"The Rapture Index"

Jon Carroll

Let us consider the Rapture Index. This is a real thing prepared by serious people. If it makes you laugh, you have not gotten the memo. You probably have not read any of the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series, the best-selling books in America today.

 Those Left Behind are those who did not experience the Rapture, which is an instant in time when all the truly holy people are taken directly to heaven, leaving their clothes in small neat piles behind them. The rest of the ungodly losers are left to deal with natural disasters and wars and the armies of the Antichrist, after which they die in various colorful ways while the ranks of the saved watch with compassion tempered with an understandable sense of satisfaction.

 The Rapture Index, as of this writing, stands at 153. Anything over 145 is labeled by the Rapture Actuaries as "Fasten your seat belts." In other words: Repent for the End Is Near. You may see all this for yourself here, should you think I'm making it up.

Anonymous Comrade writes "Neither Hariri, Nor Syria: An Alternative Take on the Growing Protests in Lebanon"
Hariri: Hot Diary of an Affair!
by !-Mad
Beiruit indymedia

I have known Rafik Al Hariri for quite some years now. Our acquaintance involved a lot of physical interaction and deep-throat cries! He is much older than me, but our relation deepened beyond belief. I was obsessed by him, and where ever I went... I sabotaged his pictures.

I have been beaten by his men, arrested by his police, teargassed, water-cannoned and smothered by his “riot” control! I have held banners against his policies, demanded his dismissal from office, refused to collaborate or even be seen next to any of his followers, took non-violent direct actions against his projects, policies... and presence – I was not alone; I was/still am one of many. Today I am outraged!

Anonymous Comrade writes

"A Season of Depressing Political Re-Runs"

John Chuckman

Recent political events resemble nothing so much as re-runs of movies that should never have been released the first time.

Bush has gone to Europe to "ease tensions" in the NATO alliance. Of course, those very tensions were his work entirely, but a sense of the ridiculous never discourages a Jehovah's Witness with a long list of house calls to make.

Onto writes:

"Towards a Critical Analysis of Media EmergenC"
Media EmergenC Assembly

Introduction

From October 6th–9th, as the National Association of Broadcasters was holding their annual Radio Road Show in San Diego, a group of media activists converged to try to illuminate what is wrong with the corporate media and to strengthen independent, community autonomous media. This convergence was called the Media emergenC, highlighting the two themes of emergency and emergence. With 4 days of talks, film screenings, marches, panels, forums and independent media making, the media activists, mostly composed of members of San Diego Indymedia and radioActive sanDiego, but including media makers from as far away as New York and Philadelphia, tried to confront the NAB as had been done in many other cities, but also to challenge the independent media movement and push it forward. For an overview of the events, see here.

Mara Kaufman writes

"A Hacker's Perspective on the Social Forums"
Mara Kaufman

Of the 155,000 people at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre this January, some were chosen by their communities to represent them. Some were sent by their organizations. Some were delegated by their constituencies. But many of us were there because we could be — paid activists, paid students, and people who can afford to take a week off of work in the middle of January. This is a key issue for the forum phenomenon: anybody can go, but going so far rests largely on a kind of privileged volunteerism.

s0metim3s writes:

"Lessons from the Pietariat"

Mute Magazine

Sometimes it's hard to tell self-congratulation from self-abasement. Not a Proper Job, a tempting directory for artists, was launched in London in October at a party advertised as follows: 'If you live a creative lifestyle, you are by definition a member of the 'Not a Proper Job' club. So come join us and celebrate not having a Proper Job. Birds of a feather should flock together!'

The Nuclear Club Expands
By Immanuel Wallerstein

North Korea has now said officially that it already has nuclear weapons, and is not at all interested
in discussing giving them up. Iran still claims it
doesn't intend to make nuclear weapons. However it also says it will not
discuss abandoning the progress it has made in developing nuclear enrichment
facilities (which means of course that it could easily produce nuclear
weapons when it wished to do so). And what does the United States say? The
United States doesn't know what to say and is floundering. Henry Kissinger
is sputtering, in print and on television. Condoleeza Rice is calling Iran a
totalitarian state and telling the Europeans that they have to tell Iran
clearly and loudly that, if Iran persists in its nuclear enrichment program,
there will be U.N. sanctions (and the Europeans are telling her that such
statements by her, made publicly or even privately, are distinctly
counterproductive).

nolympics writes:

"Mara Salvatrucha, Social War and the Decline of the Revolutionary Movements in Central America"

Ramor Ryan

Once this was a place of great hope. During the late 1980’s, the Sandinistas were consolidating the revolution in Nicaragua, the FMLN were on the brink of overthrowing the government in El Salvador and the radical movements in Guatemala and Honduras were gaining ground. Today it is a region convulsed by massive delinquency and chronic state corruption whose economies are surviving tenuously on remittance money sent by migrants. The defeat of the revolutionary movements has ushered in an era of social disintegration resulting in a veritable neo-liberal dystopia.

Chicken Bus Diaries

People in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have always had travel like this. 100 people crush into generic American school buses. The old school buses earn the chicken moniker because of the propensity of people to bring their livestock onboard. Sometimes the animals are tied up in boxes on the roof. In other Latin American countries the passengers cram on the roof too, but not here in Central America. The way the drivers swing the buses around the mountain curves would pitch anything off the roof that was not tied down. But the bus service is cheap and abundant, catering for the poorest passenger, and it must be said they are painted in the most exquisite manner — each bus a blaze of color and a work of art.

"Hiroshima, Mon Amour"
John Chuckman

A few columnists and commentators who questioned or opposed the invasion of Iraq, now say, having been touched by pictures of Iraqis bravely casting ballots, that George Bush was right.

Such is the persuasive power of positive propaganda, which works by focusing on true details, ignoring their ugly context, and such is the wisdom imparted by need-to-get-a-column-out thinkers.

First, much as I admire the Iraqis who voted, any human being's sense of fear or horror is relative to his or her circumstances. People do become inured to horrible conditions. That is how they survive wars, plagues, slavery, and even death camps.

And George Bush's Iraq is a pretty horrible place. Not just a bloody invasion but civil chaos have worked to make it so, and Iraqis were already hardened to horrors by the decade-long American embargo and the devastation of the first Gulf War.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Paul McCartney, Super Bowl Anarchist?

Anonymous Comrade

Fox and the Super Bowl thought they had it all figured out. They figured they'd avoid controversy all together by featuring unarguably one of, if not the most respected pop musicians of all time. Simple and sweet, one act, a maturing white man playing four of what most would agree are some of the greatest pop songs ever recorded. Classics, (as in Coca Cola Classic) sung by a classic, who laid the groundwork for popular music period. No dancers, no big current names, no young blood, instead a seasoned professional reciting what amounts at this point to elevator music.

Despite this idiot proof plan, despite the projections of patriotic images, Fox/NFL would not get there way so easily. Despite the giant card display that taunted "Na Na Na" in red white and blue at the colonized world, watching from their couches, a statement as controversial if not more than last years was made. The broadcast delay and the censors could do nothing.