Friday, November 20, 2009
Treading Water
It's now 4:00 in the morning and I just finished these shirts. What ever happened to sleep?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
In My Eyes
I spent some time over the weekend printing straight edge hoodies. It was the first time I had printed white ink on a black sweatshirt and I ran into a few problems. White ink is pretty much the biggest pain, but it was a good learning experience. While the sweatshirts weren't perfect, I'm pretty happy with the way they came out overall.
I've also been spending a lot of time lately working the next issue of my zine. I have a bunch written and am starting to put some cool interviews together. I'm super excited about the way things are shaping up so far and am really looking forward to getting it all put together.
I've also been spending a lot of time lately working the next issue of my zine. I have a bunch written and am starting to put some cool interviews together. I'm super excited about the way things are shaping up so far and am really looking forward to getting it all put together.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Failure By Design
As if it wasn’t obvious…
An article appearing in The Independent yesterday argues that the US global war on terror works to acerbate the very ideas and actions it claims to be fighting. In his article, Johann Hari interviews several former Islamic militants attempting to understand their mindsets and motivations. Hari concludes that foreign policy of the United States is wholly counter-productive. Rather than induce a softening of tensions, US strategies work only to intensify the attitudes and emotions that encourage such violent actions. Hari writes, “But once they had made that leap to identify with the Umma – the global Muslim community – they got angrier the more abusive our foreign policy came. Every one of them said the Bush administration's response to 9/11 – from Guantanamo to Iraq – made jihadism seem more like an accurate description of the world.” Clearly the widespread bombing of Muslim cities and holy areas coupled with the kidnapping, extradition and torture of community members could only serve to inflame anti-US attitudes and encourage violent retribution.
Could it truly come as a surprise that these tactics would be so ineffective at reducing anti-American sentiment in the Middle East? Such actions serve only to provide propaganda for fundamentalist-nationalist groups and aid recruiting measures for future actions aimed at ending the US occupation and economic control. In fact, the United States has maintained military forces all over the Arabian Peninsula for decades, coercively upholding favorable economic policies in the region. Did anyone ever really believe that Bin Laden and his cohorts attacked the United States because of their eternal hatred for freedom? Certainly the attacks on September 11, 2001 were not motivated by irrational hatred but rather represented an attempt to end the exploitive, imperialistic policies of the United States in the region.
Despite the evidence that the employed anti-terrorism measures are entirely counter-productive, the current administration continues to engage in these tactics. These policies continue to fuel anti-American radicalism and essentially perpetuate terrorist actions. Only with a complete break in policy and an adjustment in attitude can there be any hope at reducing the anti-American sentiment that we have so carefully cultivated in the region over the past few decades.
But I wouldn’t hold your breath... that change isn’t coming anytime soon.
An article appearing in The Independent yesterday argues that the US global war on terror works to acerbate the very ideas and actions it claims to be fighting. In his article, Johann Hari interviews several former Islamic militants attempting to understand their mindsets and motivations. Hari concludes that foreign policy of the United States is wholly counter-productive. Rather than induce a softening of tensions, US strategies work only to intensify the attitudes and emotions that encourage such violent actions. Hari writes, “But once they had made that leap to identify with the Umma – the global Muslim community – they got angrier the more abusive our foreign policy came. Every one of them said the Bush administration's response to 9/11 – from Guantanamo to Iraq – made jihadism seem more like an accurate description of the world.” Clearly the widespread bombing of Muslim cities and holy areas coupled with the kidnapping, extradition and torture of community members could only serve to inflame anti-US attitudes and encourage violent retribution.
Could it truly come as a surprise that these tactics would be so ineffective at reducing anti-American sentiment in the Middle East? Such actions serve only to provide propaganda for fundamentalist-nationalist groups and aid recruiting measures for future actions aimed at ending the US occupation and economic control. In fact, the United States has maintained military forces all over the Arabian Peninsula for decades, coercively upholding favorable economic policies in the region. Did anyone ever really believe that Bin Laden and his cohorts attacked the United States because of their eternal hatred for freedom? Certainly the attacks on September 11, 2001 were not motivated by irrational hatred but rather represented an attempt to end the exploitive, imperialistic policies of the United States in the region.
Despite the evidence that the employed anti-terrorism measures are entirely counter-productive, the current administration continues to engage in these tactics. These policies continue to fuel anti-American radicalism and essentially perpetuate terrorist actions. Only with a complete break in policy and an adjustment in attitude can there be any hope at reducing the anti-American sentiment that we have so carefully cultivated in the region over the past few decades.
But I wouldn’t hold your breath... that change isn’t coming anytime soon.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Pray For Rain
My life has been pretty crazy as of late, but I found some time this week to print a few things for my friend's record label. I've been busier the past few weeks than I've ever been before, but I think I'm starting to like it. I'm sleeping less and getting a lot more done. I've been staying home to work on a bunch of projects rather than hanging out, but it's getting cold out anyway. It feels good to be more productive and hopefully that won't change.
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