Song(s) of the Day # 2,300 Langkamer
3 hours ago
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Bob Ostertag: Militarization of Campus Police
Yesterday, police at UC Davis attacked seated students with a chemical gas.
I teach at UC Davis and I personally know many of the students who were the victims of this brutal and unprovoked assault. They are top students. In fact, I can report that among the students I know, the higher a student's grade point average, the more likely it is that they are centrally involved in the protests.
This is not surprising, since what is at issue is the dismantling of public education in California. Just six years ago, tuition at the University of California was $5357. Tuition is currently $12,192. According to current proposals, it will be $22,068 by 2015-2016. We have discussed this in my classes, and about one third of my students report that their families would likely have to pull them out of school at the new tuition. It is not a happy moment when the students look around the room and see who it is that will disappear from campus. These are young people who, like college students everywhere and at all times, form some of the deepest friendships they will have in their lives.
This is what motivates students who have never taken part in any sort of social protest to "occupy" the campus quad. And indeed, there were students who were attacked with chemical agents by robocops who were engaging in their first civic protest.
Since the video of the assault has gone viral, I will assume that most of you have seen the shocking footage. Let's take a look at the equally outrageous explanations and justifications that have come from UC Davis authorities.
UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi sent a letter to the university last night. Chancellor Katehi tells us that:
Chancellor Katehi asserts that "the encampment raised serious health and safety concerns." Really? Twenty tents on the quad "raised serious health and safety concerns?" Has the chancellor been to a frat party lately? Or a football game? Talk about "serious health and safety concerns."
How about this for another option: three years ago there was a very similar occupation of the quad at Columbia University in New York City by students protesting the way the expansion of the university was displacing residents in the neighborhood. There was a core group of twenty or thirty students there around the clock. At the high points there were 200-300. The administration met with the students and held serious discussions about their concerns. And after a couple of weeks the protest had run its course and the students took the tents down. The most severe action that was even contemplated on the part of the university was to expel students who were hunger striking, under a rule that allows the school to expel students who are considered a threat to themselves. But no one was actually expelled.
Remember when universities used to expel students instead of spray them with chemical agents...?
I teach at UC Davis and I personally know many of the students who were the victims of this brutal and unprovoked assault. They are top students. In fact, I can report that among the students I know, the higher a student's grade point average, the more likely it is that they are centrally involved in the protests.
This is not surprising, since what is at issue is the dismantling of public education in California. Just six years ago, tuition at the University of California was $5357. Tuition is currently $12,192. According to current proposals, it will be $22,068 by 2015-2016. We have discussed this in my classes, and about one third of my students report that their families would likely have to pull them out of school at the new tuition. It is not a happy moment when the students look around the room and see who it is that will disappear from campus. These are young people who, like college students everywhere and at all times, form some of the deepest friendships they will have in their lives.
This is what motivates students who have never taken part in any sort of social protest to "occupy" the campus quad. And indeed, there were students who were attacked with chemical agents by robocops who were engaging in their first civic protest.
Since the video of the assault has gone viral, I will assume that most of you have seen the shocking footage. Let's take a look at the equally outrageous explanations and justifications that have come from UC Davis authorities.
UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi sent a letter to the university last night. Chancellor Katehi tells us that:
The group was informed in writing... that if they did not dismantle the encampment, it would have to be removed... However a number of protestors refused our warning, offering us no option but to ask the police to assist in their removal.No other options? The list of options is endless. To begin with, the chancellor could have thanked them for their sense of civic duty. The occupation could have been turned into a teach-in on the role of public education in this country. There could have been a call for professors to hold classes on the quad. The list of "other options" is endless.
Chancellor Katehi asserts that "the encampment raised serious health and safety concerns." Really? Twenty tents on the quad "raised serious health and safety concerns?" Has the chancellor been to a frat party lately? Or a football game? Talk about "serious health and safety concerns."
