take action – Page 5

Speak up for our Biogems

2006/02/21 VirusHead Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been a "Biogems Defender" at the Natural Resources Defense Council for some time. I encourage you to join. You will get notices of pending environmental issues, complete with easy "speak up" tools. This environment is the only one we’ve got, and we’re losing ground fast.
Their online news page is kept updated.

Here is the most recent alert in my inbox:

The Bush administration wants to escalate logging, oil exploration and grazing in our last unspoiled western wildlands by cutting the public out of the review process. We need your immediate action to help block this reckless proposal, which would have devastating impacts for the fragile Redrock Wilderness and other outstanding BioGem wildlands across the West.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management to abide by the law and let concerned citizens participate in the debate over the future of these natural treasures. And please send your message immediately. The BLM is taking comments only until this Friday!

Unbridled grazing and logging in this region and throughout our Yellowstone/Greater Rockies BioGem would take a disastrous toll, laying waste to streams and native forests. By silencing the public’s voice, the BLM would clear the way for 60,000- pound "thumper trucks" in search of oil and gas to crash through the Redrock desert, marring its delicate soils and destroying crucial habitat for pronghorns and bighorn sheep.

Please demand that the Bureau of Land Management cease this unlawful attack on our right to speak out for our nation’s most spectacular wildlands and wildlife. At the same time, urge the agency to extend the comment period for this important issue by another 30 days.
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Torture complicity

2006/02/15 VirusHead Comments 5 comments

All American citizens are implicated in the torture policies of the current administration. We cannot be silent. Take action today.

Connect The Dots – Amnesty International

No Bravery Anymore

2006/02/14 VirusHead Comments 2 comments

Please view this video and listen to the song by James Blunt. I love James Blunt’s music (especially "You’re Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover") but I hadn’t heard "No Bravery." The song is even more powerful now in terms of Iraq than it was for Bosnia, where he was stationed when he wrote it.

What I noticed most about the video montage is the sadness in everyone’s eyes, including those of American soldiers. Support our troops. End this illegal war. Turn the USA away from this present darkness.

A nation blind to their disgrace,
Since he’s been here.

And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.

Sign the Global call for peace at Women Say No to War

Ministry of Reshelving

2005/08/17 VirusHead Comments 2 comments

Here is a sweet little action. It has two faults: One, it is only visible as an action to people who frequent bookstores and actually look at books – that is, it only touches other readers. Or other Flickr viewers.

The other problem is that I can’t help but feel sorry for the people who work at the bookstore.

Still, this is pretty fun.

Flickr: Ministry of Reshelving

How to Serve the Ministry of Reshelving

1. Select a local bookstore to carry out your reshelving activities.

2. Download and print "This book has been relocated by the Ministry of Reshelving" bookmarks and "All copies of 1984 have been relocated" notecards to take with you to the bookstore. Or make your own. We recommend bringing a notecard and 5-10 bookmarks to each store.

3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell’s 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."

4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."

5. Insert a Ministry of Reshelving bookmark into each copy of any book you have moved.

6. Leave a notecard in the empty space the books once occupied, so that visitors can still find copies of 1984.

7. If you spot other incorrectly classified books, feel free to relocate them.

8. Please report all reshelving efforts to the Ministry. Email your store name, location, # of 1984 copies reshelved, and any other reshelving activities conducted, to reshelving @ avantgame.com or on the Flickr Ministry of Reshelving group message board. Photos of your mission can be uploaded to Flickr, tagged as "reshelving", and submitted to the Ministry of Reshelving group.

I often find shelving/marketing/genre categories to be off-base anyway.

The post mentions Orwell’s 1984, but I think there are other books this could apply to. Ann Coulter for example – fantasy, clinical studies… Please comment with other suggestions!