Happy Sunday, y’all. And I hope you had a happy May Day. I was away from writing opportunities all day yesterday, but in belated honor of International Workers’ Day, I’m pleased to announce that Fair Use Repository is now home to Black Friday of 1887, a commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs which was published in November, 1914 in Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman’s Mother Earth.

There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!

–Last words of August Spies (1887-11-11), immigrant, anarchist, and Haymarket martyr

I’m announcing it here partly to take notice of the article itself; but also because this article is the first of several heretofore unwebbed articles from Mother Earth which will be appearing over the next several days. (I hope to have the entire November 1914 issue of Mother Earth available online by the end of the coming week.)

And what about y’all? What have you been up to this week? Write anything? Leave a link and a short description for your post in the comments. Or fire away about anything else you might want to talk about.

For those who have been following some discussions elsewhere, this one goes out to dukemeiser. Because Axe Cop is the world’s greatest defender of the Bush–Obama doctrine of surveillance and Homeland Security:

What I like about the comic is that it really does seem to be a pretty accurate representation of how War on Terror-hawks think the world ought to work. Why shouldn’t it? To hell with courts and civil liberties and all those other chickenshit liberal axe-blocks. Since the government has a list of ALL THE BAD GUYS, wouldn’t you want them to chop their heads off?

And I’ve got to say, the kind of police-state and assassin-state policies that they insist on as simple common sense really do sound like something that you get when some bright policy wonk comes up with some legal verbiage and precedents to trick out an idea which, at its core, is something that he got from the ideas and fantasies of his 5 year old little brother.

• this thought experiment just got way too awesome. Dinosaur Comics (2010-04-20). archive – contact – sexy exciting merchandise – what happened – search – about!!!@@e2;2020;90; previousApril 20th, 2010nextApril 20th, 2010: I just found out that Stanford’s marching band turned their tubas into Dinosaur Comics to help win a Battle of the Bands and this is what I have to say to… (Linked Wednesday 2010-04-21.)

• Help Corvus help the Kate Sharpley Library. Shawn P. Wilbur, Out of the Libertarian Labyrinth (2010-04-16). I’ve got a lot to say, sometime soon, about mutual-aid economies and the power of small, periodic support for small projects, but, for once, let’s get the practice out there in front of the theory. Despite my tendency to be into a bit of everything all the time, the heart… (Linked Thursday 2010-04-22.)

• !!!@@e2;20ac;2dc;Infographic', by Phil Gyford. John Gruber, Daring Fireball (2010-04-09). Zing.  â˜…  (Linked Thursday 2010-04-22.)

• Malfunction ... Malfunction ... Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-04-22). Mary Matalin on CNN's Campbell Brown show just now, on the subject of marijuana: My libertarian sense says let's regulate it. (Linked Friday 2010-04-23.)

• The Washington-Wall Street Kabuki Dance. The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2010-04-23). Excellent work in the latest from Sheldon Richman: “When I watch the public furor over the ruling party's attempt to ‘toughen’ regulations on the financial industry, I get the same feeling I often have in a theater: Good show but it's not real. … If you have doubts about any of this, imagine some top Wall Street operator calling for elimination of the Federal Reserve System and the banking cartel it administers. Imagine him endorsing repeal of all federal and state banking regulations and their replacement with free banking and market-based money. Imagine him testifying on behalf of an end to all implicit guarantees, bailout promises, and the "too big to fail" doctrine. If you can't imagine it you have begun to grasp the nature of the actual political economy in which we live.” Sheldon’s column has also been reprinted in this weekend’s CounterPunch. (Congrats!) (Linked Friday 2010-04-23.)

• The Palinites and the Paulians. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-04-20). The biggest (though not the only) limit to last week's CBS/New York Times Tea Party survey is that it didn't distinguish the movement's armchair sympathizers from the people who actually go out and join the rallies. Politico and Edison Research have filled part of that gap by polling the participants… (Linked Friday 2010-04-23.)

New U.S. $100 Even Uglier. Daring Fireball (2010-04-22):

Why are we making our money ugly? We're ruining one of the greatest visual brands in history.  â˜… 

Good lord.

John Gruber, linking the story at Daring Fireball, asks “Why are we [sic] making our money ugly?” I don’t think it’s hard to explain. The answer is that “we” (you and I) aren’t doing anything to the U.S. Federal Reserve notes, because we don’t design them and we don’t have any meaningful market choice about what kind of money to use, either. The “visual brand” here is a brand in a completely uncompetitive market.

The people who do exercise effective choice over the design of U.S. government monopoly money (Treasury, the Fed, and the Secret Service) have no need to work to attract customers; their work is solely concerned with confining customers. Hence they have no incentive to be concerned with keeping their “visual brand” strong or attractive; the incentives point towards just making it as complicated and inelegant as possible, in order to make the design hard to counterfeit. Money that was produced in a competitive market, and which relied on customer choice rather than government fiat as its basis for value, has typically been attractive and well-designed.

Please forward this notice far and wide! Pass the word along to anyone who you think might be interested in the film, the talk, or in learning more about direct action for peace.

The Vegas A-Cafe and Southern Nevada ALL are pleased to announce that this week’s A-Cafe will feature a special presentation and screening of the short film “Death and Taxes,” hosted by Jim Haber of the Nevada Desert Experience. The film and presentation discuss war tax resistance as a form of practical direct action for peace — depriving the warfare state of financial support, and redirecting our labor and our resources towards a positive countereconomy — a community that supports life rather than death.

WHAT: Screening of “Death and Taxes” and presentation on war tax resistance by Jim Haber

WHEN: Thursday, April 8, 2010, 6:00pm-8:00pm. (30 minute short film, with a talk and discussion to follow.)

WHERE: Back meeting room of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, across the street from UNLV, 4550 S. Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV

WHO: Anyone interested in peace and freedom

Jim Haber is a long-time war tax resister who is transitioning from being an “income-reduction” resister to one who is refusing to pay part of his tax liability. He has been serving on the National Committee of the War Resisters League since 2002. Jim is currently coordinator of the Nevada Desert Experience which organizes interfaith resistance to nuclear weapons and war.

Jim is looking forward to presenting Death & Taxes a new 30 minute documentary produced by the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, and featuring several new and long-term resisters of different generations (and great music). The film directly addresses many fears and questions that people have about tax resistance in general and war tax resistance in particular.

For anyone interested in conversation. We look forward to seeing you there!

The Las Vegas Anarchist Cafe is a weekly meetup featuring informal discussion and the exchange of ideas about grassroots organizing, consensual society, and peaceful alternatives to war, taxes and government. Anyone interested in conversation is welcome to attend. See http://vegas.anarchistcafe.org/ for more information.