Books Burn to Protest Decline in Reading - So You Say You Want A Revolution?

Man, this is fucking rad! Way to go guys! I'm crying and laughing and impressed and wishing I had a list of everything you're burning right now. Would that I could come to Kansas City to book scout.

So what do we need here now to fuel the opposite flame this one merely draws attention to? The dwindling candle of reading minds in our "great" nation. Incite celebrities and athletes to write books for children and young adults which encourage youth to read? Just finished reading Ecotopia, so of course my thoughts are lofty. But I imagine a sustainable, fully-greened publishing and textbook industry supported by a network of independent bookstores paired with local online dealers. I imagine local communities taking over Barnes and Nobles and Borders locations nationwide and localizing them, staffing them, changing the tones of them to fit the precise spot they are located. I imagine a world where we remember that reading is still looking, just with a different form of thought attached, that a picture is not worth a thousand words and sometimes, the exact opposite is true.

Dear Book Lovers;
There are worse crimes than burning books, one is not reading them. ~ Joseph Brodskey

The individual who won’t read has nothing over the individual who cannot read. ~ Mark Twain

For ten years Prospero’s Books has been in the front lines of the literary arts, both as a bookseller (www.prosperosbookstore.com) and as a publisher (www.unholydaypress.com). As a used bookseller, we have put our money where our hearts are – surrendering our hours and our revenues to sharing the world of books and, more importantly, the ideas they contain with anyone who would listen.

During these ten years we have seen reading decline dramatically. The National endowment of for Arts study on literary literacy in America which painfully highlighted the rapid decline of reading in America. In our own community, we’ve watched as bookstore after bookstore has folded.

Yesterday, we performed an act of art – a wakeup call to all who value books and ideas. Over the last 10 years, Prospero’s Books has 20,000 books we’ve collected that people simply will not read. We receive hundreds more each week.

At Prospero’s we fundamentally believe that the literary arts are not dead. We believe that there is still much about the human condition and our time still needing to be said. In so saying, we challenge you to get involved in two ways:
1. email these stories to your friends
2. call your local TV, radio, newspaper, blogs, etc. and tell them what is going on
3. For $1 a book (+ postage), you can save these books from the flame. We will not take these $s as profit, but will use them to publish new books.

Many of you have great ideas regarding what can be done with these books that’s better than burning them – we agree with you, and encourage YOU to get involved in sharing the gift of literature. For $1 a book + postage, you can support your local school, prison, etc.

If we are going to again place a spotlight on the importance of books and reading, we need Your help! This is bigger than two bookstore owners in Kansas City.

My greatest fear is that as a culture, we may be beyond saving the books.
We appreciate that you have joined what we hope will become a national dialogue about the importance of books. Thank you.
Sincere Regards,
Prospero’s Bookstore
Will Leathem
Tom Wayne

More news coverage:

Fox News' Take [see evil corporation]
Yahoo's
The Hindu
CNN

FREE RADIO OLYMPIA TEMPORARILY OFF THE AIR DUE TO FCC HARASSMENT

Thanks to our good buddy xxxxxxxx over at xxxxxxxx near the old cabin in the woods. Free Radio could use all the help they can get on this one so pitch in and stay tuned.

Posted by: fro on 05/22/2007 11:46 PM (Read: )
Hey Folks. Due to recent FCC harassment and the need for a new transmitter location, we are going off the air until a new location is found. Please contact us if you are possibly willing to host our transmitter.
fro(at)riseup.net
(360) 705-9780
or drop off your information at:

Last Word Books
211 4th Avenue East
Olympia, Washington 98501


We really need your support. Thank you for all that you have already given.
And you can keep listening online!

-FRO

Bush makes power grab

Holy fuckass Batman, we're up shit creek for sure! Thanks to my Pops at Earthlight Books for scrounging this one off Coast to Coast's bulletin board. So let me get this straight... el presidente can now have a little tissy fit freak out and take over all power levels of government under his sole discretion? Let's see what Webster has to say:

1 a : a person granted absolute emergency power; especially : one appointed by the senate of ancient Rome b : one holding complete autocratic control c : one ruling absolutely and often oppressively

See: Hitler, Mussolini, Caesar, Stalin, Tse-Tung, Kai-shek, Lenin, Pol Pot, Hideki, Khan, Tito, Ceausescu and lots of other assholes. Hey George, your proctologist called, they found yer head.

