I've always tried to be a friend of the lumpen, but frankly I'd rather be their friend than to be one of them.

Ivy-League philosophy-major pundits never seem to lack for things to bitch about and then feel guilty about it afterward do they? How about if they just deal with living amongst the lumpen and their common antics and STFU about it? That would be easier on all of us. Bottom line take-away:"...[T]he trouble with living in a low-rent neighborhood is having low-rent neighbors."

Sign of the times...cont'd.

Put on your vest and make 'em hot!

The Detroit Free Press has an editorial today featuring numerous bitter complaints about the sky-high auto-insurance rates Detroiters have to pay, blasting term limits, and ending with some shrill comments about what a bitch it is living in the "D". Upshot: Detroit has lots of auto thefts, auto accidents, drivers with bad driving records, as well as lots of unlicensed drivers, many drivers with poor credit ratings (which are used to set rates) and so auto insurance is really high in the Detroit zip codes. Bottom line: It sucks to be part of the lumpen proletariat. Thanks for that news flash Freepers. I knew you were good for something.

weblog

A photo collection of NYC lumpen that all feature the subject wearing an Obama shirt - Street Carnage

A short memoir of detention in a FEMA gulag during the Katrina disaster - Pro Libertate

Dave Eggers wrote a book about this guy too.

BART police force stripped of Tasers do to misuse - SF Chronicle

Thoughts on survival bartering - Survival Blog

Colton Harris-Moore movie proposed - Outside.com/

And the guy is still at large too. And more to the point there is literally nothing that the capitalists in the form of Big Hollywood won't try to monetize.

Arms & the Movement -Utne Reader (Peter Gelderloos)

"Time and again, people struggling not for some token reform but for complete liberation -- the reclamation of control over our own lives and the power to negotiate our own relationships with the people and the world around us -- will find that nonviolence does not work, that we face a self-perpetuating power structure that is immune to appeals to conscience and strong enough to plow over the disobedient and uncooperative."