When moving a great distance, it helps to not have excess stuff.  When you’re paying for every pound, lots of things start looking like excess.  Cd’s, furniture, DVD’s, cables, books, appliances - get it out of here!

I have really enjoyed purging my materials, and digitizing allows us to hold onto lots of things in a small space.  We are capable of photographing our art projects, scanning our journals and ripping our media.  Now, I can store my data on a central server, so even if my hard drive kicks the bucket, I can still access my stuff!

This act of simplicity is a journey, I am surprised with how much this process has affected my mood.  I feel less weight, less worry.

There is a story about a man who approached Gandhi and said that he’d been thinking about living a simpler life, but he didn’t feel like he could give up his collection of books. Gandhi is said to have replied, “As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it. If you were to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a stern sense of duty, you would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied want would make trouble for you. Only give up a thing when you want some other condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction for you.”

My take on this, and on your question, is that simplicity is not an endstate that is achieved but a path that one is walking. I find all kinds of ways in my life that I’m not living quite like I wish, and then I try to see if there is a way to change my life. So, to me, a simple lifestyle is always in the middle ground.

- Tim Kasser, associate professor of psychology at Knox College and author of The High Price of Materialism (via U.S. News interview)

The more I consider how great it feels to not have things, I still find myself attached to certain items.  Most important is my music gear and my transportable technology: laptop, hard drives and interfaces.  They are enablers of creativity, communication and innovation.  I generally ignore how these materials simultaneously inhibit what they exhibit.  Perhaps I will find the best tools in a space void of the materials I find most important.

Lawrence Lessig defends Barack Obama’s vote to support WARANTLESS WIRETAPPING and RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY FOR CORPORATIONS WHO FAIL TO DEFEND THE PRIVACY OF U.S. CITIZENS:

1. Obama is no (in the 1970s sense) “liberal”
2. Obama has not shifted in his opposition to immunity for telcos:
3. Obama’s shift was in his promise, as relayed by a member of his staff, to filibuster any bill with telco immunity
4. Unless, of course, it was good politics
5. But assume you reject #4 completely. Then one more thought: Isn’t it time for Obama to resign from the Senate?
6. Finally, and 2bc: please, fellow liberals, or leftists, or progressives, get off your high horse(s).

I edited for simplicity, read his entire reaction, “The Immunity Hysteria“.

Meanwhile, two critically important organizations, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, have taken action:

The ACLU is suing on behalf of journalist and human rights groups, asking the court put a halt to Congress’s legalization of Bush’s formerly secret warrantless wiretapping program. The ACLU contends (.pdf) the expanded spying power violates the Constitution’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.

In passing the FISA Amendments Act, Congress gave the executive branch the power to order Google, AT&T and Yahoo to forward to the government all e-mails, phone calls and text messages where one party to the conversation is thought to be overseas.

“We are also preparing a new case against the government for its warrantless wiretapping, past, present and future,” said EFF senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston, who said the details were being withheld to keep the element of surprise.

“But suffice to say it will be quite different from the other cases against the government that have been filed so far,” Bankston said. “Like with our case against AT&T, however, the ultimate goal will be the same: to halt the mass interception of Americans’ communications and to dismantle the dragnet spying network that was first exposed by our witness, AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein.”

You don’t have to be a liberal to believe this far-reaching power to spy on Americans without judicial oversight is a complete disaster.   But let’s be honest with ourselves: this type of work has been going on for a long time.  It was a secret program which journalists uncovered, and now we’ve missed our opportunity to actually disable illegal wiretapping programs and enable accountability for politicians who violate our trust.  And by the way, Barack Obama voted in support of this, along with both of Pennsylvania’s Senators.

I have remained optimistic about Obama as president, but I have not supported him or any major party candidate this far.  Lessig jabs a bit at folks who are “fair weather” liberals, who surge when Obama does something cool, otherwise bashing him for not being liberal enough.  I voted Democrat in 2006, with the expectation that we would see a swift end to funding of the occupation of Iraq, and impeachment proceedings would move forward against George Bush and Dick Cheney.  What we received was a session of complete mediocrity, which has done it’s part to continue the current administration’s abuse of powers.

This election, third-party candidates Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader remain alluring.  Obama is a far better candidate than his major-party contender John McCain, especially considering what he might be able to do for this country.  What I have learned however, is we must consider a peaceful revolution the United States, in order to properly heal our wounds and move our world forward.  Until we put people before profits, a position Democrats and Republicans have not supported, our cities and farms will remain oppressed by the people who profit from our silence and imprisonment.