---

Posted: May 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

President Bush, without so much as issuing a press statement, on May 9 signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of a national emergency declared by the president.

The "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive," with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive, establishes under the office of president a new National Continuity Coordinator.

That job, as the document describes, is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.

The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

(Column continues below)

When the president determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the president can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an "enduring constitutional government."

Translated into layman's terms, when the president determines a national emergency has occurred, the president can declare to the office of the presidency powers usually assumed by dictators to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.

Ironically, the directive sees no contradiction in the assumption of dictatorial powers by the president with the goal of maintaining constitutional continuity through an emergency.

The directive specifies that the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism will be designated as the National Continuity Coordinator.

Further established is a Continuity Policy Coordination Committee, chaired by a senior director from the Homeland Security Council staff, designated by the National Continuity Coordinator, to be "the main day-to-day forum for such policy coordination."

Currently, the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism is Frances Fragos Townsend.

Townsend spent 13 years at the Justice Department before moving to the U.S. Coast Guard where she served as assistant commandant for intelligence.

She is a White House staff member in the executive office of the president who also chairs the Homeland Security Council, which as a counterpart to the National Security Council reports directly to the president.

The directive issued May 9 makes no attempt to reconcile the powers created there for the National Continuity Coordinator with the National Emergency Act. As specified by U.S. Code Title 50, Chapter 34, Subchapter II, Section 1621, the National Emergency Act allows that the president may declare a national emergency but requires that such proclamation "shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register."

A Congressional Research Service study notes that under the National Emergency Act, the president "may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens."

The CRS study notes that the National Emergency Act sets up congress as a balance empowered to "modify, rescind, or render dormant such delegated emergency authority," if Congress believes the president has acted inappropriately.

NSPD-51/ HSPD-20 appears to supersede the National Emergency Act by creating the new position of National Continuity Coordinator without any specific act of Congress authorizing the position.

NSPD-51/ HSPD-20 also makes no reference whatsoever to Congress. The language of the May 9 directive appears to negate any a requirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists, suggesting instead that the powers of the executive order can be implemented without any congressional approval or oversight.

Homeland Security spokesperson Russ Knocke affirmed that the Homeland Security Department will be implementing the requirements of NSPD-51/ HSPD-20 under Townsend's direction.

The White House had no comment.

Parkour

TJ just showed me this, though I'd loosely heard of it before and grew up practicing a form of it in the woods around my cabin. Hell, TJ and I were doing it on lava rocks up a Hawaiian riverbed this afternoon. I really want to train my girls in this most practical artform. What amazing body movement and relation to setting. I'm impressed. Seems like a good way for urban youth to work out aggression in a positive way. Wish I was twelve again.

from wikipedia
(Le) Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or l'art du déplacement^[1] (English: the art of movement) is a physical art of French origin, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.^[2] It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment — from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls — so parkour can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Male parkour practitioners are recognized as traceurs and female as traceuses.^[3]

Jerry Falwell's Deal with the Devil

More dirt on Falwell, may the mudslide never falter.

By Robert Parry
Go to Original

The Rev. Jerry Falwell's death will elicit scores of eulogies on the good the televangelist did, even while acknowledging some hurtful actions, such as blaming gays and civil libertarians for 9/11. But there is another little-known chapter of Falwell's career: his collaboration with a Korean cult leader bent on transforming the United States into a theocracy.

Like other prominent Republican figures, Falwell entered into a behind-the-scenes alliance with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon even as the self-proclaimed Messiah was denouncing America as "Satan's harvest" and vowing to incorporate the United States into a worldwide theocratic empire that would eradicate all individuality.

Falwell sought to conceal his relationship with Moon, sometimes denying (falsely) that he had benefited from Moon's financial help or that he had been photographed with the cult leader. Other times, Falwell sought to justify his acceptance of Moon's largesse.

