Filtering by Category: 2007

Small Love

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Posted by Pinky.

Here's an excerpt from a short article on Norman Solomon by Steve Duin:

"The culture has diluted people's resolve, their outrage. The mass-market culture has left us numb. And lack of feeling translates into lack of action. [This is] the freezing of love into small spaces." There is no end to our love for our children or claustrophobic circle of friends. "We say, 'Don't mess with my loved ones, but screw the people across the street or around the world.' Unfortunately, we define our loved ones rather narrowly." - Norman Solomon

~p.

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Posted by Bunny: This relates to some of the points I was trying to make near the end of our Matrix conversation.

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Posted by Pinky: Yeah, I thought of you when I saw this. Thanks for mentioning.

New Conversation: What is the Matrix?

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Posted by Bunny.

A couple of weeks ago our friend Callie stopped by to visit us here in the desert. Callie and I both like the movie The Matrix, so before she arrived we agreed that we'd have a discussion about it when she got here. The transcript of our chat is here.

~B.

Who's Vince Lombardi?

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Posted by Pinky.

I just came across this wonderful quote in a sports magazine I found near the highway:

Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.
- Vince Lombardi

Simple quote, innumerable implications. Especially if we think of our daily routines as practice.

~p.

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Posted by Kim: But don’t you ever get the idea that we don't know what we are practicing for?

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Posted by Bunny: I think most of us are so busy that we can't afford to try to achieve anything. Especially anything 'big'.

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Posted by Pinky: Do you think people ever shy away from trying to achieve something simply because it sounds too wonderful?

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Posted by Bunny: I think it happens all the time.

The Fast Moving Century

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Hmm!

The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. - Alex Carey

~B.​

New Area: Conversations

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Posted by Bunny.

Today we are opening a new area at the Pinky Show website. Since we lack imagination, we are tentatively just calling it 'the Conversations area'. The idea is simple but we are very excited about it - basically we're going to use this area to archive (in text form) some of the conversations that we've had with others, or even conversations we've had amongst ourselves, that have been important to our learning.

We're kicking off the new area with an interview Pinky did with psychotherapist Shirin Shokouhi on the subject of violence. She talks about violence at the interpersonal level but also between nations. It is very eye-opening. I hope people will take some time to consider what Ms. Shokouhi has to say. Especially since at this very moment our leaders are trying to create a new war, this time with Iran.

We will be adding more conversations on a regular basis.

[ Read the conversation ]

~B.

eBay Giving Works Program

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Posted by Bunny.

Mimi & Kim have set up an account with MissionFish, the organization that allows non-profit organizations like ourselves to do fundraising through eBay. The program is called eBay Giving Works and it's a very creative program that's already helped thousands of non-profits raise millions of dollars. It works by:

1) Allowing non-profit organizations a way to sell donated stuff on eBay and use the proceeds to fund their projects.

2) Providing a way for people to sell their unwanted or excess stuff on eBay, and donating the proceeds to The Pinky Show.

Pretty neat. We're hoping that people will give it a try. To find out more about the The Pinky Show at eBay Giving Works, please follow this link:

[ nope ]

(click on the 'How It Works' tab for more general information).

Thank you,
Bunny

New Episode: How To Solve Illegal Immigration

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Posted by Bunny.

I just posted our newest video, How To Solve Illegal Immigration. Although this is the first video that has Daisy in it, we've actually known Daisy for a long time. The video can be watched by clicking here.

In other news, we will be opening a brand new area on our website soon. It's really good, to me this new area will be just as important as our video archive in the long run. Pinky told me to announce it but I like secrets.

~B.

Banners & Buttons kit

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Posted by Bunny.

Some people have asked for Pinky Show banners or buttons for their website, blog, MySpace page, etc. I finally got around to making some tonight. The file is small (124kb, zipped); it contains 9 different graphics of various sizes in it. Download the kit by clicking here. I hope you like them.

~B.

How We Make The Pinky Show...

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Posted by Bunny.

Another new entry for our Do-It-Yourself area. It's a description, more or less, of the process we go through to make Pinky Show episodes. Maybe not interesting to most people, but for what its worth, here it is.

