Worcester cops Nobel action: Congrats, Craig C. Mello.
Villani cops Slate action: Slate notes Adam Neil Villani’s post about his middle namesake, Neil Armstrong.
Scott in the news: 800 people gathered for an anti-war rally in Concord, New Hampshire, last week. One of the speakers was Worcester’s Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, who had a good quote in the AP article:
“We’re made to think that nonviolence is some sentimental gift,” said keynote speaker Scott Schaefer-Duffy [sic], co-director of the St. Francis and St. Theresa [sic] Catholic Worker House in Worcester, Mass. “Being nonviolent is strong not weak,” he said.
AETA: A reader asked me to mention the lousy Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which just passed the house. This seems to have little to do with terrorism, and lots to do with stopping people who hold the animal agriculture industry up to public scrutiny. StopAETA is a bit sparse but might be a good place to start reading.
One list to rule them all: For Worcester progressive events, the moderated, low-traffic mailing list worcester-announce.
Propaganda: John Robb’s thoughts on propaganda is a good read for any activist.
Technorati: I did Technorati searches on some local sites; here are the results.
- Worcester County Republican Club blog. Rank: 575,014 (7 links from 5 blogs)
- Telegram & Gazette. Rank: 245 (4,471 links from 2,212 blogs). A lot of these are fake blogs, though.
- Worcester Indymedia. Rank: 71,544 (131 links from 39 blogs)
Robert Anton Wilson: One of my most prized books is a signed copy of Robert Anton Wilson’s Everything Is Under Control. I mean, this is the book that introduced me to James Jesus Angleton (inspiration for the X-Files’ Cancer Man) and Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Now it appears he’s in trouble. I sent in some money, and I’ll be praying for him (as little as he might care).
National Review Online: John J. Miller:
If House Republican leaders really did avert their gaze from a problem they knew about, however, Foley could become the new Jack Abramoff. Except that whereas the details of Abramoff’s were always a bit complicated for the public to follow closely, the accusations now leveled at Foley are much simpler and more appalling. Foley is on the verge of becoming the poster child of a party that is concerned about little more than preserving its power.
The best summary of the Bush Administration I ever read came from Cornell West, of all people. In his opinion, they are not Christians, not Conservatives, but Nihilists, interested in power for its own sake. The analysis above is similar, though from another quarter and about the Republicans in general.
Worcester cops Albanian action: If you ever wanted to, say, read a blog post about the pope in Albanian by a Worcester resident, the WCCA website would be a good place to start.
Moo: My free sampler of Moo mini cards arrived today. I’m trying to convince myself there’s a good reason to buy more.
