a stump of a post

[sabotabby]

Right, so I've got tickets to go see Flogging Molly. Squee! And I'm having an extra kitty for the weekend. More squee! And about 10 prisoners in Missouri just mailed me wanting copies of Ye Drunken Sailor. Squee! No...wait, that makes me really sad, because it's that kind of thing that inspired me to keep the 'zine going long after it should have died, and I'm feeling vaguely guilty that I won't have anything to send them after this issue.

::sigh::

emak_bakia managed to get the split in the AFL-CIO and the disarming of the IRA into one post. Awesome.

Warning: I might post-spam today because I ought to stay home with the kitties and make sure they don't kill each other, and it's a good excuse for gratuitous cat-blogging later. It is a Friday, after all.

In other news, why am I such an incompetent ditz who can't figure out how to book a flight to Halifax and back online? Both WestJet's and Air Canada's websites are utterly confusing and the rates seem excessively expensive. Help?

Never mind. I figured it out. Well, the booking-a-flight bit, anyway, though the website and actual reality are confusing and contradictory when it comes to Aeroplan. Ah well. At least I'm going to Halifax next weekend.

Comments

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Cat blogging hurrah!

My mother is making noises about getting a kitten. Just when I'm going away and will miss out on its kittentude! Still, I can look at pictures of your kitties and be vicarious...*prods for kittypix*

[sabotabby]

Well, Luna is hiding under the bed, and Marinetti is perving on her, which makes it hard for me to take pictures of them. And that's mean of your mom to time it like that. Unless she has a digital camera and take, like, 50,000 pictures of the kittenest phase. Which is still not the same.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

*lights match*

Sorry, just read that post you linked to. I'm unclear - are you friendly with this person who offers the opinion that the IRA 'outlived its purpose by a decade' despite not knowing how to spell Sinn Fein?

I'm sorry to nitpick, since spelling correction is always the first retreat of a flamer with no solid argument, but if you're going to offer an opinion on a political group as though you know anything about it, you should at least be able to spell its name.

Also, the remark about outliving its purpose - having read it several times, I see what (s?)he's getting at, but for me this skates far too close to condoning the violence prior to the last decade. I accept that this may be a misinterpretation, but on first reading that sounds very much like. 'Yes, it was time for the IRA to disband because their bombs were no longer legitimate after the early 90s'. I find the tendency among North American - well, I was going to say activists, but just 'North Americans' will do - annoying at best and downright infuriating at worst. I mean, do you get that no matter how romantic-sounding the cause, the IRA were mostly thug bastards who went for 'soft' civilian targets? Have you met sectarian violence? It has fuckall to do with noble ideals and everything to do with petty grievances and turf wars. Yes, there were some nasty miscarriages of justice and so forth, and the Unionists have some bastards on their side too. But the IRA finally calling it a day isn't so much a chance for analytical musing as a chance for us all to go Thank Fuck!

On an amusing note, the UK government is now talking about creating a law that makes it an offence to praise terrorist activities online or in other forms of communication. While this is, to put it delicately, totally sinister and evil, it is rather fun to think of all the many, many North American morons given to donating to and praising the actions of the IRA getting a knock on the door.

[sabotabby]

Well, I can't speak for emak_bakia. I do think that the IRA had a purpose at one point, and, like most paramilitary groups that achieve the slightest glint of success, became corrupt and thuggish. I would draw that line a lot earlier than the early 90s, though. (Don't ask me where. It's something I'm rather conflicted about, given that I almost did lose my ex to sectarian violence.)

I try not to romanticize it, or excuse the parts of the Republican struggle that were terrorist in nature (there's a world of difference between political/military and civilian targets, and between say, robbing a bank and kneecapping someone) although it doesn't help that I have a big thing for Irish history, or that Irish rebel songs kick all sorts of ass.

If the UK does pass this law (I hope to hell it doesn't -- one person's terrorist being another's freedom fighter, blah blah blah invasion of privacy) would it actually affect people in North America, though? I hope not. I think I've made enough statements that people interpret as being praise for terrorist activities that I'd be in serious trouble.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

"like most paramilitary groups that achieve the slightest glint of success, became corrupt and thuggish."

>>>>>>>>Amen to that sister.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Irish rebel songs kick all sorts of ass.

They do indeed. But not as much ass as Irish anti-sectarianism, anti-hatred songs.

[sabotabby]

Recommendations? Offhand, I can only think of Stiff Little Fingers and Stan Rogers (who's Canadian).L

[syndicalist.livejournal.com]

emak_bakia did accomplish quite a feat there.

[sabotabby]

Indeed. That's why I had to pimp it.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

I found more comics that might cheer you.

Have you heard of Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future? It was a 1950s British science fiction strip with imperialistic overtones. Well, in the 1980s, somebody updated it in a comic called Dare. A Thatcherite clique is poised to take over Earth and Dare agrees to be their spokesperson. By contrast, Digby, Dare's longtime comic relief / working class sidekick, leads a resistance cell.

[sabotabby]

That does look like fun -- of course, I've barely made a dent in the current pile because life crises keep piling up.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

From the Onion:

War On String May Be Unwinnable, Says Cat General

[sabotabby]

So true.

They need to redefine their terms. Perhaps change it to A Limited Struggle Against This Bit of Threatening-Looking Yarn Over Here.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Did you catch the Daily Show's coverage of this important strategic distinction?

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

What's you're opinion of the union split?

My take is that it is for the better, the SEIU and Teamsters have a better plan for workers in the 21st century, which is pretty much going back to the 19th century basics (organize, organize,organize! duh.). Besides, the AFL-CIO is the ultimate corporate union. I think a union comeback is on the way, instead of the "this is the last nail in the coffin" that the U.S. attitude has been running as of late.

[sabotabby]

I'm woefully uneducated on the contemporary American labour movement. I mean it. I should know more, and I don't. I think there will be a comeback; I mean, the IWW resurgence alone is a good sign. Still (and I wanted to mention this a few posts ago), the ruling class has done a spectacularly thorough job in convincing the North American working class that the working class doesn't exist.

With the AFL-CIO situation, it seems to be a move towards radicalization (or at least reform) more than a death blow. But maybe I'm being too optimistic. I've been accused of that before.