Surveillance self-defense

The EFF has published a good primer to electronic self defense for anyone concerned with government spying and oppression.

Bill Moyers speaks truth at National Conference for Media Reform

"... We're not alone and we know what we need to say. So let us all go tell it on the mountains and in the cities. From our websites and laptops, the street corners and coffeehouses, the delis and diners, the factory floors and the bookstores. On campus, at the mall, the synagogue, sanctuary and mosque, let's tell it where we can, when we can and while we still can.

Democracy only works when ordinary people claim it as their own." - Bill Moyers

Media matters. Media variety matters. Media ownership (and its ugly other side of purchasability) is what's wrong. Control of information always serves the state and not the people. When all people know is what they are told, it matters a lot how many people can speak.

TATS Cru sues over mural removal in NYC

Another shameful moment for Rev. Al Sharpton.

Only unpopular speech needs free-speech protections. This legally done mural on private property was censored by people who didn't agree with it. And that's just not the way we do things in the USA.

The "Stop Snitchin'" mural, painted on the side of an East Harlem bodega with the permission of the building's owner in 2006, featured a rat with a noose around its neck and the phrase that police say has left many of the city's crimes unsolved.

In July, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Rev. Al Sharpton and others painted over the mural and invited the media to watch, charging that the mural hampers the justice system and promotes violence.

The Hunts Point-based Tats Cru, which has turned its street graffiti into a worldwide commercial enterprise, says the city's action has violated its right to free speech.

Stacey Richman, the group's lawyer, says city officials violated federal defamation and slander laws by painting over the mural.
"If you or I or anyone else did this, we would be arrested for criminal mischief," Richman said. "It was not about endorsing a negative connotation. It was about getting discussion going."

The mural destruction mob claimed the owner said they could erase it. TATS representatives say the owner was threatened with fines if he did not agree. Perhaps they will get another demonstration of the Streisand Effect for their trouble.

Sex Education online by Planned Parenthood

Good info by a trustworthy organization. Too bad that so many idiots will try to prevent you from seeing it. Sex education helps tremendously in preventing pregnancy and diseases. Fight for your right and your teen's right to know the truth. Support Planned Parenthood. Science over fear.

Toronto declares legal mural not art, must go

This is absurd. If graffiti is defined as illegal marking, then legally done artwork is the obvious alternative. There's always so much shouting about permission (or purchase) being the salient difference. A commissioned mural is just that.

To instead censor work based on an aesthetic, a tool, lettering content, or (dare we say it) ethnicity or socio-economic status of the artists (real or imagined) is so Dark Ages.

Luckily, you can comment about this at the Toronto Sun (comment form is hidden under the talk back image).

Fotolog continues to delete writers' sites

I think I've said this before, but it is only getting worse, so I'll say it again: Fotolog seems to have a special hatred for graffiti artists, because it routinely closes their sites without warning (and we hope that's the worst thing they do). I suggest all you folks with fotologs go to Flickr instead.

Wherever you do it, make sure you keep copies of your photos, because most companies can't be trusted to keep them safe, and it's a hassle to download them one at a time too.

UPDATE - Petition: Afghan man sentenced to death for downloading an article about Islam and the treatment of women

UPDATE: Apparently there's an ulterior motive in having Sayed arrested and perhaps a reason to be optimistic about his fate as well according to NPR

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See the link for a synopsis of the case and a petition you can sign. It's hard to know if public disapproval can sway foreign officials, but it's worth a try when someone's life hangs in the balance.

The document he allegedly downloaded was from Iran and about Islamic thought. Makes you wonder what they would do to people who read Western secular documents.

When a country's belief system is so shaky that authorities have to kill or imprison people for thinking outside the book, its days are numbered. Suppression leads directly to keen interest in forbidden ideas. Let's hope 23-year-old Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh and the brave women of Afghanistan survive this shameful period of their country's history, and that it passes quickly into the books itself.

Fotolog is kicking a lot of writers out

I've noticed a lot of forcibly closed Fotolog accounts lately. One writer had a (tasteful) painting of a nude, but it doesn't seem to be all about T&A. If you have a Fotolog you might want to gather up your material and move to a more friendly service before they get around to you.

Vaughn Bode - at Toronto Comic Con 1974

Australian Pratt vandalizes mural, refuses to pay for it

Here's another story that points out how this zealous, self-aggrandizing defacement of a graffiti art commissioned mural was actually vandalism. And of course, vandalism is NOT ABOUT WHO DOES IT, right? Rich white guys? Government grandstanders?

If the graffiti argument is *really* about legal placement vs illegal defacement, this guy should be charged -- just like he so badly wants to charge the people he doesn't like for doing the same thing.

Think, people, think.

"The original picture allegedly removed by Mr Pratt who is the Deputy Speaker of the ACT Assembly was painted by a local graffiti artist affectionately known as "Dan the man" and featured a man playing disc or frisbee golf.

"They want me to replace it, I'm not going to," Mr Pratt said. Disc ACT secretary Greg Sparksman said the club was extremely annoyed by Mr Pratt's actions and his unwillingness to apologise.

"We believed he vandalised our legal artwork of disc golf," Mr Sparksman said.

"He didn't apologise we have asked for $3000 and an apology and he's not prepared to do it."

Writers demonstrated, calling for him to be punished alike.

Palestinian Mural at San Francisco University in danger

Sign the online petition to help save it.