"But maybe in the next world, maybe in the next world"

A major fracture in the Occupy movement? Say it isn't so! Major down twinkles, man. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. All honeymoons end. Here's the full article, and here's a highlights piece from Verum Serum. Excerpt:

Because even by the time the General Assembly was ready to meet at 7:30 p.m., things were unraveling. A large group, made up almost entirely of men, stood in a circle denouncing the General Assembly and their efforts to "police" the camp, particularly regarding drinking or smoking weed. Anyone who spoke in favor of a code of conduct was aggressively booed. Adding to the morass were four different men looping in and out of the circle, each armed with his own megaphone, shouting their own grievances and rhetoric. When a runner from the General Assembly made the announcement that they would begin the meeting, he was thunderously shouted down, then someone yelled out “The GA is dead!” and the crowd erupted in both celebration and shock: "We don’t want you or your fucking procedure!" One male protester, in an army helmet and no shirt, cried out as shoving matches erupted between several groups of men. The young man who was leading the informal group yelled: "This is the People’s Forum! There are no committees, there are no rules, everyone gets to speak. Get in a circle! GET IN A CIRCLE!" A majority of the crowd abided, although they were openly chastised when the circle took on non-circle shapes.

If there are no rules, then what is the next statement when he says "Everyone gets to speak"? Sounds like a rule to me, albeit a dumb rule. There's an old proverb, something like "Anarchists should be seen and not heard" which I think is mainly based on the content of their blather and not the threatening tone or the megaphonic volume.

The next paragraph mentions how everything eventually degenerated into "spastic dancing and primal bellowing". This is the most consistent thing to do shortly after denouncing rules, authority and order of any kind.

Reminds me of the lyrics to Death of a Disco Dancer by the Smiths:

Love, peace and harmony ?
Love, peace and harmony ?
Oh, very nice
Very nice
Very nice
Very nice
...but maybe in the next world

"[W]e have no idea what you are doing..."

So get this: Occupy Madison loses it's permit. Why?

A neighboring hotel's staff alleged voiced concerns about having to recently escort hotel employees to and from bus stops late at night due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters. In addition, officials agreed further occupation should not be allowed to continue without restrooms on site to avoid further public health violations.

Public masturbation. Yep, that ought to do it. Here's the part that really puts it into featured can't-make-this-up-material.

Occupy Madison representative and street use permit holder Paul Streeter said he hopes to use the 30 on the Square space again as soon as possible after Freakfest.

"[The protest] is indeed a work in progress," Streeter said. "We will continue to address issues as they come up."

No pun intended, we'll assume.

Madison's Parks Division requested a written form stating the dates and location where members wish to occupy.

"You can tell us what your proposals are, but we have no idea what you are doing, how you are doing it or what your safety and security plan is," McCullen said. "We have nothing in writing to back it up, and we usually require that all events have [written plans]."

Do any of them no how to write?

Occupy Madison is relocating onto Olin Terrace until Monday when Freak Fest is over, and they can request a new permit for 30 on the Square.

Call it Freak Fest II. Or maybe "The Real Freak Fest". Or "Festering Freaks", "We have no freaking point"... the possibilities are endless.

The Like Total Unfairness of Darn Rich People

My feeble attempts at humor are nothing, NOTHING, compared to this awesomeness from Frank J. Fleming. Excerpt:

See, the wealthiest 1 percent prevent us from getting ahead because any time we improve our incomes, we spend more on businesses and services, and guess who that helps? The 1 percent. Getting ahead just isn’t worth the knowledge that the rich are getting richer.

There’s no point in working hard to try to become one of the 1 percent ourselves, because what’s the chance of that happening? One in 100? Who would play a lottery with odds that bad?

No, instead of working hard, the 99 percent can only sit and protest on Wall Street until the wealthiest 1 percent are torn down.

Here’s the thing: They’re the 1 percent, but we’re the 99 percent. Their wealth may be much more than ours, but 99 is a much bigger number than one. So we should just gang up and take their money.

When one person takes the property of another, that’s tyranny, but when lots of people get together and do it, that’s democracy. So we should legislate that the 1 percent no longer get to keep that vast wealth and must instead distribute it among the rest of us. (I should get the largest portion because it was my idea.)

Read the whole thing, it's worth it.

Paul Ryan: Saving the American Idea

Subtitle is "Rejecting Fear, Envy and the Politics of Division".



He is right on, my man Paul.

I live for this stuff: Occupy Jupiter!

It's so unfair! Grab your spacesuits.

Great line from this page: "99% of all matter in the solar system is in the sun. We are the 1%!!!"

I found the picture in a TPP email, but this is probably the original source.

Geometric Purity Fail

The dispenser on the refrigerator where I work is labeled Ice Cubes. But you could hardly call what came out when I pushed the lever "cubes". They would be best described as "the round half of a semi-circle."

They were CINOs: Cubes In Name Only.

Sure they functioned as ice, chilling my cola thoroughly. But I kept thinking "Why aren't you cubes like you say you are? Do you just want to fit in the round glass better and that is why you've compromised on your shape? And how will we ever restore the French Monarchy?" I didn't voice these thoughts aloud like I wanted to; someone might have walked in the kitchen and heard me. But I don't think the faux cubes would have cared. They were too busy smiling at each other like Cheshire cats: "Look how cool we all are!"

I looked at the glass filled with cola and phony cubes for what seemed like a minute but was actually only about fifty-seven seconds, give or take a few. Finally I made a firm decision. I fished out each of the phony cubes with a spoon and threw them in the sink. It was a stainless steel spoon made in the USA, not one of those new plastic ones that only looks like it's made of metal.

Satisfied that I had made the right decision, I picked up my partially flat cola and returned to my cube. As usual, I couldn't help noticing as I entered my cube that it is actually rectangular and missing two sides.