What happens to your body when you drink a soda
Mood:  sharp

Do you want to be healthy? Drinking soda is bad for your health in so many ways; science can't even state all the consequences. Here's what happens in your body when you assault it with a Coke:

Within the first 10 minutes, 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. This is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake, and the only reason you don't vomit as a result of the overwhelming sweetness is because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor.

Within 20 minutes, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat.

Within 40 minutes, caffeine absorption is complete; your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream.

Around 45 minutes, your body increases dopamine production, which stimulates the pleasure centers of your brain – a physically identical response to that of heroin, by the way.

After 60 minutes, you'll start to have a sugar crash.

The average American drinks more than 60 gallons of soft drinks each year, but before you grab that next can of soda, consider this: one can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55 mg of caffeine, and is loaded with artificial food colors and sulphites. Not to mention the fact that it's also your largest source of dangerous high-fructose modified corn syrup..'s take a look at some of the other major components of a can of soda:

• Phosphoric Acid: Which can interfere with the body's ability to use calcium, leading to osteoporosis or softening of the teeth and bones.
• Sugar: It is a proven fact that sugar increases insulin levels, which can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, premature aging and many more negative side effects. Most sodas include over 100 percent of the RDA of sugar. Sugar is so bad for your health in so many ways, I even created an entire list outlining 100-Plus Ways in Which Sugar Can Damage Your Health
• Aspartame: This chemical is used as a sugar substitute in diet soda. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption including brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilispsy/seizures.
• Caffeine: Caffeinated drinks cause jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps, birth defects, and perhaps some forms of cancer.
• Tap Water: I recommend that everyone avoid drinking tap water because it can carry any number of chemicals including chlorine, trihalomethanes, lead, cadmium, and various organic pollutants. Tap water is the main ingredient in bottled soft drinks.

Clearly, the over-consumption of sodas and sweet drinks is one of the leading causes fueling the world-wide obesity epidemic.

One independent, peer-reviewed study published in the British medical journal The Lancet demonstrated a strong link between soda consumption and childhood obesity.  They found that 12-year-olds who drank soft drinks regularly were more likely to be overweight than those who didn't. In fact, for each additional daily serving of sugar-sweetened soft drink consumed during the nearly two-year study, the risk of obesity jumped by 60 percent.

Here's another sobering fact if you're struggling with weight issues: Just one extra can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year!

Other statistics on the health dangers of soft drinks include:

• One soda per day increases your risk of diabetes by 85 percent
• Soda drinkers have higher cancer risk. While the federal limit for benzene in drinking water is 5 parts per billion (ppb), researchers have found benzene levels as high as 79 ppb in some soft drinks, and of the 100 brands tested, most had at least some detectable level of benzene present
• Soda has been shown to cause DNA damage – courtesy of sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in many soft drinks, which has the ability to switch off vital parts of your DNA. This could eventually lead to diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's

If you are still drinking soda, stopping the habit is an easy way to improve your health. Pure water is a much better choice, or if you must drink a carbonated beverage, try sparkling mineral water with a squirt of lime or lemon juice.

There is absolutely NO REASON your kids should ever drink soda. None, nada, zip, zero. No excuses. The elimination of soft drinks is one of the most crucial factors to deal with many of the health problems you or your children suffer.

If you struggle with an addiction to soda, remember; sugar is actually more addictive than cocaine!

Related Articles:

  The Amazing Statistics and Dangers of Soda Pop

 Soft Drinks: Disease in a Can

 Turbo Tapping: How to Get Rid of Your Soda Addiction

Shamelessly pirated from the Mercola.com website.

