Wizard Rock

For those not on the Harry and the Potters mailing list, here's the tour dates for California:

Jul 22 | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco Public Library | 2pm
Jul 23 | Sacramento, CA | Sacramento Public Library | 2pm
Jul 24 | Milpitas, CA | Milpitas Public Library | 7pm
Jul 25 | Pleasanton, CA | Amador Theater | 5pm
Jul 28 | Riverside, CA | Glen Avon Public Library | 6pm
Jul 29 | Los Angeles Public Library - Central Library | 2pm
Jul 30 | Aliso Viejo, CA | Aliso Viejo Library | 2pm
Jul 31 | Poway, CA | San Diego County Library - Poway Branch | 1pm
Jul 31 | El Cajon, CA | San Diego County Library - El Cajon Branch | 7pm
Aug 1 | Anaheim, CA | Haskett Library | 6pm

July 22nd, Saturday
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Public Library - Main
2:00pm, FREE!
100 Larkin Street (at Grove), San Francisco, CA 94102-4733
Join us for our 3rd annual wizard rock show at the SFPL! This year, we're playing in Koret Auditorium!

July 23rd, Sunday
Sacramento, CA
Sacramento Public Library - Rancho Cordova Branch
2:00pm, FREE!
9845 Folsom Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95827

July 24th, Monday
Milpitas, CA
Milpitas Community Library
7:00pm, FREE!
40 N. Milpitas Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035

July 25th, Tuesday
Pleasanton, CA
Amador Theater
5:00pm, FREE!
1155 Santa Rita Road, Pleasanton, CA 94566
This should be an awesome show at an awesome theater! It's all being sponsored by the Pleasanton Public Library!

July 28th, Friday
Riverside, CA
Glen Avon Public Library
6:00pm, FREE!
9244 Galena, Riverside 92509

July 29th, Saturday
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Public Library - Central Library - Teen Scape
2:00pm, FREE!
630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Teen Scape is located on Level Two (L2) of the Goodhue Building of the Central Library.

July 30th, Sunday
Aliso Viejo, CA
Aliso Viejo Public Library
2:00pm, FREE!
1 Journey, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
It's time for wizard rock to hit the OC!

July 31st, Monday
Poway, CA
Poway Branch - San Diego County Library
1:00pm, FREE!
13137 Poway Rd., Poway, CA 9204

July 31st, Monday
El Cajon, CA
El Cajon Branch - San Diego County Library
7:00pm, FREE!
201 E. Douglas, El Cajon, CA 92020

August 1st, Tuesday
Anaheim, CA
Haskett Library (in Maxwell Park)
6:00pm, FREE!
2650 W. Broadway, Anaheim CA 92804
Show up early if you want hot dogs! They probably won't be as good as Pink's though.


And of course they'll be at Lumos too, but that show's already sold out (so to speak). If you get the chance you should really see them live, they rock the house down. And Draco and the Malfoys are opening for them, woo!

Stupids of the world, unite!

So there was a huge protest by right wingers yesterday in NYC against that traitorous rag, the New York Times. Well, if by huge you mean a few dozen people, anyway. But the absolute best part was the magic marker brigade with their hastily (and crazily) scrawled signs, epitomized, I think, to perfection by this man:
( Behind the cut for size )

Yes, his sign actually asks "Why don't you publish a NY subway map for Al Qaeda?"

I'll give you a moment to ponder that.

...

I'm sorry if attempting to comprehend the deep and profound stupidity of this man caused blurred vision, brain bleeds, or other unpleasant side effects. Honestly, though, is there really someone so profoundly thick that they're unaware that maps of the subway
system are, in fact, readily available to the general public? Do you suppose this was just some post-modern, ironic attempt at humor that I'm failing to grasp?

Clap harder, damn you!

Fucking christ sometimes I think it would be awfully nice to be a wingnut who can hand wave off all the hideous shit coming out of Iraq every damn day:

There was also an attack yesterday on Ghazaliya though we haven't heard what the casualties are. People are saying it's Sadr's militia, the Mahdi army, behind the killings. The news the world hears about Iraq and the situation in the country itself are wholly different. People are being driven out of their homes and areas by force and killed in the streets, and the Americans, Iranians and the Puppets talk of national conferences and progress.

It's like Baghdad is no longer one city, it's a dozen different smaller cities each infected with its own form of violence. It's gotten so that I dread sleeping because the morning always brings so much bad news. The television shows the images and the radio stations broadcast it. The newspapers show images of corpses and angry words jump out at you from their pages, "civil war… death… killing… bombing… rape…"...

...Why don't the Americans just go home? They've done enough damage and we hear talk of how things will fall apart in Iraq if they 'cut and run', but the fact is that they aren't doing anything right now. How much worse can it get? People are being killed in the streets and in their own homes- what's being done about it? Nothing. It's convenient for them- Iraqis can kill each other and they can sit by and watch the bloodshed- unless they want to join in with murder and rape.

Buses, planes and taxis leaving the country for Syria and Jordan are booked solid until the end of the summer. People are picking up and leaving en masse and most of them are planning to remain outside of the country. Life here has become unbearable because it's no longer a 'life' like people live abroad. It's simply a matter of survival, making it from one day to the next in one piece and coping with the loss of loved ones and friends...

And what does the newly elected and much touted government of Iraq have to say? Glad you asked:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's parliament speaker Thursday accused "Jews" of financing acts of violence in Iraq in order to discredit Islamists who control the parliament and government so they can install their "agents" in power.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani hinted that the Americans and Israelis did not want to see officials of Sunni and Shi'ite parties running the country because "this is not their agenda."

"They will say that we brought you in a democratic way to the government but you are sectarian people. One of you is killing the other and you don't deserve to become leaders because you are war lords," al-Mashhadani told reporters after a parliament meeting....

"Some people say 'we saw you beheading, kidnappings and killing. In the end we even started kidnapping women who are our honor,"' al-Mashhadani said. "These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew."

"I can tell you about these Jewish, Israelis and Zionists who are using Iraqi money and oil to frustrate the Islamic movement in Iraq and come with the agent and cheap project." ...

By "agents," he appeared to be referring to secular politicians who do not identify themselves with religious or ethnic communities.

Yeah, everything is just fuckin' fine over there. How about them newly painted schools?

Update: via Lance Mannion's blog:

In a recent comment on Brad DeLong's blog, comparing the rejection of Trotsky's "means-end" argument with rejection of the ex-Trotskyite neo-cons, Scott Martens sums it up nicely:

"If the installation of peace, democracy, human rights and international law and order requires the destruction of international law, a plethora of lies, arbitrary imprisonment and torture and open-ended war, then those means constitute strong grounds for scepticism towards the stated ends."

And by the way, Saddam isn't gone yet.

Posted by: Ken Muldrew