PERSONAL

HAPPY NEW YEAR:

Welcome to 2012 all you friends, enemies and innocent bystanders of Molly's Blog. May it be even more eventful and productive than 2011.

PERSONAL:

SORRY FOR THE LACK OF CONTENT HERE:

Regular readers of this of this blog may have noticed a lack of content recently. I've explained this before as I have transfered a lot of my activity over the my Facebook account. I've been contemplating this for some time, and have posted on it before. I MOST certainly don't intend to abandon Molly's Blog because it reaches a larger audience that even the 2100 + "friends" I have on Facebook. It also a fact that most of the people that I am connected to on Facebook are those who I already agree with in one way or another, ie they are anarchists, union activists or people involved in such things as "time banks" or social justice efforts. THIS blog, however, has the potential for a larger outreach given the way the internet operates. So...don't despair; there will be things here that I couldn't express on facebook or are better expressed here.

BLOGGING:

THE CAT ON FACEBOOK:

OK, take a deep breath now. Here's a list of what is over at our sister site on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1078669782 ). Once more from oldest to newest:

* Rothbarian Feudalism

*One Milliom March To Cairo

*Walmart Fesses Up In China

*First Hearing Of Missing And Murdered Women Inquiry Vancouver

*Canadian Imperialism

*Soccer And The Egyptian Revolution

*Protest Against The CCO and The UGT (Catalan Video)

*Wikileaks On The Egyptian Revolution

*Egypt: It Used To Be A CIA "Vacation" Hotspot"

*The Unknown Victim

*2011 begins In Protest (Video)

*Paul Robeson..Joe Hill (music video)

*"Seeds" by Anne Feeney (music video)

*"Graffiti From Cairo (images)

*"Mississippi Godam"...Nina Simone (music video)

*Class War In Egypt

*Videos Of The General Strike In Spain (Catalan)

*"No More Idols"...Samo Ravnol (music video)

*Dual Power In Egypt

*Vivir La Utopia (Video/Movie Español)

*Not Yet Happy Days

*"Anarchy In The UK"...Sex Pistols (Music Video)

*The Working Class In Egypt's Opposition

*The Death Throes Of A Dictatorship

*600 People Rally In Toronto To Support Egyptian Struggle

*Vancouver Rallies In Solidarity With The Arab people's Struggle

*Gulf War Propaganda 20 Years After

*Egypt Cracks Down On Al Jazeera

*The Arab World Is On Fire- Interview With A Syrian Anarchist

BLOGGING:

RECENTLY POSTED AT THE 'CAT HOUSE' (MOLLY ON FACEBOOK):

Oldest to latest. Last 24 hours. See http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1078669782 for details.

@@@@@@@@@@

++Will Qaddafi Be The Next To Go ?

++Translating PolSpeak

++Superpower (graphic)

++Rand On The Dole

++La CNT En La Huelga General (Spanish)

++Vegetarianism...Another Point Of View (Video)

++Independent Labour Federation In Egypt

++Squatting And Building Anarchist Communities

++Alex Hundert Released From Prison

++CIA Drones Have Killed Over 2,00 Since 2006

++Song For Bradley Manning...David Rovics (Music)

++Too Much Money Can Make The Boss Mean

++Charley Chaplin Speaks (Video)

ANARCHIST TACTICS:

THE "FACEBOOKALIZATION" OF ANARCHISM:

There's something I've noticed over the past few months given that Molly's Blog is a 'contact site' for anarchists across the world. As I gradually go through my editing process I find that not only are the majority of sites that I add 'Facebook sites', but that I am either deleting or sending to the Zombie listing a lot of others who were on the internet via other internet providers (blogspot/wordpress,etc).