About Dr. Mercola

A History of Anarchy in Venezuela
Mood:  a-ok

 This is a brief outline of the libertarian footprint in the history of Venezuela, prepared by members of the Collective Editorship of El Libertario www.nodo50.org/ellibertario. We hope that this serves as a useful point of reference for those who are interested in the subject.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, European anarcho-syndicalist immigrants contributed towards the emergence of worker organisations despite economic, social and cultural backwardness (Rodríguez 1993). These efforts – formation of mutual societies and guilds, strikes, propaganda etc – gained them a certain notoriety in the era of the oil industry, however the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez (1908-35) viciously repressed all syndical activity, preventing it from developing as it did at other latitudes. The few hounded social militants that remained in the country tried with great difficulty to generate political thought, whilst the majority of the anti-Gómez exiles were not open to radical thought. Amongst the radical minority, the attractiveness of the expansion of Russian bolshevism proved too strong and effectively stemmed the flow of anarchist thought. When this Marxist faction returned after the death of the tyrant, it occupied the entire field of leftwing politics, absorbing the handful of readers and clandestine disciples of the libertarian ideal, who were even among the founders of the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV- 1936) and Acción Democrática (1941), the two parties that would subsequently control the process of the political organisation of the masses. Additionally, the anti-anarchist repression had a constitutional footing and was implemented in the so-called Ley Lara (Lara law) which was in effect between 1936-45.

Many exiled Spanish anarchists arrived in Venezuela during the 1940’s and 1950’s, and had to deal, not only with the weight of defeat in the Spanish Civil War, but also an adoptive environment where their ideas were seen as strange. The urgent need to subsist and the imperative to adapt to the atmosphere of brutal authoritarianism were additional obstacles to the organisation of potential local sympathizers. Their efforts were not, however, in vain, particularly after 1958 when, after ten years of military dictatorship, the Federación Obrera Regional Venezolana – FORVE (Venezuelan Regional Workers Federation, affiliated to the International Workers Association, a global anarcho-syndicalist movement founded in 1922) was established. Too, some specific groups were formed, newspapers, pamphlets and books were produced, but little of this activity transcended beyond the most politically aware circles of Spanish immigrants (Montes de Oca 2008).

The wave of socio-political contestation that was experienced globally at the tail end of the 1960’s – especially May 1968 in France with its indubitable libertarian roots – also took hold in Venezuela. Its mark can be clearly seen in the Renovación Universitaria (University Renewal) that profoundly shook the principal institutions of higher education in Venezuela between 1968-70, and maintained its presence in subsequent student movements and alternative culture. However, apart from the diminishing presence of Spanish veterans, years would pass before groups that identified themselves with the ideal and practice of anarchism would exist, this is because in the 70’s Marxism was still considered the irreplaceable ideological support for any revolutionary proposal in Venezuela.

Between 1980 and 1995 there were clearly anarchist attempts to connect with social struggles and movements, the Colectivo Autogestionario Libertario - CAL (Libertarian Self-managing Collective) being the most visible. Two journals, El Libertario (published by CAL – 9 editions between 1985-87) and Correo A (28 editions between 1987 and 1995), were points of reference and reunion for activists, exiled Latin American libertarians, and, principally, young people who came to anarchism through the punk scene. Also noteworthy at this time was the academic and informative activity of Angel Cappelletti, an Argentinian anarchist who worked in Venezuela for 26 years (Méndez & Vallota 2001). Despite the difficulties inherent in trying to propagate and push forward anarchist proposals of self-management and direct action in an environment where they were either unknown or poorly interpreted, little by little routes towards diverse spaces where such projects could be expressed became apparent. And then on 27/02/1989 the popular rising known as the ‘Caracazo’ occurred, which together with other national events (particularly the crisis of near total dependency on the oil industry and of the political model that was established in1958) and international events (such as the fall of the Eastern European bureaucracies), opened spaces where the libertarian ideal could be propagated.

