Department of Book Reports: Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel

Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett discuss their graphic Steampunk robot history: Boilerplate, History's Mechanical Marvel and their career in Graphic Novels. Join us for a Steampunk night with this talented team of artists at Jackson Street Books' Lacamas Hall.
Boilerplate was created in 1893 by Professor Archibald Campion, a robot soldier designed to "prevent the death of men in the conflicts of nations". Throughout his career he met historical figures such as Teddy Roosevelt, Lawrence of Arabia, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla. This coffee table book chronicles his story with photos, maps, paintings, posters, cartoons and stereoscope plates.

Boilerplate is available at Jackson Street Books and your local independent booksellers

Dear Family and Friends, WE MADE IT!!!

Our delegation has successfully entered the Gaza strip and are now staying at the Marna House in Gaza City. Our schedule is extremely busy, beginning before 9:00 AM and continuing well into the evening for each of the six days we will be in Gaza.

I was not free to talk about the delegation's destination before departing the USA as we had major concerns about whether or not we would be allowed to enter Gaza. Now that we are "IN" please feel free to pass the word along. In fact, because there was (and still is) a chance that my computers and the computers of the other delegation members may be confiscated by the Israeli authorities upon exiting Gaza I brought an olde, beat up PC laptop (case is cracked, key board works but is far from new and in general appears to be an antique) just in case. That is the good new concerning my planning for the this trip. The bad news is that I neglected to import my email address book which is stored on the MacBook. I have a few email addresses stored on this older laptop but certainly not nearly all of them.

So, if you have received this email I would sincerely appreciate your forwarding it on to anyone who you feel may be a friend or family member of mine. Please don't assume that everyone I know who you know will receive this email. I am missing many, many email addresses or have many outdated email addresses So, if you should receive more than one copy of this email blame it on me and simply hit the delete key for any additional copies you might have received.

I have much to tell you but it's almost 1:30 AM and my schedule begins bright and early again in the morning. But if a picture really is worth 10,000 words then I've added another 20,000 words to this email by attaching two pictures.

The first picture is an example of what a Bell Captain at a hotel looks like in a country under seige. Gaza.

The other picture is of a child of the occupation . . .
In Solidarity Peace is Inevitable,
Will

5 for Peace

via Dave Wiley
San Diego Veterans For Peace
Hugh Thompson Memorial Chapter 91

Department of Book Reports: The Big Burn

The Big Burn Teddy Roosevelt and The Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin, $27) For those of you who enjoyed Ken Burn's National Parks, I suggest this excellent history of how our National Forests came into being. We saw terrible fires in California this past summer, 100,000 acres burned and many houses were lost. This is small in comparison to the fire that swept through the Northwest in 1910, burning 3 million acres in just two days. The town of Wallace, Idaho was completely destroyed. 85 (or perhaps 87) lives were lost. This fire raced across the landscape, pushed by Chinook winds and updrafts the flames created, blasting up to 85 mph. That speed cannot be out run. Trains were unable to carry people to safety as bridges and tracks were destroyed.

Theodore Roosevelt had set aside the National Parks during his presidency, and put Gifford Pinchot in charge of managing these forests. Pinchot, newly graduated from Yale with new theories of Forestry, had amassed his staff of Forest Rangers, or "little G.P.s" as they were known. John Muir had traveled west and sent back reports of Yellowstone and the glorious Sierras. Their conservation ideals were often ridiculed by the hard scrabble homesteaders and Railroad and Lumber Barons of the region. By 1910, Roosevelt was out of office, replaced by his own pick of Taft, whose ineffectiveness was blatant in this disaster.

photo: historylink.org

Egan gives a good narrative of how this time period produced the break from Republicans as the Progressive party of Lincoln and Roosevelt to what we know today. The scope of the burn also allowed him to push his Conservation goals and add to the Parks with the National Forest lands. Much of the eastern parks owe their existence to this tragedy.

Timothy Egan has written some of the best Western histories including The Good Rain, about this part of western Washington we call home and The Worst Hard Time, about the dust bowl years and the western migration it produced. His research brings out the personal narrative in these histories. In The Big Burn we learn of how after Gifford Pinchot's young wife died after just 2 years of marriage he spent the next 20 years haunted by her presence. His diary notes "days of light" when he believed he had been in her presence, or "dark days" when she did not appear. He sought out seers and seances to call her forth. He was often seen carrying on conversations with her as he dined alone in Washington DC's finest restaurants.
Taft and Roosevelt's lives and presidencies are detailed with personal details and the political aspects of the day. The firefighters are given good tribute here. Drawn from the logging and mining operations and joined by the Buffalo Soldiers, these are the lives that were lost that weekend. The 1,200 firefighters hired by the Forest Service often weren't paid for their time, or medical bills. Ed Pulaski, who herded his men into a cave and pulled his handgun to keep them from running into the inferno, was left destitute after the fire. Denied a patent number, he is remembered today for the axe/blade tool that bears his name and is invaluable to firefighters everywhere.