That's fine, but a few cautions should be given here. First of all, as anyone who has followed this blog for long enough should be aware I am utterly and completely opposed to conspiracy to commit illegal acts. Not that I am opposed to "illegal acts" of civil disobedience, but I am completely opposed to the idea of trying to make them "secret". SECRET ???? I am completely astonished by the wishful thinking that a radical organization's plans could be kept "private" whenever it is communicated via the internet. I have debated this up and down with many people who are under the delusion that their "encryption" is sufficient to guard their plans. All that I can say here is that they are either wrong or actual state agents.

That, however, is something quite different from what is presently bothering me. What I have noticed is a gradual shift of anarchists to Facebook sites, and NOT always as simply a mirror of their main site. What does this mean besides the fact that, whether it is admitted or not, that their sites are continually monitored by US intelligence ? What it means is that unlike a blog post on website post whatever they say is eternally lost once a few days (hours, minutes,seconds ????) passes. THAT is what posting on Facebook means. It is lost forever. It is "etherbuzz".

I, of course, intend to maintain Molly's Blog as a main site while also using Facebook, but I would ask people to recognize the limitations of the latter. I would also ask others to consider the limitations of Facebook.

PERSONAL:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Oh the guilt. Oh the shame. After having had a personal conversation with a friend where he remarked about "how I was able to keep the links current" I was visited by a comrade from Bosnia who pointed out some dead links on this blog. It takes me way back to an internet conversation with an "anarchist hero" I shall refer to as "Dink Ass", and his refusal to list a certain anarchist site because it had "dead links". This was despite the fact that he had "dead links" in his own listings that were at least 7 years dead and perhaps ten years in the grave.

All that being said those words plus the undeserved admiration and the unexpected help from Bosnia put me on a campaign track. As far as I can determine this blog has the most complete listing of the libertarian left in the entire world. It is, of course, a work in progress, and will continue to expand. The way that I have devised is; whenever I add a new listing is to go four or five listings both above and below the new one. I look for things that have to be either deleted or put into the 'Zombie' (long inactive ) category. The latter is not entirely useless. Some things actually do come back to life. Recent examples include the 'Institute For Social Ecology', 'Barking Coins Blog' and the 'Centre For A Stateless Society' which were inactive for a long time but are quite alive today. The 'Zombie' category has its uses.

This is how I hope to keep the links on this blog current (something that anyone with experience with anarchist websites knows is a problem). Quite frankly I cannot go down the lists of literally hundreds of items to try and eliminate dead links, but this method will allow me to "punt the corpses" rather efficiently. Once more I request anyone who detects dead links to report them at the 'Molly's Suggestion Box' link on this blog. Until then I hope this method serves everybody well.

PERSONAL:

MOLLY GOES ON VACATION:

Well, as promised (threatened ?) before Molly is now off on vacation. I'll be checking in here every once in awhile while on the road, but nowhere near as frequently. We will return to our regular schedule in about 2 weeks.

PERSONAL:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Well this blog continues, and it now passed the 100,000 mark for unique visitors, despite my ambition to "finish" the anarchosyndicalist links before that happened. I'm still working on the Spanish CNT which, as I have mentioned before, is a lot larger than I thought. The blog promotion hit a temporary road block, but I am working around it...especially as this blog tries to speak to non-anarchists. But more on that later. Until then I have to hold my arrogance in check. It's a hard task, but necessary.

I'd like to take this opportunity to invite readers to make their suggestions over at our sister site 'Molly's Suggestion Box' (see the sidebar). No doubt I am not perfect, and I'd appreciate suggestions for improvement.

Til then,

Keep Smiling,

Look up to the stars,

Realize how unimportant your troubles are.

mm

BLOGGING HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

DISPATCHES FROM THE SPAM WARS:

I'm still stuck with my old Tyrannosaur computer. Hopefully (!!!!!!!) Dr. Dave will have good news for me tomorrow. Meanwhile the laptop continues to refuse to turn on. I think I blew the battery, but I will find out about that later. Note to self-find the fucking receipts. Good luck on collecting on the warrantee.

In any case I've taken the opportunity of this break to start going through the archives and deleting commercial spam.

