has now been made to serve solely as a necessity. The pretty room designed to charm the traveller is simply a den for the soldiers occupying it. They sleep there, but on straw. The bed is removed or not touched. And so, long before a bomb destroys the man-made object, the human meaning of the object is already destroyed. In wartime we wander through an implement-world. Exactly as in the barracks. It’s just that, since the pretty charms of things remain, the result is at each moment a kind of evanescent appeal of a world that has disappeared, a continual illusion.

Nice article.

Quoted: Nathan Coombs: University and workplace occupations are promising indications of the return of communism, in its original sense

Democracy now interview with Madison (aka the Anarcho-Twitterer).

Quoted: Elliot Madison was arrested last month during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh when police raided his hotel room. Police say Madison and a co-defendant used computers and a radio scanner to track police movements and then passed on that information to protesters using cell phones and the social networking site Twitter. Madison is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime. Exactly one week later, Madison's New York home was raided by FBI agents, who conducted a sixteen-hour search. We speak to Elliot Madison and his attorney, Martin Stolar. [includes rush transcript]

self dottage.

Oct 2-4 eco convergence in portland.

JZ no like Chomsky or Jensen.

Quoted: Noam Chomsky is the keynoter at Portland’s ecoNvergence conference