Joe SixPack's Empties

Giordano Bruno-anniversary
In 1992, after 12 years of deliberations, the Roman Catholic Church grudgingly admitted that Galileo Galilei had been right in supporting the theories of Copernicus. The Holy Inquisition had forced an aged Galileo to recant his ideas under threat of torture in 1633. But no such admission has been made in the case of Bruno. His writings are still on the Vatican's list of forbidden texts.

Police State update-broken link-newsunlimited.co.uk
The US comprises 5% of the global population yet it is responsible for 25% of the world's prisoners.

Chick-fil-A
If you're a guy who likes to wear an earring, don't bother applying for work at any of the nation's 850 Chick-fil-A restaurants, the founder and chairman of the company said Monday.

Unpublished Federal Study Found THC-Treated Rats Lived Longer, Had Less Cancer
The newly available Federal toxicology study provides the best evidence yet that the risks of THC are small. What other drug would increase life expectancy of rats when given in huge overdoses daily for two years? The recent Federal attacks on medical marijuana -- against doctors and desperately ill patients -- are needlessly cruel, and bizarrely inappropriate to scientific and medical understanding.
From PigsAndFishes

Progressive mag. Interview
my favorite author and future Nobel Prize winner--
EDUARDO GALEANO is one of Latin America's most distinguished writers, storytellers, journalists, and historians. His classic work is Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. His other books include Book of Embraces, We Say No: Chronicles 1963-1991, and the award-winning trilogy Memory of Fire, reissued by Norton last year. His latest book, also published last year by Verso, is Soccer in Sun and Shadow.

Can you get DSL?
Just key in some particulars. If you are paranoid, just use your neighbors phone number. I live too far in the sticks, but surprisingly, in town DSL will be available in March. They say. P.S. In case you've just come out of a coma, DSL is a high speed internet connection, relatively cheap.

Check from Microsoft for sale
This guy did a good deed for Microsoft and they sent him $500, he's auctioning check and donating proceeds to charity. Auction page has link to his story.

Boggs Update
The American Prospect has a review by James K. Galbraith of Weschler's book. Also the Tampa Museum of Art has exhibition catalogs still available (in Nov.) from his show in 1990 featuring 18 pictures from the exhibition and three essays about Boggs, one by The Nation's art critic Arthur C. Danto.

Patrick O'Brian remembered-Via Robot Wisdom
Patrick O'Brian was one of the authors that I read after amazon.com recommended him to me. I didn't expect their selections to match my taste but of the 10 or so authors that I have read that they suggested I have liked 9 of them.

U.S. Attack Chinese Embassy
Detailed background and links with summaries of Worldwide Media coverage and analysis

The Ethical Spectacle
Excellent WTO protest overview. Also the "Off The Hook" radio show which airs on tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. on WBAI in NY had a live report from Amy Goodman who struggled through the gassing.

Jury finds conspiracy in MLK assassination
The Mainstream Media practically ignore this trial compared to the OJ civil trial which had absolutly no relevence to the vast majority of people on earth.

Memories of Federico Fellini-via robot wisdom
This is a book review(sort of). I've recently seen two Fellini films Orchestra Rehearsal and 8 1/2. I loved 8 1/2. I haven't been to the theater since Rain Man and I typically watch at least two movies every week, at home. In 1994, I bought a TV and VCR and tapped into cable for the World Cup. I untapped the cable after 2 months and don't watch any TV at home except for bingeing during the World Cup every four years. I also binge when I go home to my parent's in FL, which I did for the last 8 days. It wasn't really a vacation since I quit working on Jan 1 and have no intention of getting another job. I live off my savings and they are growing faster than my spending. I am also in the process of designing, landscaping and building a house on the 4.281 acres that I own overlooking the Oostanaula river. I typically spend about half the day building rock walls and other stuff that is labor intensive but inexpensive.

FBI censors art site
Mike Z. put a film the web, FBI didn't like it, poof! its gone.

Progressive Review
Interesting piece on Pat Buchanan and Fascism and WTO.

Fallingwater
I recently spent some time in New England and on the way we went to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. I recommend it highly. We were on our way to my cousin's wedding in Newark, NY (right on the Erie Canal). I don't usually go to family weddings. So far I've successfully dodged my two sister's weddings(one was married in Mexico so it wasn't too hard) and now I'm 1 for 5 for cousins. (see Emma Goldman). The reception was held at the Casa Larga Vineyards. We saw a lot of nice country with the leaves changing, blah, blah, blah. The prettiest area we went to was the Putnam Valley area of NY. We also went to Westfield,(coincidently birthplace of FLW's father and my cousin) and W. Springfield, MA. My mother and her sisters inherited a house and stuff from their aunt and we went through scavaging. I got a bunch of books and a Tiffany thermometer. Very Cool-I saw this same thing a few years ago when I went to the Cooper-Hewitt. It is a Henry Dreyfuss design he's most famous for his Round Honeywell thermostat. My apologies for being so slow between updates(like anyone reads this).