I began at the beginning in August 2006 and was chugging happily along until I came to the first item in the archives in November 2006. The clunking sound was my eyeballs falling out of my head and rolling down the floor. To my astonishment the first item in that archive contained no less than 86 items of commercial spam. Delete, delete, delete, delete and, for a change, delete ! Some of the stuff might actually have been of interest to someone: an ad for a certain French cheese, hair restoring methods, the usual porn and blah blah about pirate movie copies and, best of all, an ad for the "atomic yoyo". The mind boggles at what the later is, but I'd definitely want one if it was free.

I also noticed how Blogger had managed to eat (ie delete) about half of the posts in November 2006, just as they did in February of this year. These posts don't show up in the archives but they do show up when I go to the "edit posts" item in Blogger. My best guess is that I am over my space quota. This is a rather large blog after all. I may, however, be totally off track on this, and Blogger may delete things randomly. I guess I'll find out in the fullness of time.

Til then, and when I return to normal blogging and get away from this personal nonsense ...remember that things are never as serious as they seem. In the long view everything is short. Even me. I actually like the idea.

BLOGGING HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

HELP FIND THE ZOMBIES:

Anyone who takes a glance at our Links section which we hope to make a comprehensive list of anarchist and libertarian socialist contacts on the internet will see how extensive it is. The Links are always in state of upgrade, pretty well from day to day, but because of their extent there are often dead links that we miss deleting. Some of them are on the various "to-do" lists, but a large number are ones we are unaware of. Checking all the links would probably take the better part of two days.

So...we're asking for our readers' help. We've opened up an item over at Molly's Suggestion Box (see sidebar) where you can list any dead links as a comment to the post. Or you can do it here of course.

Another thing where help would be appreciated would be in the deletion of commercial spam from the comments. I try to keep current with this, but I have little doubt that many items in the Archives have loads of such items attached as comments. If you come across such things try to post us either here or at the suggestion box. Give date and title of the blog post, and we'll try and make it a priority to get around to deleting the spam.

Any help you can give us on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

PERSONAL:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Well time ticks on, and so do things here at Molly's Blog. I'm presently in the process of listing the links for the CNT-AIT in Spain, and I've found that there are a heck of a lot more than I expected. As I have made plain before on this blog I am more in sympathy with the CGT in Spain than I am with the CNT, but the CNT is still a repository of classical anarcho-syndicalism that deserves respect. Hence the listing of it and others in the AIT that are in sympathy with their point of view. Also, however, people who adhere to the point of view exemplified by the CNT are a signpost that says that certain compromises are "beyond the pale". as such they have great value. For now I am still in Andalucia in terms of the CNT listings. There is much more to come.

PURPOSE

I am also, of course, promoting this blog as much as I can. In the course of this I run into some very weird aggressive responses. In particular I run into these when I post to certain blog aggregator sites where it is "assumed" that the posts will be about nothing of any importance whatsoever. In such situations, because I post for a "purpose" I am assumed to be a "spammer".

Molly's Blog does indeed have items that are totally my own opinion. It also has items that are unique translations from either French or Spanish to English. Supposedly this is spam. More importantly this blog aims to be an "aggregator" for news, anarchist, labour, Canadian, whatever. Not everything published here is even something I agree with. I merely think it is important.

I contrast this to what seems to be "important" on this aggregators. A recent list of the top items:

1)My Awesome Girlfriend Made Me My own Companion Cube"

2)Best Seat Belt Ever-Embrace Life

3)Blizzard +Ingenuity=wm

4)If The World Was Inverted By Altitude

5)Amazing Video Of White Blood Cell Literally Chasing Down And Devouring A Bacterium

Well, I don't hold anything against someone who may find these items of interest. I have my own quirks. What I object to is when I get ragged for items that might actually have some importance, especially when the aggression is disguised under the terms that only original posts are allowed. YES, Molly's Blog reprints the posts of others. That is part of its purpose, and I even often reprint posts that I am not in agreement with.

