h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A slightly frivolous interpretation of what you're saying, anhaga, is The Status Quo Is Always Right. 'All is for the best in this the best of all possible worlds.'

After all, we determined what the status quo should be through the only legitimate means allowable. Any dissent from this process, any suggestion that it irredeemably skewed is a priori illegitimate.


btw...maybe not Burke and Paine. Fidel and Che?

End with a song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-8K8Hj8bxE

okay, thanks to Happy Nerd et al for waking me up and getting me going
I have now been to those sites HN and will switch banks
My bank, Chase, was the worst for spending on lobbying last year (I think) with over 3 million spent.

Does anyone know how that money is spent? I mean, is it just fees for the lobbying firms or do those firms then spend it on things like golf packages and other "perks" for the polititians they are lobbying? I looked for a site that delineated all that but I did not know the right questions to ask or the words to ask them.

Also, I have ferreted out my local Occupy website and am all hooked up for the next rally
I am stoked!!

I hope they don't arrest me because I have health issues
So I will be very nice and good and peaceful and careful so I can go home afterwards

I'll be passing through George Sq, Glasgow Friday so I'll stop for a chat. It'll be interesting to see where their political heads are at. In Glasgow I guess one can expect some traditional Marxism. The square has a certain symbolic status in that respect.

OK...so most of them will be The Usual Suspects, swapping Faslane for a trip to The Big City.

Hope the courts get them shifted before Remembrance Sunday. George Square usually has a great turnout when it's turned into a garden of remembrance.

But it doesn't automatically have first dibs, surely? I'd have thought the two can coexist. It's a public space.

Have you ever been? It's absolutely packed on Remembrance Sunday. As for first dibs, they have been doing it in the same place at the same time for a few decades now with the active participation of the council.

So it's like a traditional marching area. Good-oh.

I have no objection, of course...but I don't see why anyone (like you) would imagine there'd be a problem. Is it a possible case of wish fulfilment? If enough people say there'll be a problem, there will be. Guaranteed.

Or more constructively - the shared use of public space can be negotiated amicably.

Are the cooncil reading this, "absolutely packed"

"Council spokesman Colin Edgar said: "George Square isn't a huge space - it's not the world's biggest civic square.

"It's very intensively used at this time of year, so next week we'll start to put in the Garden of Remembrance for Armistice Day.

"The week after that we actually celebrate Armistice Day itself and the Sunday after that we have Remembrance Sunday, when the square is absolutely packed."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-15533674

So there you go. Two legitimate but competing uses of the space. Council trying to come to a sensible arrangement.

'Council Acts Sensibly'. Hold the front page. And your point was...?

Aye, of course - "A letter of expulsion has already been issued, ordering the activists to leave" seems to suggest the protest site isn't a legitimate use of the space at all.

Gordon Matheson got it in the neck for ordering court proceedings on the same day a lassie was raped at the occupy camp. The lawyers are back on the leash just long enough for him to appear caring and sympathetic.

It's puzzling how two people can read the same, short article and come to slightly different conclusions. The one I read has the following headline and sub-head in big, friendly letters:

'Court move on Glasgow's George Square protest delayed

The activists have been in George Square for more than two weeks
A court move to evict a group of anti-capitalists from their camp in Glasgow's George Square has been delayed.'

Is it perhaps the word 'delayed' that is confusing me?

'A slightly frivolous interpretation of what you're saying, anhaga, is The Status Quo Is Always Right.'

Yes, it is slightly frivolous.

What I am suggesting is that where I am the continually evolving institutions we have continue to serve us fairly well and are not irredeemably skewed. Dissent from these processes is perfectly legitimate. As is dissent from that dissent.


I'm not sure that dissent from Occupy is universally considered to be legitimate, however.

Well it's good that you're thinking locally. Leave the global stuff to others.

But I really must call you on:

>>I'm not sure that dissent from Occupy is universally considered to be legitimate, however.

Who's been saying anyone's views are illegitimate? Aren't we just, like, talking?

I was thinking more globally than just this thread.


I've heard of cases in the U.S. in which individuals were prevented from speaking (in support) at Occupy camps and I personally know one individual here (in Edmonton) who was run out of the camp because he mentioned that he was a member of the Green Party -- 'Occupy doesn't want to become politicized' they told him.

And I must call you on 'Well it's good that you're thinking locally. Leave the global stuff to others.'

Not only have I repeatedly mentioned that I am interested in doing my part and am doing my part concerning global issues through channels other than tent cities in parks but I feel I must `point out that this thread asks the question in the first post 'is anyone else following Occupy Wall St and Occupy elsewhere? What are you thinking and feeling about that?'

Discussing the local is an initial reason for this thread.

That having been said, I was not thinking simply locally. Perhaps I should have phrased the sentence like this to make my intention abundantly clear: 'What I am suggesting is that where I am the continually evolving institutions we have continue to serve us fairly well *for addressing both local and global issues* and are not irredeemably skewed.'

>>'Occupy doesn't want to become politicized'

Well I do agree they could do with a little entryism.

I just wandered by the Occupy Edmonton webpage. It seems they're having trouble finding enough volunteers to manage the camp.


It's a very small camp:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=102+st+and+jasper+avenue+edmonton&hl=en&ll=53.540623,-113.495159&spn=0.001626,0.005284&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hnear=Jasper+Ave+NW+%26+102+St+NW,+Edmonton,+Division+No.+11,+Alberta&gl=ca&t=h&z=18&vpsrc=6

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=102+st+and+jasper+avenue+edmonton&hl=en&ll=53.540046,-113.495577&spn=0.001626,0.005284&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hnear=Jasper+Ave+NW+%26+102+St+NW,+Edmonton,+Division+No.+11,+Alberta&gl=ca&t=h&z=18&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=53.540268,-113.495576&panoid=f7IFTpTtBoYLiq9l_9OoRQ&cbp=12,44.86,,0,-5.85

Very small one in Glasgow too.

http://www.camvista.com/scotland/glasgow/georgesq_camera1.php

The hippies are in the foreground, to the left. You can see they've helpfully set themselves up right next to the War Memorial.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&safe=off&nord=1&q=george+square+map&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&ion=1&biw=1440&bih=753&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x488846a03de49723:0xfc4cbb9774e007d7,George+Square,+Glasgow,+Glasgow+City+G2+1&gl=uk&ei=fFSxTpGIFonE8gPh_JzTAQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQ8gEwAA