The attempt to fuse anarchism with concrete collective struggles was made more apparent by the reappearance of El Libertario in 1995, whose working group called itself first, the Comisión de Relaciones Anarquistas - CRA (Commission of Anarchist Relations), and after 2007 the Collective Editorship of El Libertario. It is the most lasting publication in local libertarian history, publishing 5 editions every year and with a significant circulation compared with other local and continental publications. Side by side with El Libertario are numerous core groups and initiatives with various areas of intervention and which are located in diverse regions, highlighting the working of specific spaces( such as the CESL in Caracas, the CEA in Mérida and the Ateneo La Libertaria, first in Biscucuy and then in the rural area to the southwest of Lara), the organisation in January 2006 of the Alternative Social Forum in Caracas, the activity of the Anarchist Black Cross, the persistent publication of various informative materials, and the impulse given to distinct events of social protest and cultural agitation. This process has had to overcome the test of the ‘Bolivarian revolution’, led by Hugo Chávez, which for anarchists represents a demagogic, corrupt, militarist and inefficient swindle which has deceived a large sector of local and international socialists, making the development of autonomous popular movements, a course of action promoted by Venezuelan anarchism, more difficult.

Finally...
Now Playing: the Flaming Lips

For the first time since my release from prison in June of 2006, I have a home.

I've been given a temporary work-trade space in an eco-village. Despite the fact that many people here have their doubts and suspicions about me, there are several who welcome me. Especially the dome-dwellers.

We have about half a dozen small dome structures here, and there's a kitchen, bathroom and computer room that we share in a house. It's an odd assembly of people here in the dome village - an autonomous unit within the larger community. There are four men and three women and we seem to get along really well. 

My presence has created a stir here (of course). I sorta got snuck in before the larger community had a chance to meet me. I had a decent reference, since I first came here for a going-away party for a really cool comrade who moved to Portland. The night of the party, I found a guitar laying around the dome house. It had been abandoned by a previous resident. I took it to the party and wound up playing silly songs and jamming a little with a real musician. I've been playing everyday (almost) since then. It's been fun, and I'm getting closer to realizing my fantasy of busking. I need to know a few more songs. Well, more than a few.

So, some of the older members of the community aren't sure about me. As I said - I sorta moved in before anyone had a chance to discuss things, and that ruffled a few feathers. It's possible that I'll be asked to leave sometime soon. It's more possible that I'll stay, though. My friends in the dome village really like me, and one of them wants to busk with me. Or start up a band, if we get some electric instruments.

My life changed so much, so quickly, I haven't had a chance to sort things out for myself. I'm going to be doing some prisoner support work soon, and hope to start up an anarchist coffee cart, too. Meanwhile, I have a new zine out, and am working on the next one in the series. They'll be about my prison experiences, though the first two will be mostly background.

This place has been really good to me. I've got a guitar to play while my acoustic-electric is repaired. I also have a bike, which was also left behind by a previous resident. A home, a guitar to play, a bike to ride, friends to hang out with, projects to work on - life feels really good right now. And I'm not even slightly concerned that I'll fuck it all off. I'm on a roll, and I'm gonna take full advantage of the opportunities life is presenting me.

Yea! 

For the Barbarians

You hear the slanders nearly every day:  contemptuous denunciations of barbarous atrocities.  Words meant to stir primal animosity towards some people.  The association of the word "barbarian" and certain activities is reason enough to call into doubt the humanity of the perpetrators of these barbarous actions and suggest that they are demi-demons.  The concentration camps of Nazi Germany - the use of  biological warfare (small pox) against Native Americans - the deliberate starvation of millions of peasants by Stalin and Mao - the commercial hunting and trading of African Peoples - the dungeons and pyres of the Inquisition - the Crusades - the bombings of Guernica, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Iraq, Yugoslavia - the creation of famine and pestilince by the World Bank and IMF - all acts of cruelest barbarity, right?

No!  All of these horrific crimes against humanity were carried out by civilized people IN THE NAME OF CIVILIZATION!  Indeed, these were all specific actions carried-out, designed and implemented by people at the pinnacle of civilization.  Furthermore, most of these acts of massive slaughter would have been impossible without civilization.  Barbarians could not conceive of such widespread, indiscriminate murder, and would be incapable of carrying them out.

Even in ancient days, when nomadic hordes smashed civilizations, they did so as proto-civilizations, recognizing the fact that the already existing civilizations were their rivals.