It all comes down to "purpose". Quite frankly I can't see any purpose to being on the internet merely to show the temporary and usually very boring emotions of one's very boring everyday life. No doubt this is a very large portion of what the internet is. Some people get so entranced by this that they sign on to blog aggregators merely to express their, usually aggressive, opinions by comment after comment. Others do this in certain websites.

It's all very good, but what is the purpose of it ? Quite frankly, I find an honest disagreement with an honest, shall we say "conservative", much more enlightening that the sort of 13 year old comment I often get on the blog aggregators. Also, quite frankly, I would rather argue with a legitimate conservative than some of the "anarchists" I have argued with before on this blog.

All that's neither here nor there. It's the way I feel today from what I have seen today.

MORE ON PURPOSE

To a large extent I see what has often been proferred as opposition to Molly's Blog on the blog aggregators as an "dance-macabre", an attempt to give meaning by opposition to meaning in an individual life. It may "feel" good, but, in the end it is unsatisfying because it is obviously untrue. I don't speak of any opposition to the opinions on Molly's Blog but rather to the attempt to circumvent them.by various tricks of rhetoric.

What can I say ? I have a purpose to what I present here. If I didn't I wouldn't bother. This purpose is beyond me. If any purpose is to be real it has to be beyond the individual proponents of it. Other than that it is simply self interest. Perhaps this belongs in 'Molly's Anarchism' more than it belongs here. Still...I cannot help speaking out against irrelevance and trvia. Trivia is what the posts of my opponents think the internet should be.

Whatever, I will continue on despite the criticisms. Such is Molly`s promise to her readers.

PERSONAL:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Well, it's been back to work these past two weeks, after recovering from surgery, and my blog production has dropped off accordingly. It doesn't help that I am spending what I consider an excessive time on 'blog promotion'. Too bad the crowds don't flock to you without effort. The present readership has essentially doubled in the past year, but there are still many hills to climb.

One summit, however, has been achieved. Finally, after months of effort I have finished the listings for the Spanish CGT (see our Links section). 491 items. Larry Gambone, of the Porkupine Blog, gave me a little warning when I started this enterprise many months ago. Now I know. Now I know. The listing is actually more complete in a way than the CGT's own 'Directorio CGT' because I went into all sorts of subcategories that aren't directly accessible from the main CGT site. There are still, however, some items left out. Some are deliberate such as a few sites that contain computer threats. Also there are numerous publications of the CGT whose only address is a pdf file. I had trouble with these, so I omitted them.

There are still a few loose ends to tie up as there are many 'peripherals' to the CGT such as ateneos, radio stations, movie theatres, etc. that may or may not be listed. It took me months to list all of the CGT sites in the Links section. It didn't help that my usual typo ratio was one out of five, and so I was forced to do a lot of editing. The CGT is certainly the most successful anarcho-syndicalist organization in the world. As a matter of fact one could total the membership of all other anarchist organizations, both syndicalist and otherwise, in the entire world and not come close to that of the CGT. What they have done is to make anarchosyndicalism relevant to the modern world. That is something the rest of us are still working on.

As has been stated before on this blog this is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Spanish CNT, and the CGT sees itself as the legitimate heir of this tradition. I'll be presenting more from both the CGT and the much smaller CNT-AIT during the course of this year, hoping to show how anarchosyndicalism is still rlevant in the 21st century.

Til then.

