good crap I've been last for days! last last last! AH HAHAHAHAHAHA

wow... I'm kind of sad, aren't I?

LAST!

how much you wanna bet the kids can't talk about lollipops, salt shakers, or Polaroid pictures?

Um... not sure Stephenson has cc'd Cryptonomicon, and it's a little long for Fair Use. Untitled 1 has now entered the holy realm of infringement! Champagne for everyone!

We finally have a subtitle!

#18 Jonathan: The police have forced the cyclists into the kind of behavior you find so offensive. The only way to remain safe during an NYC critical mass is to remain as much as possible as the namesake mass. Because of police behavior, separation, even temporary (like for a red light), usually results in harassment, violence or arrest. At the very least, the police will insert themselves between the two groups and keep them from reforming, if possible herding them far away from each other. The bikers stopping cross-traffic are doing it to keep themselves safe from getting run over while maintaining the sanctity of their lawful protest, since the police refuse to. The onus to create a safe, celebratory, and non-conrontational critical mass is on the NYPD, not on the bikers brave and dedicated enough to keep it going month after month in the face of pretty intense armed hostility. As soon as the uniforms change their tactics and stop punishing protesters for obeying the law, the people will respond. See #20's example.

There's a constitutional right to drive without non-motorized vehicles inconveniencing you?

What's scary is how afraid the police are of human-held point-and-shoots in one of the most camera-monitored blocks on the planet. They know whatever they do, the official watchers will never produce any incriminating evidence, but who knows what those dirty freedom-haters will do with any footage they might take. Not that any of these "peace officers" worry that they will be held accountable for their actions, but some of the routine false arrests they make might be able to walk out of their cage without being dehumanized for more than a few hours.

Every action I've seen the NYPD take at protests seems aimed at stifling and suppressing free speech and dissent. As long as police aren't held accountable for their riots (any cops lose a badge over the RNC police riot?) they will continue to make sure anyone who points a camera at them knows they are open targets for violence, theft of property (how much you want to bet those poor kids bikes (read: only form of transportation) stayed impounded for at least a couple months?) and the dehumanization of being sent as human cattle to a concrete cell for hours, days, or weeks.

Manhattan's been a police state for years. The cops are pissed there's anyone left who dares to wear a patch or not get all wobbly-kneed patriotic at the site of their stirring uniforms. I had nothing but bad experiences with the goons while I worked pedicab in that god-forsaken square.

Isn't it sad to feel the least safe in the presence of the people who claim to ensure our safety?

Also, #420: dude's name was Jay! HA! Gold star. No one got it but me. Gold star for me too.

LAST! (I think it's funny, damn you all).

Pretty.

damn! glory is so ephemeral.

not happy. steve is. nor is he pleased.

last! again!

last!

microsoft... and yahoo.

Steve is not pleased.

I hate to go knee-jerk, but, um, could someone remove #13 for gross antisemitism? It's kind of making me pukey, seeing it on the boingboing. The repsonse also annoys me with its incoherence, but the antisemitism really does bug me.

And, should anyone think I'm some kind of rabid ADLer, ¡Viva Palestine!

@#25: I like you. Do you have newsletter?

Check out the scary Albania v. Kosovo flamewar on the original post...

ortodox sez:

Islam and Albanians fucking bitches you will be soon exterminated….

jebus!

oops. i wuz unright.

no longer available. apparently #19 wasn't lying.

Did anyone RTFA? Cory? This news came out in 2002, when Judicial Watch got the documents. The news is that the oil companies are about to actualize their planned pillage.

From the article:

"The reason this becomes important now is that with yesterday’s agreement in the Iraqi Parliament over Amnesty and Revenue Sharing, the American Embassy is now pushing hard for an Iraq Oil Law which would open up huge new concessions to the Oil Companies that were part of Cheney’s Task force."

Jeez.

It is sad, though. I wish I lived in a constitutional democratic republic. Wouldn't that be cool?

But, um, I'm sure a Democrat will... make everything... ok... Change! Hope! Just do it! Got milk? Army of One!

"If voting changed anything, it would be illegal."

where are they? do they have a signal or hotline one could use, should villainy rear its ugly head?

BLACKTRON! BLACKTRON!!!! Oooohhhhh so coooool. I have a new hero: this guy.

Bill of Rights, RIP. Oh well, at least the long, slow sickness has finally ended. We can mourn now.

So sad. I need a nap.

And Spectre, we've been living in a police state for at least 60 years. I don't know where you've been.

@#1: Regardless of the veracity of this thing, the military just announced last year a crowd control ray that makes victims skins feel like they are about to catch on fire. Though they haven't officially announced a lethal version, it doesn't take much to up the power and turn "less-than-lethal-ray" to "death-ray."

So yes, Virginia, there is a Death Ray. USA!

Just tried to watch the yootoob trailer. removed due to terms of use violation. anyone have an alternate source?

Nick D-

Not useless as a rhetorical device. Very useful if your goal is to obfuscate the meaning of fascism, as the fascists in the poster would love to do.

There's a fantastic zine out of Arizona by a cranky old anarchist called "The Match" that has a regular "Who the Police Beat" section every issue. It collects, for pages and pages, all the latest reports from around the country of the staggeringly violent and abusive behaviour the brutal, uniformed enforcement wing of US Law inflicts on this country. If this "cops writing cops" site doesn't convince you of the vastness of the corruption problem this insular "brotherhood" of state-funded thugs who, without the slightest hint of irony, call themselves peace officers face us with, go to your favorite radical book outlet and pick up a copy of The Match.

The problem is not with a few individual uniforms gone rotten. The problem is systemic, and it is getting worse.