Do you want to know what savage, barbaric people are like?  Look at them!  Quick!  Before they disappear!  The U'wa who live in the Cloud Forests of Colombia and consider themselves to be a chosen people - chosen to be the caretakers of their magnificent homeland.  The Dineh elders who weep as they watch Peabody Coal destroy the mountains where they live joyously simple lives because that's what the desert provides for them.  They do not weep for their loss, nor do they hate the people killing their Mother Earth.  They weep because, according to their worldview, if they had been living their lives in a sacred manner, other people wouldn't be killing the Earth.  One aboriginal People of Australia have decided not to reproduce because they can't bear the thought of their grandchildren having to live in the toxic wasteland that is being made of the Earth.  The Ogoni People of the Niger River Delta are being exterminated because they are petitioning the Nigerian government to stop Shell Oil from befouling the ecosystems that have always sustained their People.  The various Peoples of West Papua who have united in their opposition to the development of their island homelands and declare "We refuse any kind of development:  religious groups, aid agencies and governmental agencies and governmental agencies.  Just leave us alone!"  And the mysterious inhabitants  of another Indonesian island whose only messages to civilization are volleys of arrows.  

Do you want to know what kind of unfeeling, sadistic person could carry out such acts of eco- and genocide?  Take a look around any shopping mall, go to any religious service in America.  Could it be any plainer to you if your cars needed human blood in order to run?  If Americans had to strangle an infant Native American child in order to gain financing for their homes, would there be forcible childbirth centers on reservations?  And would there be any decline in the number of home sales?

Accusations of barbarity are made by one civilized people against another.  It would be an honor to live among barbarians ñ to share our love of our homeworld, our joy of living.  Instead, I'm stuck here, existing in a state of semi-animation while beyond the walls and razor wire, the smug despoilers of the Earth carry on with their frenzied, hate-filled lives.

I will not be tamed and returned to the herd of domestic humanity.  Imprisoned as a dissident, I'm not one who will be re-educated for assimilation into Amerikkka.  It's fitting that only by imprisoning me were the forces of society able to coerce me into living indoors, pissing and shitting in water - that's sick! And desiring work just for something to do.  If anything, this episode of incarceration has strengthened my resolve to smash civilization.

Release me from this cage!

We need a new anarchist movement!
Mood:  chatty
A lot of ya'll reading this probably don't know much about anarchy and anarchism, so you might have a lot of questions. Too bad this medium doesn't allow for back and forth discussion, because I'd love to answer your questions, but to give you an accurate account of anarchist history and theory would require a book or two. And a lot of that history and theory has been rendered obsolete by the current New World Order. The media tells us that the world changed forever on 9/11/01. The NWO was already functioning before then and had been in the process of being implemented for a century. But that, too, is another long story. What I want to do is let you know is where I stand as a Tejano working class political prisoner in a movement dominated by white middle class students and activists.

Anarchy?

The simplest explanation is the best: no rulers, or no authoritative power.

Anarchism: the theory that all forms of government are oppressive and should be abolished.

Anarchism is what I believe is obsolete in this day and age. It's a 19th century ideology that lost relevance when it became clear that capitalism would win out over socialism as the dominant social order in the Industrial West. This was in question until recently. When capitalism won, we entered the New World Order.

Back in the day, Anarchism was the most militant, revolutionary branch of the Socialist milieu. Anarchists played vital roles in the revolutions in Mexico, Russia and China. They were active throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa. Anarchists staged their own revolution in Spain, which was crushed by the fascist armies of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini. [ "The Spanish Anarchists" by Murray Bookchin (the only subject he's written about that is worth reading) and "The Bonnot Gang" by Richard Parry (Are anarchists terrorists?)]

But that was in a different era, when technology and Progress seemed like they would give the world a future of unlimited abundance, shared by all. The disintegration of the Soviet Union cleared the way for a newly unified global economic and social order. Now we can all go about the business of fueling the engines of capitalism as consumers.