BLOGGING:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

It's been a good year and a bad year. Personally, Molly has had a "little touch of colon cancer" which involved surgery and a recovery period at exactly the right time of the year ie that time when there is little money to be made but lots of unreasonable demands being made. ( Not now, not "right now", but "right fucking now"- for free) .I'll be back at work in early January, and I'm already able to do the various ballet contortions that say I can do what I have to do in my regular work, but I will go with my general "age restriction" and refuse to lift 100 lb weights and carry them "with dignity" like those who would never even conceive of doing such a thing imagine that I should do.) There are, after all, people from the local crematorium who will send out two young strong guys to do such labour. How fast I can throw my body out of harm's way to avoid death or permanent disability is still in doubt. That can't be judged by exercises. Enough bitching. I've done this job enough years to learn to defend myself from the idiocy of the public and their demands. You have never "hated" until you get a phone call at 7:00 am from an idiot (whom you don't answer) who has an appointment with another veterinarian at 10:00 am who thinks he can get you out at 7:30 am ( at, of course, less of a charge than the guy who will see his animal at 10:00 am). In such a situation one is tempted to phone the other vet and ask him or her to raise the price by 20% for the "asshole charge".

Ah well, enough of "the job". I hope to impress the surgeon on January 6 when I go back for the recheck.

The guy was Dr Momah, here in Winnipeg who did a very fine job, though I have to admit that my own determination had a lot to do with my rapid recovery. I was up and booting it less than 24 hours after having some of my guts cut out. I refused all pain killers because I wanted "my mind" during recovery, and I was right, as was evidenced by the the final visit of the "pain nurse" to my bedside shortly before my recovery.

Her point- "she had never said that "veterinarians knew more about pain than people in human medicine", even though, of course, she had never said such on our first meeting shortly after the surgery. My point- "I really don't know about that statement. But I offered her an article that I was reading about pain from Nature Magazine, and I tried to figure out why what she said "might" be true. What was left unsaid , to my great disgrace, was that my refusal of pain relief was not because I was a veterinarian and "knew more" (which she thought and I doubted even though I am a member of the IVAPM) but because I am who I am, and I have an unique sensitivity to certain drugs. It was very personal, and it influences the way that my anaesthesia was handled as well.

Quite frankly, should the US Empire ever get so deluded that they would put me into prison and torture me there is literally no pain that I could not endure. Most of it I would be capable of laughing at. All this to gain the fact that I know nothing. Pain might be frightening to those who have never experienced it before, and it also might be frightening for those whose emotions determined that they should "run from it". Neither case is applicable to me. Pain is my ete3rnal companion in every second of mty life.

OK, enough of my personal situation. As to this blog, over the last year it has essentially doubled its readership. This has been at the cost of time spent in "blog promotion", which means time away from posting new items. This is obviously necessary, but it is still annoying because of the "objections" that others have to this blog. I've tried to search down such objections, and at least one has been resolved. Molly's Blog, of course, isn't a money-making business. Any fool who thinks he can make money off "a Blog" is usually quite deluded.

Yet, there is other opposition that is pretty consistent. All of these sources eventually come together despite their different reasons. One source for labour blogs is that only social democratic posts will be allowed (or less than social democratic in the USA). Another for "Canada blogs" is that the interests of right wing readers and those who think that the actions reported are not "anarchist enough" coincide. This transfers over to those posts listed as "anarchist" where that tiny little part of international anarchism that is the deviation known as "anarcho-capitalism" in the USA objects to anything reported by Molly that might be "socialist". I will leave the ignorance of the Americans as to the term "libertarian socialist" to others.

All that I can say here is...that I will continue. Someone who can get up from gut surgery and walk the same day is hardly likely to be intimidated. Quite frankly, I am "on the side of the angels", in a general sense. Not every thing I say is right, but the objections have less validity than what I post here. I will walk on because am the toughest son-of-a-bitch that has walked this Earth since Roman times.

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR:

Molly's Blog will be temporarily offline for 7 to 10 days for medical reasons ie surgery and recovery from same. I hope to return as soon as possible. It's been fun. Til then raise a glass to the health of the little cat with the bad attitude.

BLOGGING:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

It is about time for one of my 'interum reports'. Molly is very pleased that her readership has increased by about 50% in the last few months, for no reason that I can particularly identify. It says to me that my efforts are at least a little bit worthwhile, even if I know that about 160 people a day dropping by to read these examples of great literature is not exactly a "great public influence". All that being said here are a few comments and announcements.

