INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY:

THE LEMONADE REVOLT:

The following call to action may be somewhat dated as the latest news from the Oregonian is that the local government there has backed down, and , yes, the little girl can set up her lemonade stand without a "temporary restaurant licence". Her family has even received an apology. Still I reprint the following Facebook call for a "lemonade revolt" because the whole thing is quite instructive.

What do incidents like this say ? To sum it up it's the old adage of "give them an inch and they'll take a mile". By that I mean the supposed "service" agencies of government and their "help". Now it is doubtlessly true that institutions such as health departments do indeed do some useful work though it is possible that what they accomplish could be better done by voluntary non-governmental organizations. Yet it is in the nature of the bureaucratic beast to constantly expand its range of action regardless of whether it is doing its previous job well or not. In other words such organizations are too often quite lax in their original mandate, but you can be assured that they will always be on the prowl for new things to control.

We had a recent incidence of this here in Winnipeg with the sad death of the late lamented "beer snake" (more on this later I hope). The inevitable tendency of any governmental agency to continually expand its range of action is the reason why I am very reluctant to support any new initiative of this sort no matter what the purported benefits and why I am generally not too upset on those rare occasions when the octopus of state control loses its grip on one of its tentacles.

A case in point is the recent abandonment of the compulsory long form census here in Canada. This is one of those rare occasions where I actually approve of an action of our federal government. This change has generated all sorts of opposition ranging from linguistic minorities , academics who will lose their data mines and unions all the way "up" to all those lovely folks that send you junk mail. Approving of this change can easily make you quite unpopular because so many groups have an axe to grind over this, and I'm sure that the data is quite convenient or even necessary for many of those who wish to keep the form. On the other hand the majority of the population who aren't making money or gaining power from using such data are quite thrilled to see this compulsion go. It is a laudable change as it is one less compulsion that the average citizen has to undergo. In the end it speaks volumes about the lack of grassroots democracy in our country that the 'social planners' are so unacquainted with those the rule (excuse me "serve") that they have to have the government as a data gatherer.

All that, however, is aside from the matter at hand. The basic story of what follows is that in Portland Oregon a 7 year old girl was setting up a lemonade stand at a neighbourhood fair. Within 20 minutes the county health inspector descended on her demanding that she produce a $120 "temporary restaurant license". Huh ? The inspector then demanded that she pack up and leave despite loud support from the crowd. You can read the full story here. This little act of petty tyranny was seen by one Michael Franklin who was at a booth next to the girl's. Even when the first inspector called in another to help intimidate the girl and her mother the crowd surrounding them was quite hostile, and the inspectors "felt intimidated". Tsk, tsk ! Franklin later publicized the incident on his Bottom Up Radio Network and called for the 'Lemonade Revolt'. We'll see what happens on the last Thursday of this month.

LLLLLLLLLL
The Lemonade Revolt!
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Location EVERYWHERE! ALL THE TIME! EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE! if you are in Cascadia...Last Thursday on Alberta St. between 25th and 26th street. BUT, make it happen where you live!

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Created By Michael Franklin

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More Info

On last thursday in July, on Alberta and 26th, a young girl was cheerfully setting up her lemonade stand. This was her first time doing this, and with her mother, she planned on selling lemonade for 50 cents a cup. No more than 20 minutes later, two state employees with badges informed her that if she did not desist, she would face a $500 fine.

We, as anarchists and community members, informed the mother that if she stayed again...st the wishes of the state, we would defend her. We suggested a donation based stand. They tried that and the state workers, two women with clipboards and badges, returned and demanded they stop. We surrounded these workers and informed them of our sovereignty, that this is an autonomous zone, and they not only have no authority here, but they must leave the area. They went to the police.

The mother, who feared for losing her new job and out of heartbreak of seeing her daughter crushed and in tears, decided it was time to go. We made appeals to the crowd, but to no real avail, as people just kept walking by. This is bullshit and must be met with creative action.

We are proposing a lemonade bloc next last Thursday(the last Thursday of August- Molly ). Get together with your friends and family and come up with a creative lemonade. Rosemary, lavender, mint, honey, agave, mate, carob, what the fuck ever you can come up with, show up early on alberta and 25th to 26th streets around 11 or 12 in the daytime, set up a table and offer lemonade for donation, or free. We should fill the entire bloc with lemonade stands! The state will come, but we will NOT leave. We will fill the streets with dance and revelry in the spirit of last Thursday's origins, an autonomous, anarchistic freak show that reclaims the streets, the neighborhoods and our lives.

This is symbolic in one sense, but absurd and beautiful direct action in another. Please do not blow this off! Let's make a horrible mess for the state! When the state gives you lemons....GIVE THE STATE HELL!

You can choose to donate money made from lemonade to throwing a block party for families, or anything else you want to do with it, the point is to do it!