Getting It's WACO position
A handy chart showing some of the obvious Government Lies from GettingIt

First person account by WACO survivor
David Thibodeau gives perspective that the mainstream media doesn't want to acknowledge. He's not a Wacko.

Bogg's: A Comedy of Values-Review
I just read this book. Bogg's draws images of money and then spends them at face value. Excellent story. Here is Bogg's website.
He is also a fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethic's and a Swiss Gallery and early supporter that carries his work and a Law Student's detailed look at the legal issues.

Top Corporate Criminals
And the winner is .... Hoffmann-La Roche.
They made the drug test that I failed while in the Air Force.

BlueOvalNews
This site recently won a lawsuit- Ford sued over the posting of internal documents that were leaked to him. Prior to judgement some in the media were sneering at him for using the royal "we" in reference to his problems. The Court didn't go for it either:
Judge: "I need you to say I unless you are speaking about you and your wife together doing something."

Voter tax credit proposal
Interesting suggestion to encourage voting from the Council On Hemispheric Affairs.

Sister's Weblog
My younger sister is an attorney and she started a weblog at pita too.

Netscape download page SNAFU?
I was looking into some security sites today and came across one that told me my browser had only 40 bit encryption. So whenever I got to any site that locks the little lock in the corner of my browser I get the weakest possible protection for the info that gets transferred. I was sure that this was a mistake so I did a search for other sites that had browser security tests here's one and here's another. I was unpleasantly shocked that every site told me the same thing, so I went to netscape and they said their DNS lookup can't prove I'm in the USA and won't let me upgrade. Maybe I'll just use IE.

Cover-up breaking down
Officials of the FBI and Justice Department admitted Wednesday that tear gas grenades with potentially incendiary effect were used in the final assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas six years ago.

The FACT that they were used had been previously documented in the film Waco: The Rules of Engagement, with infrared aerial photography of scene during the final assault.

Modesty Blaise book review
I read this book the other day after discovering that this was the book John Travolta's character was reading in Pulp Fiction. Here is a fan site for Modesty with an interview with the author that explains inspiration for the story.

The Economist on Productivity
Nissan's plant in Sunderland, in the north of England, maintained its position as the MOST PRODUCTIVE EUROPEAN CAR PLANT, producing 105 vehicles per employee in 1998, up from 98 in the previous year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The world's leading car plants in Japan produce around 160 vehicles per employee but America's best, that of Honda in Merrysville, Kentucky, produced just 88.

And in a related story from (NTK.net):

Revolutionary Girl Utena-Review
I read a review a couple of months ago about this show that said how wonderful it was. I rented it from Blockbuster. The most bizarre thing is this is supposed to be aimed at teen girls but Blockbuster has the video "Youth Viewing Resticted -No one under 17 can rent". I have no idea what causes this rating, they say "that sucks for you" a couple times in reference to bad test scores so it can't be language. It has no nudity. It did have 2 swordfights, but nobody is injured and there is no blood. Could it just be the fact that a "girl" wants to be a "prince" and dresses in boys clothes? Or that her friend calls her her boyfriend? This was the first anime I had ever seen so I don't know what's typical but I liked it a lot.

The Progressive Review

THE REVIEW LIST
Why progressives should
stop pushing for more
gun control laws

-- There are already thousands of them, too many of which don't work. Every ineffective law brings government into disrepute.

-- Prohibition of something that large numbers of citizens want always fail, witness the war on the drugs. It merely increases the value of the prohibited item and changes the distributors from honest people to crooks.

-- Gun control laws are highly divisive to no good end. Since they don't work well, why get everyone so mad about them? Progressives should instead start finding issues that make people happy.

-- Treating gun laws as a national issue exacerbates cultural conflict, such as those between rural and urban, east and west, wealthy and not so well off. Telling rural Westerners to get rid of their guns is like telling an urban blacks to stop reading African-American books.

-- There is no evidence that members of the NRA murder people at a higher rate than non-members. It is insulting to gun owners to speak as though they did.

-- The push for gun restrictions and prohibition is interwoven with the drive to restrict other citizen liberties and erode democracy. Progressives once opposed such moves, but in recent have been no-shows. Progressives need to became civil libertarians again.

-- America no longer has a strong, reliable democracy. It has been deeply corrupted and is being brutally manipulated. We are also losing our major defense against tyranny: the spirit and will of the people. An armed citizenry is a reasonable back-up plan.

-- People who drive around cities in four-wheel drive SUVs shouldn't lecture others on what safety precautions they should take.

-- The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government. I didn't say that. Thomas Jefferson did.

-- Progressives should stop treating average Americans as though they were alien creatures. Progressives haven't just lost elections because of their issues but because of their attitudes as well.