First of all I'd like the readers to be aware of 'Molly's Suggestions Box' (see our link on the main page). This is your forum to comment on Molly's Blog ie what we should cover, what we are missing and what you would like to see in the future. Please feel free to put your general comments there. I am also trying to revive 'Molly's Polls', though I am often at a loss as to what questions to ask. Once more feel free to give your suggestions in Molly's Suggestion Box.

Molly's Blog has always tried to have a "balance" of items, both in terms of geography (local-Winnipeg/Manitoba, Canadian, American and generally international) and in terms of subject matter (labour, community, specifically anarchist, scientific, personal freedom, humour, etc). There have undoubtedly been times when I have "strayed" into concentration on one or the other of these areas. I don't think there is any general solution to this problem, though I feel that the lack of recent scientific posts is a problem. To a large degree I give priority to those who communicate directly with me by email, and I also give priority to solidarity appeals. Within these priorities there is far more that I miss than I can cover. This is no reflection on the importance of a given item; it is merely the way that certain things "come up" on a given day.

This "priority" extends to the occasional items that I translate from (usually) French or (occasionally) Spanish. I receive items from the French CNT-F regularily and the Spanish CGT sporadically. Translations take me a hell of a lot of time as I am usually consulting both online translation services and my own Larousses. This means that I end up doing far less than I would like to or that the subjects deserves. This is especially important here in Canada where my translations of matters from Québec have been far less than I would like. Unfortunately nobody else is stepping up to the plate, aside from the unfortunately limited situation where francophones translate their matters into English. That's life in Canada I guess.

Perhaps the subject matter of this blog is often a bit too varied. I am not, however, likely to narrow it in the near future. This blog is not only a method political argument. It is also meant to be fun, at least for me, and I'll be damned if I'm going to sacrifice that. Here's hoping for a good fourth year of Molly's Blog.

PERSONAL:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY:

It's two more days, and it will be the Third Birthday of Molly's Blog. In that time I have posted close to 3,000 entries on this blog. The page views passed the 100,000 mark some time ago, and I am presently working on the 100,000 visitors mark. At the present time the visitors average about 100 per day. To my mind this is insufficient. Eugene Plawiuks's 'La Revue Gauche' still averages over 400 visitors per day even though Eugene has been "off line" for months". Obviously I'm not doing all that I should. Still....

In these three years Molly's Blog has seen a consistent improvement in both readership, layout and (I think) content. This blog has been repeatedly quoted by others in the blogosphere. In the months and years to come I hope to build on what has already been done. Expect the unexpected from the tiny cat in Winnipeg.

By the way, the 5th of August is also a full moon. I think it should be renamed as the 'Molly Moon'. That is, of course, my own ego speaking, but I do hope to present the proposal to the International Astronomical Society or at least the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

BLOGGING:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Time moves on, and so does Molly's Blog. This summer this kitten will be three years old. A long time in cat years, but a short time in most other chronologies. In that time the blog has (hopefully) improved, and it has certainly expanded. It has spun off a sister site, Molly's Polls, and more will be yet to come. I continue to work pretty well every day on the Links section. I think that I have almost completed the listings for the French CNT, the "CNT-Vignoles". The other French CNT, the "CNT-AIT" is still to come, but it will be a far shorter listing. My attempt to put some order into the CNT listings is, I have to say, hampered by what I find a rather opaque method of numbering their locals on the part of the CNT, rather than simply listing them as a geographic local. So be it. They share this characteristic with pretty well every union in the world, whatever its political stripe. I do, however, continue to plow through. To be honest I find the CNT-F task easier than the previous IWW task, even if there are many more "projects" and "publications" in the CNT than in the IWW. Not unexpected. By most estimates the CNT-F is far larger than the IWW, and, besides, the French really love to put out publications(and to form organizations from splits for that matter). It's a classic.

