Without the state

See you in 2006

See you in 2006, originally uploaded by ibanda.

I like this...

From a (very) long post a Kevin Carson's  Mutualist Blog.

I have to admit, every time I encounter someone who considers "libertarian socialism" to be nothing but an "oxymoron" ... I generally attribute the last two syllables to that person, and move onward. There is NOTHING contradictory between a belief in liberty, and the opinion that some things can be accomplished through consensus and agreement among the members of a community. It happens every day, in neighborhoods all over the place, and much of what we call the "free market" is based on such mutual agreements.

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943 (Library of Congress Exhibition)

I may come back to this another time but for now just look at these remarkable colour photographs:

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943 (Library of Congress Exhibition). (via Metafilter)

UK kidney patients head for China

Via Metafilter is this article in the Guardian.

A cadaveric kidney comes from a dead person and in the majority of cases in China, the dead people are prisoners, which allows for us to know at least two weeks ahead of time when the kidney will be ready.'

The Metafilter discussion includes this interestimg comment:

Devil's Advocate here. If organs were bought and sold on an open market, the profit motive would bring more organs to the market, and save more lives. The most cost effective source of new organs would probably not be death row inmates or third world innocents, but first world people who die accidental deaths. If you knew that checking the organ donor box on your license could mean a cool $50-100,000 for your bereaved family, you'd be more likely to do it. Think of it as free life insurance for the working classes. And since, as several commenters have pointed out, we are already buying and selling organs behind the scenes in this country, why not give the families of the the deceased a cut? It sounds like a win-win-win deal.

My first reaction here was revulsion, but I'm not sure why. (Of course as ever 'this country' without qualification means the US).

Edit: Another comment from the same Metafilter discussion:

The advertising possiblities alone are enormous, and the transaction fees will be a nice source of profit. If a realtor can get six percent, certainly a parts broker can get more.

Paging through the future, I see:
_________________________________
We Sell Only Interro-Certified(TM) Kidneys

Our Chairman wishes us to inform you that our highly professional interrogation staff have been carefully trained to avoid any interrogation method that could cause risk of damage to the carefully tagged organs and body parts for which your advance purchase order has been approved.

In addition, our Chairman wishes us to advise you that for all organs and body parts currently on offer, the pre-sale suspects are held in comfortable surroundings and have not been interrogated in any way that risks damage or loss of resale value of any parts listed on our website as available.

Please check often as this information is updated frequently.

Our Chairman wishes you to believe that any admission of guilt leading to the availability of organs or body parts you have purchased will have been obtained without any damage to those organs or body parts of the suspect that you are purchasing.

Note that there is a deadline up until which you may add to (but not reduce) the list of organs or body parts you are purchasing in this transaction, from those currently listed as on offer. Speculative purchase for resale is supported by our Special Transactions program.

Furthermore, our Chairman advises you that for certain less common blood and immune groups, it is wise to pre-order well in advance of need. Completion of pre-purchase is required to implement our Selective Enforcement(TM) program. Using the extensive medical records database kept by our government to locate a potential suspect who has un-committed available organs and body parts, Selective Enforcement(TM) focuses attention on the likely suspect in order to establish a basis on which to acquire the parts you have pre-purchased in a timely way.

Our Chairman wishes you to understand that Guaranteed Timely Delivery is always available on a cost-plus basis.

Thank you for considering InterroCertified(TM) Organs and Parts, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Globalized, Inc.

Rant on...

I've missed Doug Thompson's Rant column until now, but I was very taken with these.

On Ann Coulter:

...Speaking this week at The University of Connecticut, Coulter cut her speech short when the boos overwhelmed her more manly-than-sexy voice. So, she got even more pissy and told the audience that “I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am.”

Must have been a large crowd...

On Bush and the Constitution

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

Of course as a non-American I don't have quite the same reverence for that particular piece of paper as they do, but for this to come from a Republican seems a quite remarkable demonstration of level to which the Bush Administration has sunk.

Andrew Marr tee shirts!!

I'm slightly stunned.

Kinsale, Co Cork

Another photo from ibanda

Jitterbugging

I'm testing a new photo-sharing site. This image is a test of its 'send to blog' function.

Worth1000.com

There are some amazing  Photoshop effects in the contest submissions on this site.

Remind me again - why am I doing this?

If you are even an infrequent visitor to this blog, you will have noticed a certain paucity of posts of late. As ever there are many reasons - I'm trying to have what I believe is called a life, I've been busy with other things, I couldn't think of anything to say. That last is of course not true - I always have something to say but I can't always be arsed to write it down in a reasonably coherent way - such a failing not however stopping 90% of bloggers out there in Blogistan. (Sturgeon's Law applies to blogs too!)

In the end though I don't think I'm obsessive enough to write a daily blog on a single topic - even one as broad and as easy to ridicule as politics. My original intention was to write about communities and community life and I may yet manage to find a way to do that without alienating the people I work with day to day. There isn't much point however in duplicating the excellent blogs from David Wilcox or Kevin Harris on these same issues.

I still have a strong interest in environmental matters, (but see above re obsession) and again there are some excellent blogs - see for example Cool Town Studios (although I do wish they had a different name!)  David Sucher's City Comforts, or John Massengale's Veritas et Venustas. I should also point to Philip Stott's Envirospin Watch - not so much because of what he says but as an awful warning to others of where ego and pomposity can take you.

I think part of the problem is that, as I approach 60 I feel the need not to sit back and relax, but to do more and more - and blogging about those things is in reality a diversion from going out and doing them. Not always of course - I often find that it helps me to understand some new concept, some new or different approach if I write something. Even so, when I sit down at the PC I am more likely to fire up Corel Paint or Paint Shop Pro than Word. I could of course write about that very problem - as Ronni Bennett does in her own distinctive way at Time Goes By, showing with every post that passion and age are not negatively correlated.

Where these meanderings will take me I don't know, but I will try to share the journey with you.