.: Noam Sayin'? The High Times Interview with Noam Chomsky

Brandon Bird: "Signifier and Signified"

Noam Chomsky  - interviewed by T.A. Sedlak - High Times, July 29, 2011

Q: You've spoken out against the War on Drugs, explaining that it's

essentially a means to lock up poor people, that it actually increases

drug use, and that it serves as an excuse to control foreign nations.

Would you briefly elaborate on these points?

A: Let's grant that there's a drug problem, for the sake of argument --

drugs meaning, you know, cocaine, marijuana and so on. Suppose you

accept that. How do you deal with it? There are studies -- government

studies and others -- that say that the most cost-effective way is

prevention and treatment. More expensive and less effective is policing;

still less effective and more expensive is border interdiction. And the

most expensive and the least effective is out-of-country operations,

like what they call "fumigation" -- which is, in fact, chemical warfare

-- in Colombia and so forth. I've seen it firsthand; it really is

chemical warfare. So those are the basic facts, and I don't think anyone

questions them very much.

Now take a look at the way the Drug War is conducted over the past 40

years. It goes back farther, but start from 40 years ago: There's very

little spent on prevention and treatment. There's a lot on policing, a

ton of stuff on border control and a lot on out-of-country operations.

And the effect on the availability of drugs is almost undetectable; drug

prices don't change on measures of availability. So there are two

possibilities: Either those conducting the Drug War are lunatics, or

they have another purpose.

Well, in the law, there's a standard way of trying to determine

intention, and that's by looking at predictable consequences. You have

40 years of experience with almost no effect on what they claim they're

trying to do, and you have very predictable consequences -- in fact,

several. At home, you lock up the people who are essentially

superfluous. The economy shifted dramatically in the '70s away from

domestic production and towards financialization and the export of

production. That leaves a class problem: What do you do with unemployed

workers? We happen to have a very close class/race correlation in

America, so that means, overwhelmingly, black males and Hispanic males.

Well, you know, we're a civilized country, so you don't assassinate them

-- you stick them in jail. And, in fact, the incarceration rate has

been shooting up, especially since the early '80s; it's now way out of

line with any other comparable country. Meanwhile, overseas, the War on

Drugs contributes to counterinsurgency operations. So a rational

conclusion is that those are the purposes. The only alternative I can

think of is sheer lunacy....'

.: Read the rest of the interview.

.: How to build a House with a Reciprocal Roof

         

It looks like a still from 'Lord of the Rings' but it's not, it's a real home, in Wales.
This incredible hobbit-like house was handmade by a man named Simon Dale.

He'll even tell you how to do it on his website and he makes it sound fun and easy;

"The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings."
'I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around inbetween. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again."

.: from the vault - SYSTEM:CORRUPT

Here are some tasty bits of crouton, that never got used for garnish, - from the salad days of SYSTEM:CORRUPT....

[al corrupt]

.: Smash Fascism

You know it's right.

.: 'It felt like a kiss' - Adam Curtis

                

It Felt Like a Kiss is an immersive theatre production, themed on "how power really works in the world".
Below is the 54 minute film component made by BBC documentary film maker, Adam Curtis.

'It felt like a kiss' by Adam Curtis

"I wanted to do a film about what it actually felt like to live through that time ... Where you could see the roots of the uncertainties we feel today, the things they did out on the dark fringes of the world that they didn't really notice at the time, which would then come back to haunt us"

.: Vintage Techno >> 'Tribal Punishment' mixtape

.: Tribal Punishment - SideA

.: Tribal Punishment - SideB  

All Dj manson mixtapes can now be found on Mixcloud.

.: "Why I am an anarchist" - ESR

Eric S Raymond [or ESR] is most widely known for his definitive book on the history of the rise of open source software and Linux,  'The Cathedral and the Bazaar'. He is also responsible for the assembling of  'The Jargon File'. aka 'The New Hackers Dictionary'
He is a bit of a legend from way back in hacker culture and open source dev & his website is a must-visit HTML treasure, well worth exploring. His essays are very interesting and wide ranging.
lots of great stuff to read.
I read this one many years ago,

• WHY I AM AN ANARCHIST

William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is one of the most subtly horrific pieces of writing ever uttered. The single most chilling paragraph in a book that does not flinch from describing Nazi atrocities is this one:
On August 19, 1934, 95% of the Germans who were registered to vote went to the polls and 90% (38 million) of adult German citizens voted to give Adolf Hitler complete and total authority to rule Germany as he saw fit. Only 4.25 million Germans voted against this transfer of power to a totalitarian regime.
With this vote, the position of Führer as an amalgam of President and Chancellor — the elevation of Adolf Hitler to the status of dictator — was formally and democratically approved by the German people.