From Collateral News, Dennis Kucinich’s 35 articles of impeachment:

Some folks may know I’ve been pondering a move to the West Coast, and more specifically, Portland, Oregon. There are things which specifically attract me to Portland, including good transit and bicycle-friendliness. Mike Spina, a friend who is an advocate of smart, pedestrian-centered urban design, pointed me to Streetfilms. Here is a sampling of videos about some exciting movement in Portland:

The Towards Carfree Cities VIII kicked off Monday in Portland, Oregon with an exciting community event. Hundreds of conference participants helped break and remove asphalt from a 3000 square foot parking lot. Depave.org is the mastermind behind the Fargo Garden Project. They promote the removal of unnecessary concrete and asphalt from urban areas. Depave.org will continue to work with Goldsmith Properties to transform this now asphalt-free site into a community greenspace. Once completed, the site will be used to educate the public about pavement removal and storm water drainage management.

City Repair in Portland, Oregon hosts an annual Village Building Convergence where hundreds of people come together to build diverse projects for the benefit of their communites and to take back their streets via a process known as the Intersection Repair.

This involves painting streets with a high-visiblity mural that creates a public square for residents to gather and one which gently encourages drivers to slow down when approaching these spaces.

I am overwhelmed. To hear a private developer say turning the property into greenspace rather than build a triplex was a no-brainer makes me giggle. Portland seems like a great opportunity and place to get some real work done. I also wonder if it will be too easy, too safe. How much do projects like building parks and painting murals seep into greater concerns of poverty and modern slavery?

Latest update and new information regarding Police Critic Arrests and House Seizure :

On Tuesday, June 17^th, at 1pm, the owners and residents of 1652 Ridge Avenue will hold a press conference on the western steps of City Hall to inform reporters and interested parties about the June 13^th police action seizing their property and sealing off their home. Please read the release below for more details.

On the morning of Friday, June 13^th, 2008, plainclothes detectives and a Ninth Precinct Police Captain entered a Ridge Avenue home without a warrant and arrested four Philadelphia community members – Daniel Moffat, Trevor Burgess, Andrea Okorley, and Jennifer Rock. These residents were pulled from their home at 1652 Ridge Avenue, arrested, and detained without charges at the Ninth Philadelphia police precinct for over twelve hours. Less than twenty four hours later, almost half a dozen other law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Housing Authority, had conducted a tour of the property, and the Department of Licensing and Inspections had closed and sealed the property.

While police claimed entry to the property under the pretext that it was an abandoned building, the residents of 1652 Ridge Avenue have owned and lived at the property for up to four years, while they worked on and improved their house. They have been active members of the Francisville neighborhood – partnering on community food distribution and community garden projects, among others.

On one of the hottest days of the year, these community members were locked into police cars, waiting to discover the nature of the criminal charges against them, as multiple officials searched their home. “They said it wasn’t an arrest,” says Mr. Moffat. “The police captain [Wilson] said he’d do me a favor, and put us in a cell because it was so hot outside. I asked, if we weren’t being arrested, why we were being sent to be processed in jail? He smiled at me in a joking manner, and said, “Call it a kidnapping.” That was my last word with Captain Wilson before later that night, when I was in jail.” Moffat and his housemates were never charged with a crime.

The residents of 1652 Ridge Avenue learned that night, while in jail, that the Department of Licensing and Inspections had written up their home for multiple code violations – and that they would have only a few hours the next day to retrieve personal possessions, before the house was sealed to them and all other nonofficial entrants. When the residents returned to their home the next day, they found that personal papers, books, and computers had been rifled through or confiscated. Trevor Burgess, who returned to his room Saturday morning under police escorts, noted, “The only thing I really noticed they messed with was my photographs. All my photographs were just, like, torn through and all over my room. [The policeman] kept asking me about the photographs.”

“When I was allowed to enter the building, to get stuff out, when I got to my room, my room had been thoroughly searched,” said Moffat. “My computer was gone. I was informed that the Department of State had taken my computer for evidence. I couldn’t find my phone list that was posted on the wall. I couldn’t find a notepad with a bunch of my notes in it. I couldn’t find this little book with a lot of phone numbers in it.”

Residents stress that this incident happened just a week after they had begun circulating petitions about police surveillance cameras that had been installed in the neighborhood. Francisville, which abuts the newly affluent areas of Fairmount and Spring Garden, has seen a rise in police presence and in residents being asked for identification in their own neighborhood and in front of their homes. “It’s clear to me that you don’t have to be doing something wrong in order to be targeted by the police,” said Andrea Okorley. “The fact that we were communicating with our neighbors about the presence of surveillance cameras was threatening enough.”