You know where this is trending. I shudder when I finally have to face the task of listing the Spanish CGT, or even the Spanish CNT. No doubt I will undertake simpler tasks first, such as listing the contacts for the FAU or the USI. Still, I suspect that I have two years of work ahead of me here. it will, however, eventually be finished.

All this is against a background of gradually expanding and editing the other categories in the Links. This goes on at its usual slow bit steady pace. Further editorial subdivisions will be done in the months (and years ?) to come to make the list more user friendly.

As to the blog posts I have to emphasize that the "balance" is always a work in progress. I see that I have finally, after a hiatus of many months, published something today that is not political. Obviously I have missed the idea of balance that I originally strived for, but the correction does eventually come. The balance between local, Canadian and international posts is also always a moving target. I have expressed my own priorities before, and I hardly have to repeat them now. What I will say is that what actually shows up in the posts is, at best, 5% of what is actually worthy of publication. Many significant things that come to my attention never see the light of day here. There is an even greater continent of things that never come to my attention at all.

Anarcho-purists may quibble about how much of this blog is devoted to things that are obviously not connected with anarchism. My response to this is that these things are connected at a deeper level than labels would admit. They are connected at the level of "class struggle", a term I hate to use but one that is very descriptive. My own idea of anarchism is not some self-referential idea of being some sort of "ultimate radical" and wandering off into what can (kindly!!!) be described as intellectual masturbation. My idea of anarchism is grounded in the actual needs and struggles of ordinary people, not the delusions of some sort of subculture that deludes itself with the lies of its own superiority. To put it bluntly, anarchism is about the needs, struggles and desires of ordinary people or it is not anarchism; it is only a religious cult without this anchor.

In some ways this is a blessing. It cuts out huge swatches of what one anarchist news site thinks is important. I don't have to pay any attention whatsoever if somebody breaks a window in Woebegone Iowa with a presumptive political purpose. Neither do I have to pay attention when some fool imagines that arson is, by some trick of magical thinking, a way to "preserve the Earth", and I don't have to pay attention to their trials and tribulations when they are eventually and inevitably caught (sometimes because infiltrators put them up to it, but more often because they are simply incompetent fools). Hey, no problem, no worry. Let them live in their delusions, in or out of prison. I...Don't...Give...A...Fuck. The only disturbance is that these people think they can define 'anarchism" as what they do. Quite frankly I find the actions of such people (mostly Americans) very reminiscent of the attempt of American creationists to smuggle in religion via so-called "intelligent design".

On the other hand this liberation from arrogant cultism has a drawback. I have to pay attention to a far greater field of struggle with which people outside of the mutual admiration society are intimately concerned from day to day. This means that I am obligated to try and report things from a vastly wider field of human existence than a cultist has to pay attention to. Obviously this often involves me in compromises that I don't feel too comfortable with, but it is a reality. The point that i see as relevant is how to push these struggles into a more and more libertarian direction. All that while not having the hubris of imagining that I am producing anything more than a tiny blog that only 100 to 150 people a day drop by to read. Not big potatoes in the cosmic scheme of things.

So here is Molly's Blog, continually trying to find its balance. The balance will never be "finally' found because it is an ever shifting target. The journey, however, is the whole story. The goal is an ever receding mirage that merely leads me on. Some things I am absolutely certain of. My decision to pay attention to the lives of ordinary people is both a moral and aesthetic choice. The morality of it should be obvious. The aesthetics revolve around the fact of just how ugly the cultish forms of anarchism, all of which depend on an overwhelming arrogance, actually are. For myself I have absolutely no desire, let alone need to buoy up my ego by identifying with a pseudo-superior group. Life itself has more than enough meaning for this tiny little cat, and I see no reason to accept lies just because they lead to self-exaltation.

