more of me telling you what you should read

First, somebody hopes to change your mind with a little online community organizing. Read about it here because this surely isn't "newsworthy" enough to make it into circulation on TV or in the papers. An exellent example of pajama wearing morons stepping up when the mainstream media won't do its job.

Meanwhile, the good folks at newsbusters remind us of another reason that a story can fail to be newsworthy: the sick abusive perverts work in the state school system not the Catholic Church. No, that's not news, "these things happen." I mean, these guys are just teachers and administrators in the schools your children are required by law to attend being paid by your tax dollars, it's not like they're priests.

update: The McCain campaign weighs in on bias and BS news.

Funny

If it's not, that's probably because you haven't read much H.P. Lovecraft and/or you haven't spent much time on this site. ..neither of those being particularly bad things with which to have found yourself better occupied than to become familiar.
But if you are amused, you can feel just a little better about the time you've wasted. As to the lolcats- I hate cats and would like to think I'm not especially susceptible to cutesy, silly picture funnies but I have to admit that I was drawn in by teh funny of teh kittehz. So if you click on the link, expect to waste some time.

The iron finger

President Dmitry Medvedev, ultra classy and marvelously diplomatic tool and mouthpiece of the ruler of Russia, decided that the day after our commemoration of the deadliest act of terroism in history would be a good time to trot out this line of I don't even know what to call --
"The world has changed and it occurred to me that 8 August 2008 has become for Russia as 11 September 2001 for the United States. This is an accurate comparison corresponding to Russian realities."

So what exactly is Russian reality? And what mind altering substances do you have to use to get there? I mean, a government using military force to try to regain control of territory within its borders vs. a terrorist group destroying one of the most prominent landmarks of (arguably) our most iconic city and attempting to destroy the seats of our top military command and (presumably) excecutive branch. Not seeing much in common there, Mitya.* To be fair, of course, I should mention that the death tolls were about the same... if you multiply the current official count (from the Russian government. source:Wa.Post) by 5 and then add it to the 2000 Ossetian civilians killed according to earlier Russian, um, reports (read B.S. propaganda lies).
So as not to waste too much time crushing that fucktarded comparison into the dirt, I'm just going to accept Russian reality as having it's own rules and move on to further correspondence from that magical realm. Dima* also wanted us to know that he didn't like invading Geargia, Georgian president Saakashvili and US Sec of State Condoleezza Rice made him do it. He also points out that NATO membership for Georgia is unnaceptable. In case, we thought he didn't mean that in a nice way, he encourages us that even is Georgia was a member of NATO, he wouldn't hesitate to follow the same course of action if provoked again by Ms. Rice.

So this isn't actually on a level with what you'ld expect from, say, Saddam's Minister of Information. I'm seeing it as pretty frighteningly close though. And a lot more frightening because he's got a lot of force at his disposal to try to make the world fit his Russian reality.

Added note: to be clear on the casualty numbers- Russia's casualty figure(197) represents Russian military(64) and South Ossetians(133 of the 2000 first claimed)
Added note about my grammar: just don't worry about it, alright? I was tired.

*common Russian diminutives of Dmitry.

hope*

After a couple of failed attempts to post my reactions to the the articles linked below, I think I've found the key distinction that the community organizer issue highlights. My earlier efforts just weren't coming together in any meaningful way; there wasn't a unifying theme. I knew that, on the one hand, I find idea of effective political action on the neighborhood level very compelling. I am inclined to admire the ability to actually harness and use power in such an unlikely setting to get things done. I was partly just awed by the possibility - I mean, I don't even know any of the people who live in this same apartment building as I do. On the other hand, if someone knocked on my door and asked me to help pay him to organize my community, trust would not be very high on the list of my feelings. Power corrupts, but power and a salary? And there are other reasons to be wary- the very democratic (in the sense of mob rule) tactic of using strength of numbers to demand what the majority wants and the self-interest principle on which they appear to operate. (I have to make a side note here because I'm not against self interest as such. I think that the problem is immediate or short term self interest which disregards moral and societal law. My argument would be that those who appear to act out of self interest actually endanger themselves by tearing down the structures which protect them).
I alluded to a vital distinction at the beginning of this post and I will now attempt to describe it. Active participation in political and social life is good and praiseworthy, especially among one's immediate neighbors where you are personally known and can influence others to become better people. The departure from this wholesome and natural sociopolitical norm has led to a widespread disinterest toward modern politics. Today's typical "activist" bears little relation to the laudable politically active citizen. There is very little one can do as a part of the federal - or even state - government to inspire internal change but instead of taking this as the limitation it naturally is, politicians (by the mandate of activists) try to force the issue by legislating external change. Instead of trying to convince our fellow citizens to look out for their own safety we pass laws against driving without a seat belt (and of course make those who do pay a fine). It's easier to pass laws against smoking in public buildings than to help someone you know quit (and of course make smokers pay extra taxes). If you think that your fellow man is uncharitable, just ask the government to take money from everyone by threat of force and give it to the deserving (and of course.. wait, hold on...).
My conclusion is that community organizing brings the perverse politics of power and coercive change down to a local level. In the general absence of local political activity this can appear to be the missing personal participation in public discourse but, being built on corrupt foundations it cannot bring about any real good. What is needed instead is a genuine (stay with me here) self interest in the common good. OK, no, I can't really prove that there is any justification for that apparent perversion of language. I think there is, but despite the facts that I don't seem to have covered half of what I set out to say and that this post has been in draft status for a good couple of days now, further progress is not immediately forthcoming. Besides, I've is already gotten pretty epic for me. I will, therefore have to hope *that this makes some sense(minus the final paragraph) and has some value as it stands. More as the story develops.

Power, community and change

If you've been wondering what the hell a "community organizer" actually does or wishing that you were more informed about the presidential race, these articles are well worth your time. I'd say they're worth it even aside from the upcoming election.

COMMUNITY If you only read one of these, go with this one; informative and to the point.
POWER Celebrating Obama's use of these methods(as linked to at the end of the first article)
"CHANGE" From Obama himself
TEH FUNNY I would have loved to put this one at the top but only read it first if you're going to read the rest.

I should have more to say here... I think I do somewhere but I'm weak on words right now. I'll try to sort it out and post some thoughts later.

NObama '08 (keep the change)
yeah, I stole that. thoseshirts