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Seriously, it's probably a better protest to abstain from voting than to vote for a racist with no chance of winning.

I mean, casting your lot for Paul and then saying "But I don't really support him" is a little like dressing in white robes and going to a big party with a burning cross and then saying "but I didn't light any matches myself."

Vermin Supreme: The ultimate protest vote

If you don't vote, tptb just assume you're not paying attention. I don't want my outrage to be confused for apathy.

When Occupy started, I was so psyched! The urban camping (on the weekends; I still have a job!) was enthralling and a good opportunity to explore a city I've seen all my life. The cops seemed to largely agree with our sentiments and it felt like some of the silly politicorporate shit was finally about to melt away. We were all taking on much larger tasks of organizing than we had ever attempted. If something needed to be fixed for PR or simple convenience of continued occupation, you did it; if you couldn't do it, there were plenty of volunteers. The world felt like it was wrapped in a loving embrace of solidarity.

Then we had a bunch of random protesters none of us had ever seen before who were protesting on "Police Brutality Day." Don't get me wrong, police brutality sucks. Some of the shit going on in Seattle lately absolutely sickens me, (deleting police car footage, making such removal of evidence legal, etc.) but this was not in Seattle; we were occupying Atlanta. These unaffiliated protesters started shouting all kinds of biased shit at the officers present and it wound up with the mayor behind a command center vehicle shouting his nads off and a group of some 30 or 40 officers across the street just laughing at it all.

From that point on, the Atlanta occupation got more and more focused on race, and much less focused on economic issues. A new martyr was selected: some guy who was shot in the back because he flashed a gun at an officer and started running from what I can tell. Note that our site was unofficially renamed to "Troy Davis park" from the very start of it all. Troy Davis himself is a dubious case of injustice as well. I attended a few rallies back in my activist days, but now it looks more and more like the only reason he ever seemed innocent to me was because of a viral social media campaign to get him off the hook.

The final straw for me was on the first "reoccupation night" (and they have been many without success). A black man from Occupy DC informed me that I was slightly racist for preferring Ron Paul to Obama, because Ron Paul may not have said anything racist himself, but allowing somebody to write something racist in his name made him a little racist at best. First, I have no clue how so many people at these occupations can still support Obama (or any politician) and say they keep up with the news. Second, I was clearly not exhibiting racist behavior and I am so sick of getting shit for being born to the "oppressor race." Third, the area we attempted to occupy that night happened to be the MLK memorial and that entire exchange was so against the spirit of the moment that I nearly punched this guy.

After 30 minutes of confused attempts at putting up tents which were destroyed in the big raid, we were surrounded by 10 motorcycles, 15 cop cars, and being hovered over by 2 low-flying helicopters with spotlights. Typical overkill relative to what we'd experienced since. For some reason there were even CSI vehicles hanging around on the big eviction night. I realized the mayor was just going to continue spending as much money as possible to thwart the tremendous threat of non-violent hippies and then complain about how much money they had cost him. I also realized that the last thing they wanted around was another white male who wanted to focus on destroying the ties between the political and financial sectors on days when he didn't have to be at work.

I did leave with a very iconic quote though:
"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

So, apparently, in Germany companies can pay to name weather fronts. I assume this is great publicity if your company gets credit for a white Christmas or a perfectly breezy early summer day.

Unfortunately for BMW, they lent the surname of their classic Mini Cooper to a deadly winter storm. This somehow leads to them taking some responsibility for THE WEATHER!

Now I'm wondering what I would name a front if I were over there...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577204993621367100.html

Edit: Fixed title typo

I bought one of these at a kiosk in a mall. I think the brand was Smoking Everywhere. The vapor was thick and tasty, and even at times more refreshing since it was kind of cool on the back of my throat.

Then I started losing my voice the day of a party and totally missed out on nookie as a result.

Maybe Blu doesn't have the same drawbacks. Battery life was a bit of an issue for me too and I'm tempted to try it out once I have more disposable income.