In the real world, however, wealth is being reserved for increasingly fewer people, natural resources are being used up, and it's getting more difficult to provide for oneself - economically. The promise of a world of material abundance was a lie, and many people didn't fall for it. [ "The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of
1968" by George Katsiaficas and "The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many" by Noam Chomsky]

Worldwide Uprisings and the other American Revolution

From 1968-1972, people all over the world rose up to challenge the established States for the control of their own lives. It didn't matter if they were communist or capitalist: students, workers and peasants worldwide protested, organized and revolted against the pettiness to which their lives had degenerated.

The most significant uprising took place in France, where a coalition of students and workers nearly succeeded in overthrowing the government and the intellectual shackles of Marxism.

The Situationist International described life as having been so trivialized by social and economic forces that people were nothing more than spectators in their own lives. [ "The Society of the Spectacle" by Guy Debord and "The Situationist International Anthology" by Ken Knabb] This was a brilliant insight, and it's a shame that they didn't cast off their Marxist dogma as they had shed their roles as passive witnesses to history.

Here in America, people inspired by the civil rights movement, and the determination of the people of Vietnam, also rose up against our government. We fought a revolutionary war here in the U.S. from 1970-1972, and many fought on throughout the 1980s. This is where many of America’s current political prisoners come from. Try to find THAT in your history books! You'll have more luck looking through back issues of newspapers.

The government ultimately won, but it was not an easy battle. Anyone who researches that time will find massive mobilizations of police, National Guard and U.S. Armed Forces in almost every major city and most universities across the nation. Activists, revolutionaries, and union organizers died and tens of thousands were imprisoned. Though a few groups reformed and continued to fight, most of us were left wondering where we went wrong. It seemed at the time that we were winning, that radical change in the way the world was evolving was possible.

It was this period of self-reflection that eventually led to new questions, a deeper analysis of society and the crises the future would bring us. And anarchists, for the most part, were the ones asking the questions and looking for answers, even if these inquiries led in unexpected directions.

Alienation

The key point to understand in the current anarchist scene is ALIENATION. Alienation is so central to the NWO that it can't exist without alienation. As a matter of fact, as more History and Archeology students began to make critical examinations of the "Progress" of history, it became all too clear that, not only do we not live in the best of all worlds, but the ascension of the West to world domination has been a catastrophe rather than a divinely ordained blessing. Especially when one considers how our technological civilization treats the Earth - as both a source of wealth to plunder and as a garbage dump.

The thought that human beings are apart from the natural world, rather than a part of the Earth, is the original source of alienation. This is what made civilization possible. Once people began to build cities, they developed a feeling of superiority over their fellow humans. So, first people became alienated from their habitat, then from one another. The rest, of course, is History.

One point an anarchist scholar has highlighted was that few people became civilized willingly [ "Against His-story, Against Leviathan" by Fredy Perlman (hard to find), "Rebels Against the Future" by Kirkpatrick Sale, "My Name is Chellis Glendinning and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization" by Challis Glendinning (easy to find and a great read)].  They were either conquered by the armies of the "civilized" people, or adopted civilized ways in order to prevent such conquests. People often equate the ability to conquer other peoples with the level of a civilization's development. But let me ask you, is the desire to kill on a massive scale in an efficient manner a sign of a healthy, intelligent society? How do wars of conquest affect the warriors? And how will these warriors, in turn, affect their society when they return to their families? Also - how does such a conquest mentality affect the society as a whole?

Alienation is the root of all of civilization's problems. We are alienated from our environment by the belief that we are its masters. We are separated from other cultures by feeling that they are our rivals. We are in competition with our neighbors and struggle for domination within our own households. Our short-term desires can supercede our commitments to and relationships with the people in our lives. Our lives are so determined by Alienation that almost everyone is resigned to live lives that bear no resemblance to our innermost desires. Not only that, but most people actively pursue daily routines that will prevent them from living rewarding, fulfilling lives. Alienation from our own selves is so entrenched in our social consciences that we think, "Well, that's just the way it is."

No, that's not the way it is. That's the way WE make it. Things could be very different, but we will have to MAKE it  so.