How about this for another option: three years ago there was a very similar occupation of the quad at Columbia University in New York City by students protesting the way the expansion of the university was displacing residents in the neighborhood. There was a core group of twenty or thirty students there around the clock. At the high points there were 200-300. The administration met with the students and held serious discussions about their concerns. And after a couple of weeks the protest had run its course and the students took the tents down. The most severe action that was even contemplated on the part of the university was to expel students who were hunger striking, under a rule that allows the school to expel students who are considered a threat to themselves. But no one was actually expelled.
Remember when universities used to expel students instead of spray them with chemical agents...?
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Master Musicians of Joujouka - Al Yunic Sharbouni Ate (Your Eyes are Like a Cup of Tea)
Due 2012 Tribe Ahl Serif recorded and filmed in June 1972 by Arnold Stahl and John Anthony and originally released on LP in 1975. This track will be released for the first time on CD along with the film Tribe Ahl Serif currently being restored by the film maker John Anthony and The Master Musicians of Joujouka manager and producer Frank Rynne. The film was shot 9 months after the release of Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka on Rolling Stones Records (1971)and 6 months before Ornette Coleman recorded in the village with the same musicians in January 1973. It also predates the Joel Rubiner recordings released as Master Musicians of Jajouka in 1974 by some two months and unlike Rubiner's recordings also features a full complement of the Master Musicians performing Boujeoud as well as smaller ensembles like Rubiner taped. Rubiner's recordings were later mastered in London under the supervision of Hamri and Miles.
This is the most exciting project from the Master Musicians of Joujouka archive as it is based on a never seen before 30 min film documentary from 1972 for which the recordings were made. This will be the official re-release for the first time on CD and download of the classic 2 LP Tribe Ahl Serif .
www.joujouka.net
This is the most exciting project from the Master Musicians of Joujouka archive as it is based on a never seen before 30 min film documentary from 1972 for which the recordings were made. This will be the official re-release for the first time on CD and download of the classic 2 LP Tribe Ahl Serif .
www.joujouka.net
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. [...] It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.' - Thomas Jefferson
Couldn't agree more...
"He's such a dick," said Stone. "You read his book and you're like, 'Yeah, I agree with that. But it's the most dicky way to put it... I think the neoatheists have set atheism back a few decades. And I'm a self-described atheist."
One of South Park's best episodes featured Dawkins as a substitute teacher who ends up having kinky sex with the boys' creationist teacher, Miss Garrison (formerly Mr. Garrison, pre-sex-change-operation). The show ended five hundred years in the future, when Dawkins-worshipping atheists are at war over whether their religion should be called the "United Atheist Alliance" or "Unified Atheist League."
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Wayne Coyne says:
...Let's talk technology. In general, how would you say social media and iTunes have changed the way the Flaming Lips promote yourselves?
Coyne: iTunes is a bit formal and slow and wonderful, but still seems based on release dates and albums. We've moved into an area where there is actually no outlet other than our Web sites and a lot of pirate download sites where a portion of our audience will have fun and get easy access to our spontaneous output. I announce something on Twitter for a week, and sometimes it generates quite a bit of interest. We have done some of our recent recordings, tweeted about them, and a week later, it is out in the world. That's still hard or impossible to do on a giant record label.
The World's Best-Known Portrait
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WLLegal Trevor Timm
Fed Court '02: Cops pepper spraying peaceful protesters "an excessive use of force..violation of their 4th Amd rights." bit.ly/rrHfNv
Fed Court '02: Cops pepper spraying peaceful protesters "an excessive use of force..violation of their 4th Amd rights." bit.ly/rrHfNv
pourmecoffee pourmecoffee
Need to stay off Internet. Just sprayed Febreze on couch and heard rest of furniture chant, "The whole room's watching!"
Need to stay off Internet. Just sprayed Febreze on couch and heard rest of furniture chant, "The whole room's watching!"
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