Man, you weren't kidding when you said this was up my alley. You write rather extremely believably as well.

I've had quite a few spurts of unofficial cressing in the past few years. (As I'm sure many on these forums have)

Right now synchronicity acts like wind for me.
Sometimes it's a good day for sailing and sometimes you're just stuck on the beach.

I'd love a way to trigger these sort of intuitive events and decisions and these methods seem promising.
I ordained a cress book today and I am prepared to scribble down whatever my next lead is.
One immediate benefit to simply having the mindset is that I'm feeling much more artistically inclined than I have been lately.

Also, this:

I think that a good book to use as an inspiration here is the Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. we see a psychiatrist fall into an obsession with embracing chance and randomness. he cheats on his wife, and well, goes COMPLETELY off chops at various points... but this is distracting from the point.

definitely feels like foreshadowing.

When I saw Vermin Supreme for the first time, I decided I might actually vote this year.

I saw the exact opposite of this rant at a vegan restaurant. They had these screens on all the walls with some program that looked like a cross between televangelism and Bollywood.
Most of it was subtitled or spoken in heavy Engrish.
The main guru-lady seemed to be saying that vegans can live by photosynthesis with a little chocolate here and there so their taste buds don't get bored.
Other implied vegan superpowers: Third eye laser blast, care-bear rainbow belly, and inter-specific telepathy

Just in case your hate-bladder was getting low

You are a bad, bad man.

I assume you also like to wheel kegs into Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and drop off pound cakes at Weight Watchers?

You should see what I do at churches 

[8-circuits in my ass.]

Just read (again) Cosmic Trigger 1-3, Quantum Psychology and Prometheus Rising by RAW.
When I first read these, my english was not so good and things were new and interesting, but now I get the message:
8-circuits in my ass.

It's like when you take psychedelics and you go all WOAH, this is real, but then after a while you understand it's not.

Right now, I'm:   

And if somebody is offended, I'm sorry, but it's time to wake up. Again.

edit: I never believed that there were 8-circuits or any circuits, but like many I believed I could "use" that model to "improve something". But it's impossible to "use" models, because they do not exist. All you can do, is to spin them around inside your head. That's about it. With every model.

Yes, I know.  All those maps we had in the army were just used as modern art.

UNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!

1.  You're a fucking idiot.  Which model do you think advertisers and political action groups use?  Do you dispute that they are in fact effective?

2.  You're a fucking idiot.  If you were "sorry for offending people", you wouldn't have followed the apology with a fucking condescending remark.

Now fuck off.

I think you misunderstanded something.
I meant psychological/mental models. Ones like 8-circuit, ego/id, shadow, gods and that kind of stuff. I thought it was obvious, because I was talking about the 8-circuit model. And the 8-circuit model is only in your head, not out there and you can't bring it out from your head and put it to use except in words. Unlike maps and other concrete things like a plan to invade some country. Those things can be put to action and that's a different thing.

Also english is my second language. Just saying.

I see what you mean here. Personally, I derive some use from esoteric "facts" and figures. If a paradigm seems to apply to a situation, and I haven't dismissed said paradigm as totally fucking retarded, I tend to use it for metaphorical guidance.

What's your first language?

Right now I'm reading the sixth Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy Book. Douglas Adams not being the author is still a serious drawback, but I found it for 4 bucks and Colfer manages to be funny and insightful enough.

Hoping to pick up the second Hunger Games book soon (actually what I was looking for when I bought And Another Thing) since the first one was a pretty thrilling romp with decent themes and popular YA novels are great for making small talk.

I saw the exact opposite of this rant at a vegan restaurant. They had these screens on all the walls with some program that looked like a cross between televangelism and Bollywood.
Most of it was subtitled or spoken in heavy Engrish.
The main guru-lady seemed to be saying that vegans can live by photosynthesis with a little chocolate here and there so their taste buds don't get bored.
Other implied vegan superpowers: Third eye laser blast, care-bear rainbow belly, and inter-specific telepathy

Just in case your hate-bladder was getting low