The Antisocial Socialist

CBC lockout
It's into Day 28, with no end in sight. And it's still no fun. To make it a bit more fun (at least for someone), N. and I have decided to organize some picket-line solidarity. I know himy has already been down a few times (check out his photos!) and this is obviously a situation where the small but growing Toronto Wobs can be useful. I bothered a CBC worker on his blog to ask when the picket lines were up so that we could bring them coffee, samosas, and hopefully a bit of morale. He responded right away to say that they're up 24-7. We're probably going to make our first visit either Thursday night or Sunday. So if you're interested in coming along, drop me a comment and we'll figure out a time.

Someone else suggested e-mailing our local MPs, the PM, the CBC Board of Directors, and Robert Rabinovitch. His e-mail is Robert_Rabinovitch@cbc.ca.

Public memorials
I should know by now to listen to the e-saints who read crap so that I don't have to. When Teresa Nielsen Hayden says that there's an incredibly stupid and offensive discussion on Little Green Footballs about the planned Flight 93 memorial, her judgment should be trusted. She wouldn't make up something like that. So I don't really need to go read the disgusting commentary myself because someone else has already made that noble sacrifice.

Don't click on that. It's LGF, which means that it will make you angry and kind of disappointed with the human species.

But it got me thinking about memorials, and what sort of memorials I like and why. I gather from those comments that the LGF crowd would like something large and penis-shaped -- perhaps a fist (don't they know that's a commie symbol) or a nuk-u-lar missile or maybe just a big penis. I actually like what I've heard about this design -- although it's hard to tell from the images they show -- and I think it embodies the sort of qualities that make a good memorial.

My favourite memorial of all time is this one:

It's the Bebelplatz Memorial, outside of Humbolt University in Berlin. In 1933, the Nazis gathered books from the university library and burned them. The memorial itself is where the bonfire was. The glass covers an underground chamber lined with empty bookshelves -- enough space to fit every book that was burned that night. The square of glass is quite reflective -- I was there with a crowd, and we could see our own, faceless reflections, as though we were the ones standing around the bonfire.

You can see why this is conceptually brilliant, can't you?

A penis tower-shaped memorial does not convey loss. It conveys triumph of the phallus. With their puerile fantasies of macho revenge, some of the LGFers are trying to twist the Flight 93 story into that of a victory, despite the fact that a bunch of innocent people died. But I suspect they want something towering for the WTC memorial too, which makes less sense than the earlier (and brilliant) reflective pools that Maya Lin wanted.

Why do neo-conservatives hate good architecture?

GIP
chreebomb thought that Jabbar Gibson would make a good replacement for Brownie as the head of FEMA. I disagreed, arguing that he'd make a better replacement for Bush as head of the US. epilady got inspired to make an icon, so I looted it. By the way, rumour has it that our boy might be in jail and we are looking to confirm or deny. If any of you have any news as to Gibson's whereabouts, please let the folks at poor_planning know about it.

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