The Big Burn is available at Jackson Street Books and do check with your local independent booksellers to see if Timothy Egan will be reading. Listen to the audio from a recent radio interview on KUOW's The Conversation (begins at 40 minutes in).
Cross-posted at Jesus' General

Yet another episode of Small Town, Small Minds

Our first example surprised me. This is a living room on a main street in downtown Aberdeen. Market Street, in case you're wondering. I was so shocked, I had to go around the block and come back for a picture. Dan warned me "be careful" as I jumped out of the car and snapped the picture from the sidewalk. I only took the one, I was actually kinda nervous myself. Anyone who would post this sort of ugliness in their front window wasn't anyone I wanted to talk to. I didn't think it'd help if I said I wanted it for my blog.

Then we have the Market Place Health Food store that I was so delighted to find right next to Jay's Fruit Stand and Michael's Meats. I always thought it a little odd those two would talk about how their proximity would bring customers to each other, and make no mention of the Health Food store. Maybe now we see why.

If you are not in WA state, I-71 is an initiative to repeal the modicum gay rights given last year, our "Everything BUT Mariage" act. You actually want to vote "Yes" to keep these rights for our citizens. We both sport APPROVE buttons, via our dear Fran's generosity and activism.

Here's a local um.. brilliant mind.. proffering her two bits on how to vote on I-71:

Preserve marriage as one man, one woman

Under our Bill of Rights, all American citizens have equal rights. Gay people can already choose civil unions. They can arrange legal matters such as insurance and wills.

Senate Bill 5688 is about granting special rights to homosexuals and unmarried seniors.

If we allow SB 5688 to pass, society is one huge step closer to redefining marriage into oblivion as anything and everything.

Legal arguments are already being made that if gay people can marry, why not multiple partners, why not men and young boys, why not polygamy. People supporting 5688 say this is not what they want, but activists have claimed that passing 5688 is just one of the incremental steps ( to approve gay marriage in the U.S. and redefine marriage as a whole).

Traditional marriage, as imperfect as it is, still exists to protect women and children and to perpetuate our society. Please resist arguments to dilute it further. Please stand against Washington Senate Bill 5688.

Please help preserve marriage as between only one man and one woman. Protect our children by protecting marriage. Please vote NO on SB 5688.

Jill Lagergren

Elma

You just keep telling it like it is, Jill. Stay on point there, dear. And, don't bother mentioning what folks can actually vote on.

Department of Book Reports: Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels

Tristram Hunt's Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels (Metropolitan Books $32.00) is a tour de force of biography. Filled with critical appraisal, keen insight, it is also a remarkable history of the 19th Century.

Hunt takes us on Engels journey as son of a good German burgher, to his youth, filled with the thoughts of Young Hegelianism, his conversion to "Communism", his first shaky meeting with the Moor, Karl Marx, onto his participation in the 1848 European revolutions, and on to his own life as Manchester bourgeois, and his retirement to London. And it is a remarkable journey.

At the center, of course, is the central relationship with Marx. Engels supported Marx and his family most of his adult life. And generously. When you read or hear of accounts of the squalor of Marx's domestic life, always without money, it was not that Engels was not supportive enough; Marx was horrible at managing money. And Marx's family, his wife and daughters, loved Engels, regarding him as a family member. The one serious rift came upon the death of Engel's long-time lover and companion, Mary Burns, and one which was repaired by an apologetic Marx, who never really apologized to anyone for anything.

It is also interesting to see the contrast of their years in England. Engels was occupied with running his father's firm in Manchester, while Marx spent his hours in the British Museum, struggling, and often distracted from writing Capital. And oddly, for a staunch Communist, Engels indulged himself in the life of the ruling class in Manchester, often riding in fox hunts. And at night, Engels was also not just a sexual libertine, he could be an outright Lothario, seducing his "friends" wives.

