1/31/2002 09:40:38 PM
WNBC in New York paints a pretty sad picture of the anti-whatever protest people. Other than a peaceful yoga/alien Falun Gong thing, the only other protesters noted in this article were a dozen Friends of the Earth people shouting "weakest link," for some reason. Don't they know that's a teevee slogan from an NBC/GE show?
Oh, I guess they do know ... they were carrying around signs with the show's British host saying the WEF was the weakest link.
What the hell? The anti-corporate protesters are using unauthorized images of a popular corporate teevee presenter to make their case? Why do they even know about a teevee game show? Are they watching teevee? Watching the commercials? Are they common consumers?
Thanks to my new pal James Morrow for this link. James is a writer living in Sydney and New York and LA and wherever. He's one of those globilization guys, I imagine -- always going around the globe, working and stuff. Read his site. It's very good.
2/1/2002 09:02:04 PM
Anarchy as a Matter of Apples:
How would apples be distributed according to "communal economics" instead of capitalism? Some members of the community, objecting to the energy used in shipping New Zealand apples, would insist on doing without them even when there were no fresh apples from upstate. Others would consider the energy a small price to pay for a tasty, nutritious apple.
Whatever "consensus" was reached, one side would end up imposing its will on the other. A group of people claiming to be anarchists would end up dictating what kind of apple an individual could eat. Somehow that sounds more like the Taliban than like a group of free-spirited rebels. These control freaks are giving anarchy a bad name.
2/2/2002 12:02:12 AM
Is the late-1990s Protest Everything movement falling apart? Sure looks like it.
The NY Daily News says, "All's Quiet at Waldorf; Police are there in force but demonstrators aren't."
The NY Post says, "No-Protest Wimps All Wet."
2/3/2002 02:18:34 AM
That's what NYPD spokesman Kevin Czartoryski said of the protesters.
Wonderful.
As some of my fellow former leftists have said in Blog World, it's sad when a bunch of jackasses corrode good arguments. Sadder still when those big ideas are being earnestly argued at the WEF sessions.
The biggest jump for these protest kids? To realize that working class cops, sales clerks at the Gap and coffee slingers at Starbucks aren't the Enemy. They're people with jobs. You got a big idea about the world? Run for office. Ralph Nader did it -- despite having no coherent campaign message and a habit of jabbering like a retard to the press -- and his message certainly got out there. He won about 3 percent of the vote and was treated like a rock star.
Meanwhile, an actual rock star is jabbering at the WEF crowd, as an invited guest. And unlike Nader, the Evil and the Powerful say that Bono makes sense.
2/3/2002 03:11:30 AM
36 Are Arrested, but Demonstrations Remain Peaceful:
Near the front of the parade were several women dressed as the Statue of Liberty, draped in silver and carrying papier-mâché torches. At one point, people hoisted two of the women above the crowd, in classic cheerleader formation, bringing a chorus of approval. The women in silver also delighted the crowd by forming a chorus line and singing "New York, New York."
Well god bless 'em. I love that song. Who doesn't?
And I love cheerleaders. Who doesn't?
And how does that song go?
I'm gonna make a brand new start of it
In old New York!
If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere!
Ken Layne types from a shack behind his Los Angeles home. The author of trashy thrillers such as Dot.Con and the upcoming Space Critters, he has written and edited for a disturbing variety of news outfits including Information Week, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, UPI and Mother Jones. Since the Enron-style collapse of his Web paper, Tabloid.net, in 1999, he has been furiously posting commentary to KenLayne.com.
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