<< PM EDDIE ~ MAIN ~ NICE PEOPLE >>
DULL TONE NOTED
Bruce Gagnon (“he frequently travels and offers reflections on organizing and the state of America’s soul”) reports:
I am in Colorado Springs with our affiliate group Citizens for Peace in Space protesting the 21st annual Space Symposium at the fancy Broadmoor Hotel. Over 6,000 military personnel and aerospace industry types are gathering to plan for war in space. Yesterday afternoon about 20 of us vigiled outside the hotel entrance as they poured into the event. The theme of the protest was the symposium is a weapons of mass destruction arms bazar and that those attending practice “Group think.” A street theatre group had made a replica of a satellite and four people with eye glasses covered in dollar signs, $$, went round and round the satellite chanting “Group think, group think” in a dull tone. They’d reach into the satellite and pretend they were filling their pockets with cash. It was quite good and the conference attendees had a good look at it.
I bet they did. More from Bruce, who was among three or four brave dissenters at the Portland, Maine, parade mentioned earlier:
Following the parade I attended the art show opening called War Flowers: Swords into Plowshares that was held at the University of Southern Maine art gallery. About 150 attended and they were not disappointed. The art work, depicting the idea of converting the military industrial complex into peaceful production, was extraordinary. One of the crowd favorites showed George W. Bush resigning from the presidency and moving to Bath, Maine where he became a swan boat driver as Bath Iron Works converted from building destroyers to swan boats. The art will be shown at the university gallery until August 19.
(Via Alan E. Brain)
Sadly i think the BIW shipyard is in big trouble even without these people.
Posted by Astonished on 2005 04 10 at 04:49 AM • permalink...and this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?
Posted by Cybrludite on 2005 04 10 at 07:24 AM • permalinkIn my younger days just prior and during my reawakening (when I came back to my conservative roots from the “all college students are lefties” phase) I was attending Grateful Dead concerts once a summer (just at Alpine Valley in WI, I did not tour). I realized those “non-comformists” were every bit of conformist group thinkers (in fact I would say way more) than any one other group of people.
Posted by Marcus Aurelius on 2005 04 10 at 07:42 AM • permalink``Group think’’ can’t be said with a dull tone. ``Dull tone’’ has a dull tone, though. They’d have done better to repeat ``dull tone’’ with a dull tone, if a dull tone is what they wanted.
It’s like saying that Iraq is on everybody’s lips, as CNN did. ( [url=http://rhhardin3.home.mindspring.com/iraq.ra]http://rhhardin3.home.mindspring.com/iraq.ra [/url] ). People snicker.
I knew a guy who collected Coors memorabilia. He had an entire wall of his room dedicated to various Coors signs, bar mirrors and lights, bottles and cans, hats, and so on. Most frightening thing I ever saw in my life.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 04 10 at 11:03 AM • permalinkPersonally, if I was a member of a military group or a conservative group meeting for a seminar or such and we did not get a group of senstive types protesting us, I would feel bad.
Why not us? Aren’t we dangerous enough?
Posted by wronwright on 2005 04 10 at 11:38 AM • permalink“Not to sidetrack this thread, but can you think of any other consumer product whose customers get themselves tattooed with the company logo?”
Hmmmm… good question… Maybe Jack Daniels? I might have seen one of those once. But certainly not to the degree of H-D. I wonder if Brits get Triumph tattoos?
Andrea, did he ever explain the Coors obsession? Did he really like the beer that much? I knew a guy who always gave me crap about my “Jap” bike. He was a Harley guy - Harley shirts, Harley pictures on the wall, Harley stickers on the truck, Harley tattoo, Harley memorabilia of every imaginable sort. Just one thing missing - no actual Harley motorcycle. He didn’t even know how to ride. Funniest damn thing.
See also, the South Park episode where the one kid gets dumped by a girl and saddened, decides he wants to join up with the “non-conformist” Goths. Attempting the Quote IQ test:
Kid: Well, how do I become a non-comformist ?
Goth: Easy—just dress exactly like us, and talk exactly like us, and do stuff we do—then you’re a non-conformist!
(from memory) Further proof that South Park has rendered a large body of higher education curricula unnecessary. Especially Canadian Studies.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 04 10 at 01:08 PM • permalink2nd anniversary of Saddam’s fall, and a Kurd is in power. Time to reflect on the state of the souls of people still doing dumbass street theater in opposition to that.
They don’t really care about that crap. The street theater is the point! Everybody has to have a hobby. Especially if they don’t work for a living.
ErnieG — Every sailor who got a girlfriend’s name tattoo’d…
Bailador — It’s much easier to beat your sword ON a guy who only HAS a plowshare…
Dave S. — To be fair to Harley Riders, who are after all a more diverse group than, say, college professors, hippies don’t all wear the same uniform because the pavement will rip the flesh from their bones if they don’t.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 04 10 at 02:49 PM • permalinkWhen the turn signals aren’t being used, the fringe lets you check which way the Harley rider is actually turning, like yarn telltales on a mainsail…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 04 10 at 05:52 PM • permalinkMarkL:
Where does Tim get this? He reads stuff. A lot of stuff. Just going through his blogroll and spending 30 seconds on each would take a goodly part of the day.I don’t know where his info comes from in the general case, but in this one the chain was
A.E.Brain, who got it from Transterrestrial Musings, who got it from Marsblog.
I should have given a hat-tip, but had to crawl through my history file and deduce the provenence.Dave S — Brits used to get Triumph tattoos, but then they had to have their entire bodies rewired and swap out the carburetors for a Japanese model so they stopped.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 04 10 at 09:51 PM • permalinkHmmmm.
“I knew a guy who collected Coors memorabilia. He had an entire wall of his room dedicated to various Coors signs, bar mirrors and lights, bottles and cans, hats, and so on. Most frightening thing I ever saw in my life.”
My uncle, long since passed away, used to collect glass insulators that were once used on telephone poles. Had thousands of the things.
Definitely wierd.
Posted by memomachine on 2005 04 10 at 10:00 PM • permalinkI can hardly wait for the Protests in Space against War in Space.
“United Galaxy Resolution Required Before Attack On Saturn”
“No Blood for Solar Energy”
“Mars for the Martians - Occupiers Out”
“Lunar Intifada - Moon Claimed as Sacred site - The Prophet’s Horse stepped On it En Route to Talks With God”When did vigil become a verb?
I am so close to “postal” -“MCDonald’s” pissed off with lefties right now.Posted by StuartSkelton on 2005 04 11 at 07:20 AM • permalinkI think the header should have been “Dully Noted” but what the hey. Not only is this bunch pathetically conformist, they’re just generally dull.
Also, where does the money come from to “... frequently travel(s) and offer(s) reflections on organizing and the state of America’s soul.�?
As for vigiled or vigiling or vigils or whatever, usage like that tends to make me look for a stout stick with which to be “upsidingtheheadwith.”
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2005 04 11 at 01:15 PM • permalinkWar out of space!! War out of space!!
By all means, let’s keep war in our cities, where it belongs!
Posted by tim maguire on 2005 04 11 at 01:31 PM • permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
St Peter on a pogo stick, Tim, where do you find this stuff?
Endless articles proving that it is possible for carbon-based bipedal life forms closely resembling humans to exist, AND to share the nervous array of cockroaches as well!
As you know, cockies do not actually possess a brain as such…
MarkL
Canberra