And Now For Something Completely Different

It is not possible to create a new society, one based on integration with other people, our inner (higher) selves, and the world at large, within the context of our current society. A new society must be built outside of this one. By working "within the system," one is only integrating oneself further into the system. That's how the New World Order works. Anything that expands - or requires - economic activity feeds the system. It's what is expected of us. We are going to have to create new lives outside of the realm of Economics and Alienation. That means devoting our life energy to making these changes, as opposed to working for wages, or otherwise acquiring money. This may sound scary and weird, but let me clue you in on something: Many native peoples have festivals where everyone gathers together and gives away all their possessions. At first, some people may have a lot more than others, but by the end of the festival, everyone pretty much has an equal share. Such outpourings of communal devotion are such a threat to civilized alienation that they are illegal in Canada and the U.S. Ponder over that for a moment.

It is evident then that not only must a new social order arise outside of the current one, but it must be done in secret. The government will not toleratew it.

A Fugitive Future

It is up to us – ourselves -  our friends and the people we love, to create a future we can truly believe in, one that produces healers instead of serial killers, that cherishes teachers, not athletic rapists. To anyone who reads this, that means sacrificing a lot of privileges. It means facing times of peril, material deprivation, hunger, even torture and/or  death. But what is the alternative? Nearly universal poverty, famine and internal wars of attrition like the War on "Drugs" and "Terrorism." Does a worldwide police state appeal to you? I doubt it, or you wouldn't be reading this [ "Nation of Terror" by Noam Chomsky, "Snitch Culture" by Jim Redden, "Lockdown America" by Christian Parenti (highly recommended)].

And never forget that almost every "White" person has a god complex. Be they Republicans, Pacifists, Vegans or Commies, they feel like they are entitled to determine how other people think, act and feel. Also, most of us are not accustomed to the level of privilege that middle class White Americans enjoy. Back in the 1970s, when the U.S. police forces began attacking the Black Panthers, a few of their white "comrades" came out to help. When push came to shove, very few White people of privilege stood by our sides. The ones who will are rare and awesome folks and should be cherished. But for the most part, the White kids will run crying to Mom and Dad after their first arrest, or certainly after the bullets start to fly. The ones with the most to lose will likely become informants, too. ["Pacifism as Pathology" by Ward Churchill and "The War at Home" by Brian Glick]

I know you out there reading this likely have experience dealing with issues of trust. All I can add now is that you should nurture your hearts and stop doing things that don't make you feel proud for being who you are. One of the most hideous aspects of the NWO is how it encourages a sameness in all of us. Cultural and ethnic divisions become marketing gimmicks. Obscure languages disappear, taking with them their People's oral histories, folk tales and other folk wisdom. In the NWO's schemes, we are all Americans, ready and willing to sacrifice our lives in service to the creation of wealth and privileges for an elite. We must resist this by embracing our uniqueness and by creating strong bonds with others in our revolutionary movements.

I could go on and on, but I hope I've given you enough to think about. The challenges the present and future present us are formidable, but not insurmountable. The NWO wants you to believe that it is omnipotent. The truth is, it requires our cooperation to function. Creating new lives for ourselves won't be easy, but the rewards are unimaginable. Giving birth is always this way.

Money Hates Me!
Mood:  d'oh
Gads - I keep losing things. Lately, it's been money. $5 bills. I've lost two in two consecutive weeks. And I rarely have any cash in my pockets; how does this happen? Why? I'm sick of it, but it's certain to continue for as long as I'm homeless. I suppose things could be worse. It's only money, after all, and not that much, really. Still - it sucks.

On Solidarity and Prisons
Mood:  caffeinated

This is from SLINGSHOT 92

(Note: I gave a talk at the Longhaul Infoshop in Berkeley on Sept. 20, 2006. The following article was transcribed from that talk. It can be difficult to transcribe spoken words into written ones, since speaking is often spontaneous, whereas writing is usually much more deliberate. Thus, the transcriptionist spent a lot of time making certain that the words she wrote were consistent with what I spoke, while also keeping the reader up with the discussion. Since she did such a thorough job, and since I'm now transcribing this onto e-format for my blog, I'm going to go ahead and make any alterations I feel will further make this read in my voice – if you know what I mean. Wish me luck!)