PERSONAL:

MOLLY GETS HACKED:

I'm impressed. I'm really and truly impressed. For a long time now I've had "visitors" who are not exactly the curious average citizen. They are basically of two types. One is the various government agencies, usually Canadian but sometimes American, who are "news gathering" in general. They will drop by concerning a particular issue, person or organization, and its understandable that they have to pretend to be working their office staff. In the end I expect that they gather so much trivia and repeated posts from the internet that their activities are pretty well useless. But isn't that something of a part of the definition of "bureaucracy" ? It's actually been a long time since either the RCMP or the Defense Research Establishment has dropped by here, and I sort of miss the buggers. Maybe, just maybe, after an extended period they finally got the idea that nothing sensitive is ever discussed here. Maybe, just maybe, the lightbulb finally went on in their heads and they realized that I have always been opposed to the sort of "sensitivity" that they publicly always oppose themselves but privately promote in certain instances. Ah well, I'm sure they have enough 'fake work' to occupy themselves without dropping by here.

Then there is the other category...private enterprise. I suppose it is simply good corporate policy (if that is not an oxymoron) for a business to keep a beady eye on how it is portrayed in the media, even in tiny little blogs. I've certainly seen dozens upon dozens of these corporate checks over the years. There are even supposed internet "services" who offer businesses info on how they are being portrayed on the internet, and I suspect that they are a great shell for doing nothing but a google search 99 times out of 100. Who am I to say how a corporation should waste its money on this sort of thing or on the innumerable "management consultant" scams ? If they didn't waste it here they'd waste it elsewhere.

The latest incident, however, is over and beyond the usual. It began with the previous article on the CAW's demonstration against the plant closure of Siemens in Hamilton. Fairly standard. I've probably written hundreds of similar articles on labour issues. These quite often attract the attention of the corporation concerned. This, however, is the first and only time that the corporation has gone to the extent of breaking into my private email. They even went so far as to look into the emails that I have sent to others. There are actually very few of these which I hadn't previously deleted, and I'm sure that none of them were of any use to the company. God only knows how they did this. In any case I have done my best to block future access.

The original break in occurred via a 'Suddenlink' IP 74.198.28. this was forwarded via email to a Rogers IP 99.247.178 in Pickering Ontario. There are multiple links to Siemens in Pickering. Now, as I said I've seen corporations snooping before, and it hardly bothers me. At its low level it has resulted in the owners of some smaller business owners getting drunk and firing an angry email back to the blog. I think, however, that Siemens is the largest outfit that I have ever pissed off. They rank #40 in the world according to the Fortune 500. I don't think I have pissed off any of the top 39 yet. Give me time. Comparing their revenues to that of 'countries' they make more money than the GDP of 137 countries across the world. They are also very much the definition of a "conglomerate" with their fingers in more pies than I have fingers and toes. Some of their interests are, of course, in IT. Hence their ability to track critics. One also has to say that as a German company that one has to "admire" their Teutonic thoroughness bordering on obsession. Nobody else goes to such lengths.

I'm uncertain if Siemens has broken any laws by their actions, but I am quite certain that it would be impossible to make a legal case against them even if they have. This whole entry then is just a cautionary tale of the depths that corporations sink to probably regularly.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

TRUE MANAGEMENT STORIES AND QUOTES:

No Molly is not making up what follows here. The following were entrants in a 'Dlibert quotes' contest for examples of the sort of "higher management thought" that Dilbert loves to lampoon. Enjoy...

*"As of tomorrow employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks" (From the Microsoft office in Redmond, WA)

*"What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter" (Lykes Lines Shipping)

*"E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business"(Electric Boat Company)

*"This project is so important that we can't let things that are more important interfere with it" (UPS)

*"Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule. No one will believe you solved the problem in one day ! We've been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (3M Corp)

*"Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say" (Citrix Corp executive)

*"We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees" (AT&T)

*"We recently received a memo from senior management saying,"This is to inform you that a memo will be issued today regarding the memo mentioned above"" (Microsoft)

And now Molly's favourite:

*"As director of communications I was asked to prepare a memo reviewing our company's training programs and materials. In the body of the memo in one of the sentences I mentioned the "pedagogical approach" used by one of the training manuals. The day after I routed the memo to the executive committee I was called into the HR director's office and told that the executive vice president wanted me out of the building by lunch. When I asked why, I was told that she wouldn't stand for perverts (paedophiles ?) working in her company. Finally he showed me her copy of the memo with her demand that I be fired and the word "pedagogical" circled in red. The HR manager was fairly reasonable, and once he looked the word up in his dictionary and made a copy of the definition to send back to her, he told me not to worry. He would take care of it. Two days later a memo to the entire staff came out directing us that no words which could not be found in the local Sunday newspaper could be used in company memos. A month later I resigned. In accordance with company policy I created my resignation memo by pasting words together from the Sunday paper." (Taco Bell Corporation)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of the Canadian Shield.

Parliament said,"Someone may steal from it at night". So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Parliament said,"How does the watchman do his job without instruction?". So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions and one person to do time studies.

Then Parliament said,"How will we know the night watchman is doing the job correctly?". So they created a Quality Control Department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Parliament said,"How are these people going to get paid?". So they created the following positions, a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Parliament said,"Who will be accountable for all these people?". So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer and a Legal Secretary.

Then Parliament said,"We have had this bureau in operation for one year and we are $30,000 over budget.......So they laid off the night watchman.