These residents have called on press to not only hear their story, but to deepen coverage of increased police presence in the city – and the ways in which the city is driving out residents who have lived there for generations. “I want to go home,” says Jennifer Rock. “But this is not an isolated incident. So many others are losing their homes or their freedom – and they can’t be here to speak today.”

I worked in Times Square for half a year before moving to Philadelphia in 2005. It was terrible.

The experience that I enjoyed the most was grabbing a muffin from the cart on 43rd. The man who ran the cart was a graceful balance to my otherwise stressful and depressing corporate grind. Want to know how the business world is doing, what stocks to invest in? Talk to someone who runs a breakfast cart in a commercial district — they hear it all. My morning carb-run was a cheap form of therapy.

I remember almost getting arrested because I walked through a taping for some bullshit Donald Trump show, on a public sidewalk. Nothing will get you excited to work in Times Square like a brush-in with one of New York’s standing military.

The ratio of sidewalk to people in Times Square is best explained to Philadelphians as like walking down South Street on a Friday night. It’s not the spot for a brisk walk. You avoid it. New Yorkers generally stay out of Times Square, although I definitely appreciated it when I was 14 and hitting up all ages shows at Coney Island High.

It was exciting to work in the din of one of the most hectic few blocks in the busiest city in the United States. The excitement dips down when you realize the only place nearby to grab a bite that’s reasonably priced is the corporate cafeteria, or when you get rammed with umbrella after umbrella on a rainy day. Nothing beats sharing the busy streets with gobs of tourists who are all looking up at the bright shiny advertisements!

It was a bit sobering watching the NYPD grow into a military-tactical force that would arrest homeless by the hundreds and protesters by the thousands. Arrest and harass first, ask questions later. They would run counter-terrorism drills on 7th avenue, but all I could tell they did was figure out how to park diagonally and make people feel safe and happy about their tax investment.

A tour of Times Square

Thinking about groups of people who have had little contact from the modern world is mystifying.  The idea is large: like trying to grasp the idea of our unending universe.  A universe guaranteed to contain many other forms of life.

To hear about these tribes’ struggle with colonialism-and the disease, displacement and force that comes with the process-gives us an incredible opportunity to face the realities of the founding of our United States of America and countless other nations built upon genocide and capitalism.  Check out a well-done video.

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I participated in my first Critical Mass in Philadelphia this past Friday. I happened to get out of work early and saw the ride while hanging in Rittenhouse Square. I rushed to join the ride, which began peacefully but ended so negatively that it caused me to question the purpose (or better yet, effectiveness) of the ride.

I have participated in a handful of rides in NYC, including the infamous RNC ride that led to the criminalization of Critical Mass in New York. New York had similar problems, but the good folks generally outweighed the bad. There seemed to be so many trouble makers on this ride, and considering it’s relatively small size — about 125 bicyclists, slimming to about 50 as the ride progressed — the trouble making really put bicyclists and pedestrians at great risk.

I realize without good organization, these rides tend to be run by the loudest subgroup. I had heard of problems with the Philly ride before, but now I can say the ride is quite problematic for urban-cycling culture. Some observations:

• The ride is fiercely anti pedestrian - watching babies in strollers, dogs and old folks almost thrown to the ground because they’re crossing on a pedestrian green signal is pathetic.
• Antagonizing cars goes nowhere - drivers who are stuck in the middle of a ride should be corked/stopped and peacefully spoken with if they become agitated.  Cursing, screaming, hitting the car, hanging onto it, etc. is dangerous and stupid.  It inspires the driver to develop a negative impression of Philly cyclists.
• Corking is important - New York rides were well corked and organized.  Only a handful riders seemed interested in corking streets.  For the unfamiliar, corking refers to blocking traffic so the ride can go through on a red light.  Riding around Franklin Circle without the appropriate entrances corked is extremely dangerous.
• Know when to quit - Clogging children’s hospital, not letting police through (who are not the least bit concerned with the ride) and scraping cars with your pedals on purpose will criminalize the ride.

Of course, there were plenty of positives.  Props to those who had boom boxes and art-bikes, they add to the positive nature of the ride.  I made every attempt to thank pedestrians and drivers who were blocked, it’s important to maintain this type of peaceful approach so folks don’t get heated, cyclists stay safe and the ride is respected by all.

There is a divide among bicycle advocates: those who say this type of action is creative and beneficial to the movement, and those who consider the antagonistic nature of the ride harmful to safer streets and a better world for cyclists.  I’m leading towards the latter now.