On Solidarity and Prisons

– Words from Rob los Ricos

PISSING IN WATER

Prison was kind of a weird experience. I don't know if anyone here is familiar with Green Anarchist perspective, but I've been that way pretty much my whole life…My anarchist ideas were more inspired by Native American social structures than…by anything I've read by anarchist writers. I didn't start reading anarchist literature until sometime in the mid-'80s. I knew I was an anarchist – basically in my heart – because I'd read this book (Comanches: Lords of the High Plains) about the Comanche Indians wherein the anthropologist or sociologist who'd written went out of his way to drive home the fact that this was an anarchist society. [It was] not one that had anarchism as its core principle, but in practice…it was anarchist. He just brought that up over and over again throughout the book. This guy [the author] was not an anarchist but he was fascinated by the fact that there was this functioning, thriving society, completely anarchistic…

So that was where I got, first of all, a lot of respect for the way that Native American people lived. The Comanches [were] a nomadic [horse-herding] tribe in the high plains near the place where I grew up, and I had a tremendous amount of respect for them as a People and the way they were able to resist assimilation and conquest for over four hundred years. Once they got themselves some horses, they were hard to track down and even harder to beat militarily. That was basically where my anarchism came from…When I started reading anarchist stuff, at first I was not too thrilled about it – so much division historically…and anyone who [practices anarchism] knows we are still divided in many ways.

[In Oregon, before going to prison]…after living my entire life just trying to get by, I was finally falling in with a group of people. We were living more according to our beliefs about not having a job or income or paying the bills month by month, but more living through scavenging and squatting in the forest on some land where we had permission to be. Basically having very little contact with society in general. That was part of the problem that later arose in Eugene, because we were unused to being around policemen or being in situations where I had to watch myself. So, I was totally unprepared. Prison was really bed because I wasn't used to being indoors. I was living outdoors either on the beaches in Hawai'i or the forests of southern Oregon for 3-4 years before going to prison, and I was actually proud of the fact that I had to be forced to piss in water…You shouldn't be pissing in water you can drink. Anyways, I didn't live indoors and so the only way I was able to be forced [was to be] locked in a cage and made to live this sedentary lifestyle that I had totally rejected. I felt pretty smug about that at first.

Heartcheck

As awful, as dehumanizing a place as it was, I did actually meet some really awesome people while in prison…the coolest cellmate I had by all accounts was Critter (Craig Marshall) who was my cellmate for about four months…It took Free (Jeff Luers) longer to get in(to the prison system) and be processed by the system…because…(Critter) took the deal that was offered, whereas Free wanted to take it to trial. Apparently, they had a chance to discuss this and Free didn't have a problem with that. There was a letter recently in the Earth First! Journal saying that because Critter took a deal, that makes him a snitch against Free. That's totally not the case…[the letter-writer was] definitely not speaking on behalf of anyone…Critter was an exemplary convict while he was in prison and [there is] a lot of respect for both of these guys because there's one thing that [the other prisoners] respect in prison, and that's people that stand up for and fight for what they believe in their heart. That's why our zine – the zine that Free and I did together – was called Heartcheck, because in prison that's the only way you can judge a person – by what's in their heart and what they are wiling to stand up for and what they are willing to fight for.