Also, Pinky is back from her short trip to Seattle, Washington. She did some interviews and took lots of photographs, which will appear in upcoming episodes. For our travel present she brought back a book, it came in a plastic bag from the UW bookstore, cool. The title is Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places. She forgot to peel off the price sticker, it was discounted to $1.99.

~B.

October is Building Something New Month

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Posted by Pinky.

We're going to use this month to try to get a new content area for our website figured out and up and running. It'll be quiet here in the diary area for a little while but it'll be worth it. Be careful for cars and see you after Halloween! =^.^=

~p.

Pinky's Computer in Pieces

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Posted by Bunny.

While Pinky is away I am servicing her computer, which is near death. I also reorganized our work space. It is more roomy now. Pinky is a pack-rat. If I don't throw things away while she is gone we will have this stuff forever.

Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Passed!

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Posted by Kim.

This is my second entry. The others are still sick but getting better. Now they are eating soup.

Yesterday the United Nations finally passed the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. All around the world so many indigenous people have been treated so badly, not just now but throughout history (colonization). So I hope this turns out to be a step in the right direction. It took the UN over 20 years to create, discuss, and pass this declaration. In the final vote yesterday almost everybody (143 nations) voted for indigenous rights, only 4 countries voted against. The four countries who voted against were the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

I guess it makes sense that four of the most 'developed' settler societies on the planet voted against the Declaration. They are just trying to keep more power for themselves by denying power to the people whose land they built their countries on. But to me it seems dishonest to talk about how it is our duty to spread freedom around the world (for example, President Bush's televised speech to the nation yesterday) and at the same time do everything we can to block freedom for indigenous people 'at home'. The main problem the U.S. has with the Declaration is that the document recognizes the right of indigenous people to have self-determination and also control over their own land and resources. So basically the Declaration makes it harder for corporations and the U.S. government to keep on exploiting Native Lands for profits. That's why the U.S. voted against it.

After we heard the news last night Bunny reminded us that the U.S. also voted against a UN treaty on biological diversity. The issue of biodiversity is closely connected to indigenous rights. The main 'problem' the U.S. government had with that treaty was that it called for a "fair and equitable" portion of the benefits resulting from the use of Native Lands by commercial enterprises to be given back to indigenous people. So apparently a fair amount is too much. Maybe the U.S. government might have signed it if the treaty had called for an unfair share of benefits, or maybe no share at all. That would have made their corporate friends very happy, and even more rich. But anyway, the U.S. refuses to sign that one.

So lonely - more info here.

Since this is a diary entry I don't mind saying my opinon. My opinion is that I would like the U.S. to choose a way to go.

1) One choice is that we can keep talking about freedom, but then we should try to make the world more free.

2) Another choice is that we can squash all people and animals with less power if it's good for rich people's profits, but then we should stop talking about spreading freedom.

Just choose one already. The way we say one thing and do another is making me angry.

Okay, I'm done. Writing is not easy. I won't be making fun of Pinky's or Bunny's writing any more.

~Kim

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Posted by Pinky: Nice report Kim! You should write more diary entries!

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Posted by Kim: No thank you very much.

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Posted by Bunny: The UN's passing of the new measure was front-page news at OneWorld, CommonDreams, Democracy Now!, and so on. On the other hand, I couldn't even find the story in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and most of the other major U.S. newspapers I checked. Which leads me to conclude that either 1) the U.N. is no longer relevant; 2) indigenous peoples are simply not worth thinking about; 3) the editors at these newspapers are smart enough to not bite the hands that feed them; or 4) any combination of the above.

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Posted by Mimi: Our nation's priorities are upside-down.

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Posted by Bunny: I think they're right-side-up for an upside-down nation.

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Posted by Pinky: Bunny, I hope you don't mind, but I was just going through some of our old notes and I found this thing that you wrote before. I'm glad I saved it because now I get to post it here:

"Why are all these people calling on the mainstream media to offer 'quality programming'? To present 'balanced' news reporting? Do they not understand what dominant culture is there for? If you're waiting for your drug dealer to help you kick your addiction, good luck with that." - Bunny

I think that pretty much summarizes what we're discussing here.

I am the last cat.

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Posted by Kim.