Which is not to say that Engels didn't have his own intellectual accomplishments. His "Condition of the Working Class in England" was a seminal work of social and political analysis. His nickname, The General, (bestowed upon him by Marx's daughters) came from his fervid interest in military campaigning. He was often published pseudoanonymously for his coverage of the Crimean War, the Prussian-Austrian war, and finally the Prussian victory over the French in Sedan in 1870. Engels knew that he would always play second fiddle to Marx in thought, acknowledging his genius.

Read this book. It is a treat for the mind. And please do not confuse Marx's General with Jesus' General. They are not related.

Marx's General is available at Jackson Street Books and other fine independent booksellers.

democommie was unavailable for comment on this book report.Cross posted at Jesus' General.

Department of Book Reports: Marijuana is SAFER

Alcohol causes 35,000 deaths in America each year. No-one has ever died from effects of marijuana. Domestic abuse and violence often has it's origins in alcohol consumption. Marijuana has not had this effect. So, why are we driving people to drink?

Marijuana is SAFER, by Steve Fox (MPP), Paul Armento (NORML), and Mason Tvert (SAFER) (Chelsea Green Publishing $14.95) Part history lesson and part activism handbook, this volume provides a full range of facts to counter the empty "just say No" prohibition arguments that have been given too much credence to date.
Broken down into 3 parts, the authors first cover The Choice: Marijuana vs. Alcohol, looking at the differences to both person and society from the effects of usage. Available studies and anecdotal stories of Frat Row and drunken brawls after sporting events have led to the realization that the continual promotion of alcohol to celebrate has had much more damage than promoting marijuana would have. Here is a great recap from their website.
Former Seattle Chief of Police, Norm Stamper has written the intro and (sadly after) his retirement has become a leading voice in the Legalization movement. Here is a short video from him.

Choice Interrupted examines covers the history of Reefer Madness and the consequences of following the zero tolerance policies. Last year SAFER published a "WANTED" poster that pointed out the fact that Cindy McCain's money came from alcohol and the hypocrisy of a major manufacturer of alcohol funding her husband's presidential run to further advocate for marijuana prohibition.
Freedom of Choice breaks down traditional arguments and shows that marijuana use could be an alternative and not an additional vice. This section gives you a good basis for advocating locally and enlarging the discussion.

Recently our local paper ran a story of a 15 year old boy who died of alcohol poisoning. I'm certainly not for encouraging children that young to partake of anything, but it can't be denied that our society's continued glamorization of alcohol contributed to the young man's death. And if you think 15 year olds can't get their hands on either substance, well, dream on.

On Monday night at 6pm, I'll be joined by Mason Tvert to discuss Marijuana is SAFER in Second Life. We have a new reading hall just down the street from the bookstore. Join us at Lacamas Hall for an eye-opening evening.

SAFER is on twitter

The Financial Lives of the Poets

The Financial Lives of The Poets, by Jess Walter (HarperCollins $25.99 ) I've been reading Jess' books for a few years now, and I can safely agree with his wife: "No, dear, you aren't funny." So, in spite of that assessment, Jess set out to write a comedy novel. He has succeeded, if you like your comedy dark and on the bleak side.

Turns out, this is a brilliant novel that captures the free-falling zeitgeist of our current society.


Matt Prior left his newspaper job to begin his start-up blog: poetfolio.com During the boom economy, it seems to be a sure fire hit; financial news in verse. Now at the end of his savings, about to be evicted from the house they bought and have loved, a fateful trip to the 7/11 changes everything. He needs milk. For the boys. For their cereal. In the morning.

That shit's like, $9 a gallon!

Here is a beautifully played out drama, a family you can love. Coming utterly undone. About to lose his house, with no job or prospect, his wife is certainly having an on-line affair with her high school boy friend... Matt's encounter at the 7/11 sets off a new venture: sell pot to the aging boomers who still fancy themselves "happening". A tap on the shoulder a couple days later dashes that American Dream. By the end of the book, there is redemption, resolution, and resignation. And re-connection with family.

The poetry sprinkled throughout is perfect, I recommend A Brief Political Manifesto on page 39.
Luke Baumgarten has written the review I only wish I could. Go read it, and stay tuned for Jess Walter in Second Life, sometime in October.

On a somewhat related note: I will be interviewing Mason Tvert for his book, Marijuana is SAFER on Oct 5th, 6pm (Pacific) at our new place: Lacamas Reading Hall. We'll discuss marijuana myths, propaganda, and how to become active for pro-cannabis legislation.