More Flash Mobs

San Francisco’s first one happened a couple days ago:
http://www.cheesebikini.com/blog/photos/sf-flashmob-1/

And New York just pulled off their 4th:
http://fancyrobot.typepad.com/beta/2003/07/flash_mayhem.html
http://www.moistandtasty.com/mob_1.html
http://brooklynmoblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.strangeradiation.com/blog/archive/000133.shtml

Minneapolis’ first is planned for around 6:00ish on Tuesday the 22nd (next Tuesday) – more details can be found here or by contacting me.

As Threatened (remember, I’m only doing 10 of these, almost there…):

7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Ahmal.” The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him “Juan.” Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, “They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.

And, in other news, Adam told me they had more trouble at Ground Zero last night – and this time in Zero, not The Front. Grm.

Wish me luck!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2742709626

Btw, it has come to my attention that I’ve completely forgotten to finish the horrid puns I’d promised:

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why?” they asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”

Again, my apologies.

People may have noticed a conspicuous lack of politics here lately.

I believe that I have a strong sense of what the truth is and what the motivations of various factions are, but every so often I am overwhelmed at the ambivolence of my fellow countrymen – how can they not see it, how can they not care. Of course, the other option is that I’m either wrong or deluded which isn’t that comforting either.

Sometimes, I have to stop for a while. Then I can restart.

I’m not quite ready yet, but since the world moves whether I am ready or not, here are two links:

http://www.moveon.org/wmdpledge/

http://www.misleader.org/

I’m afraid that these efforts are missing the forests for the trees in such a way that all the administration will have to do is remove a given tree and say “see, no forest!” (eg: George Tenet) but for now, it’s something.

Sweet!

I’ve finally got the details for the Flash Mob on the 22nd.

For more information on what that is, check here.

Guerilla Surrealism.

Apparently, graveyard shifts can kill, and lack of sleep in general doesn’t seem to be a good thing.

Allegedly, being up for 18 hours straight has a similar stress on the body of having a BAC of 0.08. If that’s the case, I wonder what being up for 18 hours straight and having a BAC of 0.08 does…

I learned an interesting lesson last evening, fortunately through observation. Never, ever, mess with the MPD.

We had a ‘roid freak go a bit nuts at/outside the Front last night. He was threatening a lot of people (at one point saying he had a gun) and trying to get a lot of folks to fight him. He shoved a couple staff members and spat on another one. Finally, he did end up striking one of the employee’s wives.

All in all, the staff showed a remarkable restraint – I don’t think anyone touched him, and a couple folks grabbed the guy whose wife was hit to keep him out of it, but at that point, most of the staff arrayed in a “showdown” semi-circle. Shortly thereafter, the ‘roid freak’s buddy decided it was a bad scene, gave up trying to get his friend out of there and split.

The guy kept ranting and threatening and trying to provoke while everyone just stood there and waited for the police to arrive. At that point, the guy made a couple more nasty remarks but decided to run when he saw the lady cop shaking her can of mace as she approached him.

Ouch.

Ok, rule 1, don’t run.

They hit him so hard, he didn’t get time to put his hands in front of him and took the pavement face first.

Rule 2, don’t be so messed up that you can’t get your hands behind your back quickly.

As they hit him in the head/shoulders/back with the nightsticks, he was bouncing up and down off the ground. Somewhere in there, he lost consciousness. As they drug him towards the car, I couldn’t help but notice a pool of fluids left behind. Blood or vomit I think.

Rule 3, if you’re on parole, don’t be a drunk asshole.

Turned out the guy was a “client” of the department of corrections. At this point, he’s going to be staying there for a bit longer.

I got a chance to see his face when we were giving witness reports – damn – I think he’s going to have some permanent marks. Even the old security staff were a bit wide eyed at the display.

Seriously, if anyone ever thinks about challenging an MPD officer on a bad night, they’d better mean it and be ready to go full force, ’cause the cops aren’t going to be holding anything back.

Something notable about the situation is really how few problems we do have at the Front and Ground Zero. Granted, I don’t work every evening, but this is only the second “bad” one I’ve seen in the 4+ months I’ve been working at the club. It is also notable that both “bad” circumstances have been at the Front rather than at Ground Zero.

Go to www.google.com, type in:
weapons of mass destruction
and hit the [I'm Feeling Lucky] button.

Food for thought from a listserve:

“God told me to strike at Al-Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.”

- – President Bush to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas

Reported in Israeli newspaper Haaretz 070103

Apparently, the fate of our nation and many other parts of the world is affected by George W. Bush’s ability to hear and interpret the voice of Jehovah.

Call me a skeptic, but I’m not convinced that Jehovah is who GW is listening to.

We are a nation directed by self-interest and greed, fundamentally ruled by the philosophies set out by Alister Crowley and the derivations created by the Church of Satan in the early parts of last century. I find it more plausible that George is listening to these than to any god.

Even if it is as he claims, whether or not he should is another matter entirely. According to the Bible, nations were wiped out for lesser corruptions than exist today. If Jehovah were to decide that our world has again become a corrupt place and needs to be wiped clean and rather than sending a flood tells George to start a nuclear holocaust, should George listen and condemn us all?

Of course, there is the fact that many insane claim to hear voices. While I am not making the claim that our President is insane, it is a plausible alternative.