SECTION THIRTEEN
sm
COLUMN
EIGHTY-EIGHT,
APRIL 1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)
Artists
and Workers Form One World - Without Borders!
As millions of
people demonstrated throughout the world on February 15, hundreds of Connecticut
unionists marched in New York behind the banner, "Stop the War Against
Workers at Home and Abroad!" The decision of labor activists to contribute
this internationalist point of view to the new antiwar movement will have a
profound impact on its development.
Our movement
also promises to inspire a new generation of artists. Today, ever greater
numbers of artists are rejecting the way that creative activity is channeled
into either the spectacle of consumerism or the horror of pro-war propaganda.
Thousands have signed statements pledging to resist the war and are searching
for a way to use their talents in the service of something truly visionary.
##
* * *
Murals
Build A Worldwide Cultural Movement
(Fairfield
County Weekly)
Connecticut art
professor Mike Alewitz had no permission to go to Iraq in 1998 to paint a mural
in solidarity with the Iraqi people at the University of Baghdad. He traveled
with a humanitarian group bringing medical supplies and food in defiance of
U.S.-led sanctions, a delegation that included former U.S. Attorney General
Ramsey Clark.
"We
couldn't fly into Baghdad directly," says Alewitz, "so we flew into
Jordan and drove into Baghdad."
The mural
depicts two figures holding hands over Baghdad, with bombs dropping behind and a
small American Uncle Sam figure looking up in shock. Words in Arabic read,
"Artists and Workers Form One World without Borders." The figure on
the left, Alewitz's signature ambiguous-gender/ambiguous-race purple-colored
person, wears a black cat on a T-shirt, the age-old Wobblies (Industrial Workers
of the World) "Sabo-Tabby" symbol, who sabotages capitalists.
##
* * *
Public
Readings of Lysistrata in 43 Countries and All 50 US States Condemn Preemptive
War
NEW YORK, NY --
On March 3, 2003, the Lysistrata Project will resent worldwide readings of
Aristophanes´ bawdy ancient Greek
Lysistrata tells the story of women from opposing states who unite
* * *
Professors
Debate War Talk In Class
(Hartford
Courant)
NEW BRITAIN --
Faculty members at Central Connecticut State University are fighting an academic
battle over the right of professors to express their opinions of war in the
classroom. A panel discussion among
opposing sides Thursday failed to resolve the thorny issue. The panel was
organized following an anti-war resolution from the art department that was
posted on the Internet to other faculty. ##
* * *
When
College Professors Speak Out About War
(Hartford
Courant)
When they
disagree with a view I've expressed on this page, some readers, apparently
believing they haven't thrown in enough insults, tell me how horrible it is to
know that I am influencing impressionable young college students. My response is
usually that I should be so lucky. The image of learning taking place as
information travels from a professor's mouth to a student's tender ears is
clearly not informed by any of the abundant research on how people learn.
Nonetheless,
the question of whether college professors should discuss the impending war in
their classrooms has made for lively exchanges at Central Connecticut State
University, where I teach. The debate, much of which has taken place on an
automated e-mail list read by faculty members, mirrors discussions around the
country as academics and intellectuals debate the official U.S. response to
events following Sept. 11, 2001. Why do academics hate America? has been the
pretty shaky assumption that has framed the complaints of groups that think
campuses are crawling with left-leaning, blame-America-first professors.
##
* * *
Dignified
Demeanor Assumed by a Proctologist
The Washington
Post publishes a yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate
meanings for various words. The following were some of this year's winning
entries:
1.. Coffee
(n.), a person who is coughed upon.
2..
Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3.. Abdicate
(v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4.. Esplanade
(v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5.. Willy-nilly
(adj.), impotent.
6.. Negligent
(adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in
your nightie.
7.. Lymph (v.),
to walk with a lisp.
8.. Gargoyle
(n.), an olive-flavored mouthwash.
9.. Flatulence
(n.), the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a
steamroller.
10.. Balderdash
(n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11.. Testicle
(n.), a humorous question on an exam.
12.. Rectitude
(n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a
proctologist
immediately before he examines you.
13.. Oyster
(n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions.
14.. Circumvent
(n.), the opening in the front of boxer shorts.
15..
Frisbeetarianism (n.), the belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the
roof and gets stuck there.
16.. Pokemon
(n.), a Jamaican proctologist. ##
* * *
US
Prepares to Use Chemical Weapons
(Independent.co.uk)
The US is
preparing to use the toxic riot-control agents CS gas and pepper spray in Iraq
in contravention of the Chemical Weapons
"Calmative"
gases, similar to the one that killed 120 hostages in the Moscow theatre siege
last year, could also be employed.
The convention
bans the use of these toxic agents in battle, not least because they risk
causing an escalation to full chemical warfare. This applies even though they
can be used in civil disturbances at home: both CS gas and pepper spray are
available for use by UK police forces. The US Marine Corps confirmed last week
that both had already been shipped to the Gulf.
##
* * *
Military
convoys face Italian anti-war blockade
Anti-war
protesters are vowing to block all movement of US arms by rail between American
bases in Italy, dubbing the convoys "trains of death".
Demonstrators
have squatted on railway tracks and organisers are planning a full-scale assault
on similar convoys this week.
Italy's Defence
Ministry has given the US clearance to use military bases and ports in line with
NATO commitments.
Local polls
show 70 per cent of Italians oppose war even if sanctioned by the United
Nations. ##
* * *
Texas
Justice
(Austin
American-Statesman)
In December,
Texas murder defendant Leonard Rojas' time for appeals ran out, and he was
executed. Sixty-eight days later, three members of the state's highest court for
criminal cases explicitly concluded that Rojas' appointed lawyer was woefully
incompetent and that the court's majority had ignored that incompetence while
Rojas was still alive. The lawyer, David K. Chapman: had never handled a
death-penalty case, failed to investigate Rojas' case, rarely met with Rojas,
admitted he missed filing deadlines (one of which barred Rojas from any federal
appeal), and had had his license suspended three times by the
* * *
The
Bush-Saddam Connection
According to
Britain's The Sun, both George Bush and Saddam Hussein recently ordered the same
$975 handmade shoes from the Milan, Italy, shoemaker Vito
* * *
The
Bush-Nazi Connection
There are so
many websites satirizing and exposing the Bush family
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/bushnonazi.html
* * *
Thinking
With Two Heads
After a woman
gave birth to her baby, her doctor stood solemnly
"What's
wrong?" the alarmed mother asked.
"Your baby
is a hermaphrodite."
"What's
that?"
"It means
your baby has both male and female parts."
"Oh my God
that's wonderful!" the woman exclaimed.
"You mean it has a penis and a brain?"
##
* * *
Thinking
With Two Heads Too
Dick Cheney
walks into the Oval Office and sees The President whooping and hollering.
"What's
the matter, Mr. President?" The Vice President inquired.
"Nothing
at all, boss. I just done finished a jigsaw puzzle in record time!" the
President beamed.
"How long
did it take you?"
"Well, the
box said '3 to 5 Years' but I did it in a month!"
* * *
MIKE ALEWITZ
Department of
Art
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
New Britain, Connecticut 06050
860.832.2359 ##
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