Everybody here is sick. Sick like dogs, ha ha.​

catcold_sm.jpg

I think I (Kim) don't get sick because I eat vitamins everyday. Anyway since I am the only one here that is not sick, I'm making a diary entry. So here it is.

News report from Russia:

The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday... Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs."

Like its U.S. predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian bomb is a "thermobaric" weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature.

"The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff. "Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment," he added.

Another part of the report mentioned how Russia now has extra money to spend nowadays, on developing new bombs and other war stuff. One reason is because the price of oil has shot up since the U.S. invaded Iraq. Russia is a major producer of oil. Sometimes I see things on TV about how bad the Russian economy is and how so many people in Russia are suffering, but at least now they have super powerful eco-friendly bombs.

Here is a very 'exciting' picture of the bomb exploding.​

dadofallbombs_sm.jpg

Very impressive. I bet you the U.S. bomb guys are feeling very ashamed of their bomb-smallness now.

This is the end of my entry. Thank you. Kim.

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Posted by Bunny: A bomb that doesn't hurt the environment? Coming soon: bullets that tickle as they go through your head...

Posted by Bunny (9/13): Another idea: Pine-scented napalm.

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Posted by Kim: You could get a job at Lockheed Martin with ideas like those. ]

A response from the U.S.:

WASHINGTON, September 13 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. has a 14-ton super bomb more destructive than the vacuum bomb just tested by Russia, a U.S. general said Wednesday.

The statement was made by retired Lt. General McInerney, chairman of the Iran Policy Committee, and former Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force.

McInerney said the U.S. has "a new massive ordnance penetrator that's 30,000 pounds, that really penetrates ... Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can't penetrate."

He also said the new Russian bomb was not a "penetrator."

"Forty-eight hours duration, hitting 2500 aimed points to take out their [Iranian] nuclear facilities, their air defense facilities, their air force, their navy, their Shahab-3 retaliatory missiles, and finally their command and control. And then let the Iranian people take their country back," the general said describing the campaign, adding it would be "easy."

I wish I was making this up, but unfortunately this is a real news story. ~Kim.

Zines vs. Videos

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Posted by Pinky.

About a week ago we finished making a zine (a 'zine' is basically a self-published mini-book) for our friends over at Radical Education (Ljubljana, Slovenia). They printed a bunch of them and took them to the Istanbul Bienale, where it was then handed out to people interested in radical education from all over the world. Pretty cool.

The idea we had at the time was that we'd then translate some of mini-stories in the zine into videos and then post them in our episode archive, kind of like what we had done for the globalization comics series. But after making one of the stories into a video format, we decided that we liked the content better in its original zine format. The different parts of the zine just worked better when they were kept all together as a whole, with one story immediately following another. So we're just posting the zine as a pdf file (kind of like a downloadable 'digital book') in our episode archive. It's not a video, but we were planning to post other non-video materials in the future anyway so I guess it's not a big deal.

We'll get back to posting more video-type episodes as soon as we're done with our current episode in development, a medium-length video (about 15 minutes) about illegal immigration. Till then, I hope you enjoy the little book.

Take care,
pinky

D.I.Y. are

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Posted by Bunny.

We just added a new D.I.Y. ('do it yourself') area. It's here. We hope you find it useful.

[ Update: this section has since been closed. ]​

Bertolt Brecht Poem

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FROM A GERMAN WAR PRIMER

AMONGST THE HIGHLY PLACED
It is considered low to talk about food.
The fact is: they have
Already eaten.

The lowly must leave this earth
Without having tasted
Any good meat.

For wondering where they come from and
Where they are going
The fine evenings find them
Too exhausted.

They have not yet seen
The mountains and the great sea
When their time is already up.

If the lowly do not
Think about what's low
They will never rise.

THE BREAD OF THE HUNGRY HAS
ALL BEEN EATEN
Meat has become unknown. Useless
The pouring out of the people's sweat.
The laurel groves have been
Lopped down.
From the chimneys of the arms factories
Rises smoke.

THE HOUSE-PAINTER SPEAKS OF
GREAT TIMES TO COME
The forests still grow.
The fields still bear
The cities still stand.
The people still breathe.

