I spent many years in countries where the military had the power to arrest and detain citizens without charge. I have been in some of these jails. I have friends and colleagues who have “disappeared” into military gulags. I know the consequences of granting sweeping and unrestricted policing power to the armed forces of any nation. And while my battle may be quixotic, it is one that has to be fought if we are to have any hope of pulling this country back from corporate fascism.
… My generation, greedy for life, forgot in body and soul about their hopes for the future until reality taught them that tomorrow was not what they had dreamed, and they discovered nostalgia.
— Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Memories Of My Melancholy Whores”
Once-In-A-Lifetime Shot of the Day: The MTA shut down Grand Central Terminal today ahead of Hurricane Irene; the world’s largest train station all-but-deserted in the middle of the day.
Banksy TV of the Day:The Antics Roadshow, Banksy’s hour-long television special exploring “the history of behaving badly in public,” aired this past Saturday on Channel 4.
Narrated by Kathy Burke and produced by Jamie D’cruz, The Antics Roadshow examines the stories behind some of the most audacious stunts of recent times and what motivates the perpetrators, from mindless boredom to heartfelt political beliefs.
If you happened to have been living outside the UK at the time, you can check out the punny exposé above (for now, at least).