Other things I am much less certain of. Negation is always easier than affirmation. In most things i preserve an attitude of scepticism. Perhaps I grew old while my back was turned. Come along with Molly as she explores this unknown universe in the years that are left to me.

BLOGGING:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Time goes on, and even though the windchill here in the frozen north continues to reach below minus 30 spring is soon to come. Molly has been busy this last little while on this blog, and here are a few updates:

The never ending editing process continues. The latest major change is the separation of the IWW links from the anarchosyndicalist links. Some in the IWW might say, "about goddamn time". This, of course, like other edits I have done here resulted in an expansion of the Links section. We now have pretty well everything IWW linked here. I have even included those "Industrial Unions" that show the slightest sign of life, even if some of them are as doubtful as any detection of Martian life. No insult to the IWW meant. I was once a member and even a delegate. Still... realism is actually a virtue. If you don't adhere to realism you get nonsense such as a prominent anarchist touting more and more set-piece confrontations with the police because it will eventually result in a crowd "so large that the police will run away in fear". I shit you not. But there again Molly has no ambitions to be paid off by the likes of the 'Glass Manufacturers of America' to lead people down a path that has few beneficiaries other than such.

The editing process will continue, but I'm likely to chip away at the "easy edges" of it before I undertake a major "step-through" such as subdividing the blogs or anarchist music. Simply separating off the Canadian links was time consuming enough. But I can assure you that it will continue, and this site will be the most inclusive and up-to-date contact site on the "anarcho-net".

I have also gotten further and further away from listing only sites in English, French or Spanish. Some of this is inevitable because of the nature of certain sections such as the "Anarcho-Syndicalist Links'. In other cases the links have come about because of courtesy (they linked to this blog) or because I have referred to them in an article on the blog. This practice will continue.

Finally, the articles. There is far more stuff coming my way than I could ever hope to publish here. I tend to give priority to solidarity articles and to those items that arrive in my inbox from others who send me regular updates. My forays beyond this are entirely my own responsibility as I determine what is both important and interesting. If you want a day by day update on who has committed a minor act of vandalism in the USA with some supposed political content I advise you to consult the site of the person who thinks that cheerleading for more and more "great crowds" at summits is a valid thing to do (see above). This site may often seem remote from the militant gung-ho anarchist "scene". All to the better. My own anarchism is one where it has to be relevant to the lives of ordinary people. Without that you have a political sect that is indistinguishable from a religious one. That is something I have no interest in.

PERSONAL:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

I am long delayed in announcing the following, but "I didn't win" in the contest over at the Canadian Blog Awards for "best political blog". I came last of the five finalists. The winner was the Liberal blog Calgary Grit. The runner up was the Conservative Small Dead Animals. Others in third and fourth place were the non-partisan Bond Papers and Nunc Scio. Molly was actually amazed that she was nominated at all, let alone making it to the second round of voting, and she'd like to thank all who voted for her now. It is not surprising that a Liberal blog came in number one, and it is only slightly less surprising that a Conservative blog came in number 2 (though Molly wonders about whether many Conservative supporters have evolved enough to have opposable thumbs to type with). I'm sad that a non-partisan blog didn't win. yet it is totally amazing that an anarchist blog was in the running. Well, thank you once more.

I'm continuing my editing, though it may not be apparent on the surface. See later for more details.

Finally, don't forget to check out the latest at Molly's Polls...'Steven Harper Is...'. It's more or less for fun, but it has a biting point as well.

BLOGGING:

EDITING MOLLY'S BLOG-INTERUM REPORT:

It's a long hard road we travel. I am only half way through the editing of the general 'Links' section, and I'm already aware that separating off the Canadian and other links is going to be totally insufficient for clarity. I'll continue on with this, going through other sections as well such as 'Anarchist Music' or 'Liens En Français' amongst others with this method, as well as beginning to separate off the texts section- which I continue to grow- into particular authors and others. Still...I'm obviously going to have to subdivide further. So much for getting this project done before the New Year. Still...it has to be done eventually.