Chow Hall Strike

I can't even remember why we did this, but I think it had something to do with the phone system. They were messing with the phone system in Oregon…people were complaining about it and their solution to fix it was basically to force everyone to buy phone service from some company in Texas…the whole thing [didn't] make sense. The money that you put into it [was] non-refundable, even if you never successfully made a phone call…and you[had] to give them fifty dollars just to have the privilege…to make a collect phone call…[So] while people were protesting that, we decided – just to show the administration that we can do things without their knowledge or without their knowledge of without their consent – we decided to have a day where no one would go to the chow hall and eat. I was working in the chow hall at the time because…I had just gotten out of the hole, and you have to work in the chow hall before you could get any other kind of job there…We organized this lunch room strike. It was just amazing, because out of maybe 2200 prisoners incarcerated…only about 200 people went to the chow hall. The place. Normally, they have to pace people coming in because there is only seating for 400 people, and they have to run people a tier at a time…It usually takes a couple of hours to get everyone fed, but this time it took about twenty minutes, because they would run an entire cellblock, and twelve people would come out of, say, 700. Before I went to work, we were walking up and down the tier, those of us with money on our books…making sure that…everyone knew that it was a strike, [saying] "don't go to the chow hall" and making sure they had food…You can get little packet of Ramen for ten cents so we had stacks of them and…would toss them [to folks without their own food, saying] "eat this and if you need something later we can get you something later"…As the meal progressed, and none was coming to chow, the guards were getting nervous. Then the administrators that you never see – the assistant warden and the warden – came down. You never see them in the chow hall because basically it's not a safe place for them to be. And the captain on duty and the lieutenants – they all came to the chow hall and were looking around because it was a sea of empty seats. They were like "There's something going on!" and it really scared them because it makes them realize they are not in control of this place. They are just not in control. They are in control because we allow them to be; that got their attention. They were kind of scared and they talked to the shot-callers – everyone knows who the shot-callers on the yard are – and asked what the deal was and basically were told it was the phone system…They went ahead and shut that down and tried something else later.

Later, there was a phone strike – people were not using the phone or not being allowed to use the phone by the other prisoners. Eventually they broke that down, put the place on lockdown and if you didn't like it, "too bad, because that's the way it was."

Torture

To get to the issue of torture, there is torture in the Oregon system and…they kill inmates sometimes. That's the Intensive Management Unit where they do all this, and the Intensive Management Unit is like the prison within the prison. The hole, which is a disciplinary segregation unit, is just a jail. Basically, if you're misbehaving and they are going to put you in there, but if you are really crazy or out of control…if they think you're a really serious threat, they'll put you in the IMU…[a body was found in IMU and the official story was]…that he had hung himself in his cell, but according to one of my friends that worked on the cleanup crew – that went to clean up blood – he said that blood was all over this cell. I mean, all over that place, and it looked like the dead guy had just been beaten to death because there were blood splatters everywhere. [My friend] could see…how it sprayed after someone had just whacked [this guy] across the head with a stick or something…It was all over…the ceiling and everything…[Anyway] they keep the [prisoners they torture] in isolation and they pretty much do whatever they want back there. Most of the shenanigans going on at Abu Graib and other places abroad…are [being committed by] national guard soldiers that were prison guards before they went over there, you know. That was their…specialty as a national guard person…being a prison guard over there. I'm sure that just about everything that happens, they were doing here also before they went over…maybe not on the same scale as they are doing it over there…[because] over there…no one gives a shit, whereas over here, they have to be careful and not get caught.

Pulling Together

I was released on June 29th of this year (2006) and – what can I say – it is great to be out of prison. It is great to be visiting these different communities; seeing what's going on place to place; and meeting a lot of people I have only had contact with by mail; being able to give hugs and seeing what's been going on, because things got crazy there for a while and things have grown a lot since I've been in prison. There are a lot more anarchist-identified people, a lot of anarchist-type projects going on in every city I've been to so far, and I'm just more aware all the time. We have a very large movement now and we have a lot of resources. Sadly though, we are a very fragmented movement, and people just don't realize how big we are and how many resources we have at our disposal. We just really need to start putting our differences aside and start working as a community because, especially here in Oregon, there is a lot of shock and…numbness [from] the number of people turning state's evidence. [This is people] testifying against their former comrades whom they have taken actions with in the past and now are willing to send to prison [to] try to save their own asses. [We would be more effective if we were a stronger movement that was more closely knit, where people didn't drift in and out of it, and people didn't feel like they had no future in it, and people didn't feel like only their closest friends are trustworthy. We really have to pull together a s a movement and become a more cohesive and coherent group that can withstand pressure from the police, that can withstand arrest, and when people go to prison we can support them and help them deal with the situation they are in and get them out as healthy human beings [who] can actually come back as part of our movement again.