Monthly Archives: May 2009
Are you guys vegetarian? Why? Yes, we are all vegetarians (more specifically, our diets are “vegan“), which means we do our best within this insane framework of capitalism to live cruelty-free lives. That said, we do encourage people to slaughter and devour organically-fed, free-range human corpses. Especially those of “post-vegetarian” crusty-punks and university students. The planet will thank you for it. (from the Propagandhi… Read more
Due to an unnamed legal dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse are releasing their new album (with 100+ images by David Lynch) anyway, sort of. The “Dark Night of the Soul” album is available as a book and blank CD-R package, “to use however you see fit.” hat tip to… Read more
What’s In Season?
I try to eat as much as possible with the seasons – getting fresh local produce when it is at the height of flavor and nutrition, and the difference that has made in my diet and my (at least perceived) health has been enormous. However, getting a hang on just what is good now and what isn’t is pretty difficult when you are just figuring it out, given how disconnected from our food and the seasons we have become. As I went down that path and started to figure out what to be buying when, there were several outstanding resources that helped me along and took a lot of the guesswork out of the process. Of course, the thing that helped most was showing up diligently at farm stands, markets, and groceries that stocked local produce and paying attention to what was available, but these websites helped immensely in getting the hang of eating seasonally and locally. Epicurious has a fantastic tool to determine what is in season all over the United States for any specific month. About.com… Read more
If it can run on Straight Vegetable Oil, I have to have one of… Read more
Marx understood that “the need for a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe,” foreseeing that the development of capitalism would inevitably be “paving the way for more extensive and exhaustive crises.” Leo Panitch leads you through why sales of Das Kapital have skyrocketed in the last… Read more
The Brief Origins of May Day
Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers’ Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don’t realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as “American” as baseball and apple pie. Eric Chase has written an excellent history of the origins of May Day as a labor holiday on the IWW website. I suggest you read it to get an idea of the radical roots of the holiday, as it relates to Labor Day. While the radical origins of May Day are not contested, as labor historian David Montgomery notes: Labor Day is more a complicated affair. Only the United States celebrates Labor Day in September. Elsewhere around the globe, nations honor workers on May 1—May Day. And that historical quirk is no accident. Ironically, “May Day” was founded by U.S. workers—and taken away from them as a day to… Read more