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Post by ClarkGriswold on Apr 30, 2011 19:58:16 GMT -5
Anonymous announces Operation Iran May day attack: #OpIran
Most respectable and honourable citizens of Iran, It is a time of action. An era of change is sweeping the world. Everywhere, workers are taking their proper place, to lead and control their destiny. To speak on their own behalf, to speak for their future generations, and to speak on behalf of their dead. This change is embodied by the people of Iran - it started in Iran. Though your suffering is great, your strength is greater. Though your trial is long, your will persists. The people of Iran have the admiration of Anonymous, and the entire world. We can see that Iran still suffers at the hands of those in power. Your former government has seized control, and tries to silence you. People of Iran - your rights belong to you. You have the right to free speech and free press, the freedom to assemble and to be safe in your person. You have the right to live free and without fear. As International Worker's Day dawns - Anonymous stands with you! We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect Us.
"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high-powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."
I think that phrase is fitting to describe the late, great Ben Masel. Masel was a Madison resident who lost a battle with cancer over the weekend at 56. He was a prominent local activist, with a specialty in free speech, civil liberties, and - last but not least - marijuana. I dare say the man loved and knew them all more than any I've ever met. I do believe he was Wisconsin's undisputed Alpha Stoner at the time of his passing. He was a man who knew the law and his rights better than any civilian I've ever met, more of a political activist than damn near all citizens I've met, long-shot candidate on numerous ballots spanning decades, possessor of an 800+ page FBI file, onetime director and current vice president of Wisconsin NORML, organizer of Madison's Harvest Festival, and rabble-rouser in general. He had no traditional job, opting to eke out his living on wrongful arrest and similar lawsuits.
I first really became aware of him working at Madison's Radical Rye sandwich shop about a decade ago, where I made the connection between my coworker Semilla and the aging hippie I'd seen waving around pro-pot/hemp signs at all the protests my first few years of college - he was her father. So I kind of got to know him then and have a brief chat with him from time to time when I'd see him around.
There were only a handful of occasions in which I got to engage Masel for more than a few minutes. One that particularly sticks out is a nice a friend & I randomly encountered him at a Madison watering hole. My friend & I joined him for an hour or two and got some fantastic stories. The most time spent in our conversation centered around the following story: In the lead-up to the 1976 campaign, a conservative Democratic U.S. Senator was visiting Wisconsin to assess the political landscape... and Ben Masel spit in his face. It might help to understand that Madison was a hotbed of antiwar activism in the Vietnam era (the aforementioned Radical Rye was owned by two brothers who participated in the bombing of a UW building conducting Army research in 1970.) The incident, and a subsequent protest against Alabama Gov. George Wallace visiting Madison, played a large role in his expulsion from UW. So anyway, young Mr. Masel spit in the Senator's face over Vietnam-related reasons. He was, understandably, arrested for assault & battery. He contested the charge, splitting legal hairs over "assault" versus "assault & battery" - and his case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. I have spent a 4/20 4:20 "demonstrating" in public with the man in support of medical marijuana, a cause which I understand he was a vocal proponent of to his doctors and nurses up until the very end. When President Obama visited, he staked out one of the most prime spots along the motorcade's route to wave around his "Hemp = Jobs" sign. He was quite good at being on message, especially when it came to his beloved cannabis. He was more recently, like many Madisonians, involved with the protests at the state capitol. When the administration made new rules outlining where and how people would protest, he would be right in that legal gray area waving a sign, and the police wouldn't touch him. It was probably a smart move. When his doctor advised him recently that he should not leave the hospital, he said that if he had to die today he would rather be in the capitol rotunda than in the hospital. That was just Ben Masel. He was a fighter until the bitter fucking end. He's one of the people who showed me the importance of knowing your rights, a role model of a liberal with a backbone... I dare say he was something of a hero, in certain respects.
He's gone now. His memorial service is today. I think it says something about both the man himself and the city he called home that the mayor of Madison will be speaking at his service. He shall definitely be missed. Madison won't be the same without him.
I'm up, a bit drunk and perhaps feeling a bit confessional... the way I see it, I'm just spreading the memory of a good man. I haven't been to a funeral in a while either. Those always get to me.
If I'm reading that article right, the doctors say it was the only known case of it happening in the country.
I find this especially odd, given that in my Googling to find the complete story, I found a different one from 09 - about how two different two-headed babies had been dropped at an orphanage in two consecutive years. Hmmm...
I wake up at 4 AM sweating as my grades posted at midnight. I seriously considered dropping and retaking a class, as I thought I was failing. To my surprise I got a B.
Post by ClarkGriswold on May 12, 2011 21:25:00 GMT -5
Well I finally got the tomatoes planted in the garden, man I shouldn’t have drank that much beer while working in the garden, but what a great time it was. Tomorrow may show some mistakes, however it was an evening worth remembering. There is a line in an old song that comes to mind There’s only two things that money can’t buy and that’s
TRUE LOVE AND HOME GROWN TOMATOES
Time to relax, have a couple more beers and chill to some scratch music.