Posts (page 2)

I have got a hand-made red silk scarf from Laos and on my head it goes! Nyah.

My sister has a tattoo of a fucking ASTEROID on her shoulder. It's huge and extremely craterously detailed!

Then to hear Jon Rees on his new book about imperialism.

S. was on the radio today for fifteen minutes, with very little notice, and did a great job.

I am watching The Omega Man.

I have just gotten a Big Person to speak at a civil liberties meeting we are planning, and I just went with my friend S, a young, hijab wearing Muslim student, to talk about police monitoring of Muslims here with an MP. He claimed it was a Scottish Parliament issue but will be doing some stuff about it, asking a question to the police and sending someone to the civil liberties meeting.

S was the bad cop, yelling and calling him by his first name, and I was the far more reasonable good cop. Of course S was right - there's no reason for me to be smiling and nodding at this guy. What happens to me when I am in the presence of authority?

We'll need to do some press about this, coordinate and so on and so forth. S is 21, and I am 27, and she is a metric shit-ton smarter than me from what I can tell!

that the word ME shows up bigger than all heck in my tags?

Last night went great. We were out in the rain but the energy was huge, funny and positive as we decried Bliar for the warmonger that he is. lots of press, including press photographers loving little John, the red diaper toddler of P and L, owners of the Perth Banner Factory and excellent designers of world-famous protest banners.

Here's a picture and news story of the sunnier noontime protest that happened today.

November 6, mark this date in your diary. Good things will happen that day.

On today: Speech-writing. Need statistics on the Iraq and Afghan wars
for index cards. Work. Thoroughly brushing and spritzing hair for
cameras but hopefully there won't be any.

On tomorrow: Solidarity meeting. Discourse on poverty by the experienced
thumper of tub; discourse on veil by Ms. Young Muslim Bad-Ass.

I'm writing my blog post while at work by using a little encrypted
window. I'm writing this post on another computer altogether, and then I
will use a hidden window behind this window to send encrypted mail to my
moblog. I have a different brain entirely whilst at work so this should
make for frequent and interesting blog posts.

Interestingnesses:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200610/kaplan-korea Susan Sontag and Anne Leibovitz were lovers. Liebovitz just released a
book that includes photos of Sontag as she was dying of cancer. Via
aldaily.com.

When Sontag was dying she wanted to write more books. I've not written a
singled damn book or even had a fucking short story published for a long
time. World-hacking (activism) has taken that energy and time. Had
better get writing one of these days.

http://www.reason.com/0608/bagge.shtml Right-wing pro-immigration cartoon, deeply thought and well drawn by the
Crumb-ite scribbler Bagge. Contains some telling critiques against the
loonly left (us) and suggests that a clearly articulated message is the
way to go. I agree. Via boingboing.net.

Tony Blair is coming to town and we're going to have a polite vigil and rally questioning his competence at peace-making for Northern Ireland when he's done such a crap job at it in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I'm speaking and a friend's speaking. I'll write the speech as a few illegible scratches on a small sheaf of index cards, which will somehow help. Then I won't look at the speech.

I'll be interested to see how my friend composes a speech. Does she read it, or hold it in the hand and look in the audience's eyes, or does she glance at it now and then?

Hi there kids, I am slightly drunk after conducting some business. It looks like I might be going to Lebanon at the end of the month! How wootworthy. As far as I can tell, Lebanon is full of cute girls and Party People with high quality politics to go with them.

I had an interesting discussion about dogs this evening. I really want a dog but it's very difficult because my Better Half and I don't have any space for one.

ed: Just so you all know, my comments are often tongue in cheek!

Welcome to my blog. I'm Esther, your host. I'll put obtuse political and activist notes here. I am a 27 year old political activist and socialist in Dundee, Scotland. I'm Jewish in origins, originally from the United States but moved here to be with my better half, Barry.

I'm involved with the Socialist Workers Party, and we are the proudest and finest tribe of leftists out there. We're building Solidarity, the new Scottish socialist movement, and it's doing well - Muslim community activists are stepping out and supporting us, some for the first time in years.

I also generate theory in my own right - various half-baked crap about the deep political and economic significance of the Internet and other such hooey.

I enjoy a pint and an argument with friends, movies, music, and public speaking.

Watch me as I operate, scheme, puff myself up needlessly, feed my ambitious and competitive nature, and slag off the world around me, probably making a fool of myself in the process.