"If the American Atheists Society or Saddam Hussein himself ever sent an unrestricted gift to any of my ministries," Falwell said in response to a question about Moon's financial assistance, "be assured I will operate on Billy Sunday's philosophy. The Devil's had it long enough, and quickly cash the check." [See "Moon-Related Funds Filter to Evangelicals," Christianity Today, Feb. 9, 1998]

Falwell's acceptance of Moon's mysterious money was first disclosed at Consortiumnews.com in fall 1997. In a pattern common to Moon's financial operations, the Korean cult leader stepped in when a leading American conservative, in this case Falwell, was facing potential financial ruin.

In 1995, the jewel of Falwell's life's work – Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia – was facing bankruptcy. Then, seemingly out of the blue, money became available through a small non-profit organization to buy up a large chunk of the school's debt.

On Jan. 28, 1995, a beaming Rev. Falwell told his Old Time Gospel Hour congregation news that seemed heaven sent. Falwell hailed two Virginia businessmen as the financial saviors of debt-ridden Liberty University.

"They had to borrow money, hock their houses, hock everything," Falwell said. "Thank God for friends like Dan Reber and Jimmy Thomas." Falwell's congregation rose as one to applaud. The star of the moment was Daniel Reber, who was standing behind Falwell. Thomas was not present.

Reber and Thomas earned Falwell's public gratitude by excusing the fundamentalist Christian college of about one-half of its $73 million debt. In the late 1980s, that flood of red ink had forced Falwell to abandon his Moral Majority political organization and the debt had nearly drowned Liberty University in bankruptcy.

Reber and Thomas had come to Falwell's rescue in the nick of time. Their non-profit Christian Heritage Foundation of Forest, Virginia, had bought a large portion of Liberty's debt for $2.5 million, a fraction of its face value. Thousands of small religious investors who had invested in church construction bonds through a Texas company were the big losers.

But Falwell shed no tears. He told local reporters that the moment was "the greatest single day of financial advantage" in the school's history. Left unmentioned in the happy sermon was the identity of Falwell's real guardian angel, the person who actually was protecting Falwell's financial interests...Read More...

There is a God. R.I.P. Jerry Falwell 1933-2007

It is a grand, glorious day. The sun is shining, Spring is in full swing...and Jerry Falwell is dead. Usually, we would not cheer the death of another human being, but Jerry Falwell is...different. The world is a better place without him spewing his hate-filled "sermons." So, just for laughs we dug up some of his better pronouncements for you to enjoy, although I kind of agree with him when he says Billy Graham is the servant of the Devil. Enjoy.

AIDS is not just God's punishment
for homosexuals; it is God's
punishment for the society that
tolerates homosexuals.

The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief.
They are spiritually blind and desperately in
need of their Messiah and Savior.

Grown men should not be having sex with
prostitutes unless they are married to them.

We're fighting against humanism, we're
fighting against liberalism…we are
fighting against all the systems of
Satan that are destroying our nation
today…our battle is with Satan himself.

Billy Graham is the chief servant of
Satan in America.

Christians, like slaves and soldiers,
ask no questions.

If you're not a born-again Christian,
you're a failure as a human being.

The idea that religion and politics
don't mix was invented by the Devil to
keep Christians from running their own
country.

There's been a concerted effort to steal
Christmas.

How to Become a Bounty Hunter in 9 Easy Steps

by: L Scott Harrell

"Becoming a bounty hunter shouldn’t be all that hard right? I mean I've boiled it down to 9 easy steps…

1. Find a quality bounty hunter school or training.
2. Get licensed, if required.
3. If you are unsure if licensing is required, look it up.
4. Get the essential gear and support systems in place.
5. Market your services.
6. If successful, find and arrest the fugitive, then take him to jail.
7. If successful, invoice and collect for services from client.
8. Repeat steps 6 through 8 as often as necessary.
9. Find more bounty hunter training and improve your skills. Again, repeat as often as necessary.

Actually, I wish it were that easy but it is not- though not impossible as many would have you imagine.

Since I don’t know anything about you or your experience, I am going to assume that you are starting from scratch... no experience with the bail bond industry, skip tracing, taking people into custody, or finding a bounty hunter job.

With that in mind I am going to give you the best advice you will get in our industry...Read More..."

MORE BOUNTY HUNTING LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounty_hunter#External_links
http://www.bailtraining.com/
http://www.scapecast.com/entertainment/bho/index.html
http://www.beabountyhunter.com/main.htm
http://www.77investigators.com/bounty.html