ON THE CALENDAR THE DAY IS NOT
YET SHOWN
Every month, every day
Lies open still. One of those days
Is going to be marked with a cross.

THE WORKERS CRY OUT FOR BREAD
The merchants cry out for markets.
The unemployed were hungry. The employed
Are hungry now.
The hands that lay folded are busy again.
They are making shells.

THOSE WHO TAKE THE MEAT FROM THE TABLE
Teach contentment.
Those for whom the contribution is destined
Demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry
Of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.

WHEN THE LEADERS SPEAK OF PEACE
The common folk know
That war is coming.
When the leaders curse war
The mobilization order is already written out.

THOSE AT THE TOP SAY: PEACE
AND WAR
Are of different substance.
But their peace and their war
Are like wind and storm.

War grows from their peace
Like son from his mother
He bears
Her frightful features.

Their war kills
Whatever their peace
Has left over.

ON THE WALL WAS CHALKED:
They want war.
The man who wrote it
Has already fallen.

THOSE AT THE TOP SAY:
This way to glory.
Those down below say:
This way to the grave.

THE WAR WHICH IS COMING
Is not the first one. There were
Other wars before it.
When the last one came to an end
There were conquerors and conquered.
Among the conquered the common people
Starved. Among the conquerors
The common people starved too.

THOSE AT THE TOP SAY COMRADESHIP
Reigns in the army.
The truth of this is seen
In the cookhouse.
In their hearts should be
The selfsame courage. But
On their plates
Are two kinds of rations.

WHEN IT COMES TO MARCHING MANY DO NOT
KNOW
That their enemy is marching at their head.
The voice which gives them their orders
Is their enemy's voice and
The man who speaks of the enemy
Is the enemy himself.

IT IS NIGHT
The married couples
Lie in their beds. The young women
Will bear orphans.

GENERAL, YOUR TANK IS A POWERFUL VEHICLE
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful.
It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.

- Bertolt Brecht, from the Svendborg Poems (1938)​

Radical Education Zine: Done

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Posted by Pinky.

After a crazy week of not much sleep I hope things will start settling down a bit around here (I know, I always say that...). We finally finished Radical Education Fanzine No. 3 (September 2007) yesterday and sent it off to our friends at the Radical Education Forum, Slovenia. It was a bit stressful working under such a tight schedule but it was also a lot of fun. We haven't made a zine for a long time. Kim is sweet - every night during the week she made coffee & snacks in the middle of the night for our mini-critiques, or to keep my energy up while I worked on the writing or pictures (I draw really slowly and make lots of mistakes; lots of re-do's). Probably you can see the caffeine in the shaky lines. Anyway, we'll make some of the content in the zine into video form in the upcoming weeks.

Now back to finishing up our episode on Immigration. We're actually almost done but we had to shelve that episode momentarily because the zine deadline got moved up.

Okay, I go back to work now.

~p.

Bunny Mailbag for August 29

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Posted by Bunny.

Idiot e-mail for today:

Your Cats With Guns video was a fairly lame attempt to defend your product. Couldn't you just admit that you thought a cat with a gun would have some kind of mass appeal and you were trying to profit off this? Did you actually claim that guns could also be thought of as symbolistically good and peaceful icons? Are you proud to have a Russian gun on a logo which is infact simplistically representative of you, your site, and shows? Keep up your mindlessly-slow drivel paraphrasing wikipedia entries. Better luck next video. You'd probably do better to have cats actually using guns in your shows. "For oppression?" Perhaps.
- Nick

Reply:

Dear Nick, Why be so annoying? Why would you assume everyone who opposes a particular war and occupation (Iraq) or is critical of U.S. imperialism (Iraq, Vietnam, Spanish American War, etc.) must therefore universally oppose all forms of violence, including violent resistance to state-sponsored terrorism? Put down your Gandhi coloring book for 5 year olds and enter the world of messy ideas. Unless you really are 5, then “Veeerry gooood!” Goodbye. Bunny

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Posted by Pinky: Gee Bunny, it’s not an unreasonable criticism. Your reply is kind of harsh, don't you think?

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Posted by Bunny: Nope.

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Posted by Kim: I like Bunny Mailbag.