Some interesting stuff from around the interwebs!
Ten workplace rights you think you have, but don’t. Good information, if not a bit lacking in proposed solutions:
Since most people think these laws exist, maybe it’s probably high time for them to actually be passed. E-mail your congressperson and state representative now and complain if you don’t like the fact that you’re not protected. Here are some places to find out how to contact your representative in Congress:
The obsolescence of the American lawn:
I hate that it’s come to this, but I have to say it. I agree with the god damned granola eaters. In an era of economic insecurity, decreasing oil supplies, and general uncertainty regarding the sustainability of our current mainstream American lifestyle, it makes a ton of sense to localize food production. Especially when we have all this yard space which is currently being dedicated to vanity lawns.
In the end, to me, all of the above is just window dressing for the greater problems I’ve noticed of late. Take for instance the response we’ve seen to the Chick-Fil-A madness, or conversations on gun violence over the past month, or the political back and forth leading up to November’s election. We’ve become so insulated as to what and who’ve we’ve chosen to surround ourselves with - who we read, who we ‘friend’ and ‘de-friend,’ which pages we follow and so on - that when we do poke our heads outside of our self-contained bubble, the venom that we see spewed on others or even on ourselves can be vicious and at times unconscionable.
[S]ix million people have no income other than food stamps. Food stamps provide an income at a third of the poverty line, close to $6,300 for a family of three. It’s hard to understand how they survive.
Security culture danger as closed Occupy Homes sessions proceed without 2/3rds internal support in MN:
The troubling thing is that quite frequently, people in the paid milieu don’t realize their tactical approaches are harmful to the very forces they’re trying to bolster. The gradients of structural politics, grants, co-option, working in cooperation and trying to build bridges to turn large projects into movements are certainly not pretty, and makes people uneasy.
This is why the open nature of Occupy as a network has been such a sturdy foundation - it works not as a closed door cabal but rather an open network. Security culture, properly applied, involved small temporary affinity groups working on individual projects, far away from any venues with dozens of people. No more ambitious OPSEC (operational security) approach is really plausible. The closing of information and lines of contact damages the ability of the networks to maintain a ‘common operating picture’ and the broad, heterogeneous ‘weak tie networks’ needed to keep projects thriving over the long run.
Anti-gay protest goes horribly wrong, electroshock therapy is awful and is still being used, hundreds of thousands of children are working in American fields for less than minimum wage, and anarchists are being politically targeted:
When FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided multiple activist homes in the Northwest last week, they were in search of “anti-government or anarchist literature.”
The raids were part of a multi-state operation that targeted activists in Portland, Olympia, and Seattle. At least three people were served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury on August 2nd in Seattle.
In addition to anarchist literature, the warrants also authorize agents to seize flags, flag-making material, cell phones, hard drives, address books, and black clothing.
How to stop a massacre: arm more grandpas?
What have you read, written, or seen? Share your links in the comments!
