The Plug Nickel Times is proud to bring you website links to select opinion articles that you may not find through your local media. All links are offsite unless otherwise noted - followed links should open in another browser window. Links can become dated or otherwise fail to function, for this reason we quote the actual headline of an article. This may allow you to find an alternate copy of the article through a news index or search engine. Some sites we link to may require a registration process to view an article - this website may be useful to you in those instances. Comments, corrections and submissions are welcome - an email link is at the bottom of the page.
December 1-15, 2005
December 15, 2005
Art, Truth and Politics by Harold Pinter
"When we look into a mirror we think the image that confronts us is accurate. But move a millimetre and the image changes. We are actually looking at a never-ending range of reflections. But sometimes a writer has to smash the mirror - for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us."
Perhaps not only from beyond the mirror, but anywhere other than the mirror...
ride in humiliation by Claire Wolfe
Cory Maye got lucky by Andy Stedman
"Cory Maye got lucky. He may be on death row, but he didn't die yet at the hands of the police (his 'protectors', you know) the day after Christmas, 2001. He's on death row now, which makes him in far more dire straits than myself, but he's better off than Anthony Diotaiuto, Ishmael Mena, Donald Scott, Annie Rae Dixon, Alberto Sepulveda (age 11,) Robert Adams, Mario Paz, the son of Bobby & Kathy Bowman (age 8,) Scott W. Bryant, Pedro Oregon Navarro, Delbert Bonar, Robert Lee Peters, Manuel Ramirez, Bruce Lavoie, or Ralph Garrison. All were shot in their own homes by the police. Some were in fact 'guilty' of the non-crime of possessing drugs of which the state disapproves; some just happened to live with, next door to, or in a previous address of someone involved in the drug trade. Some were unarmed, some were defending themselves against what they thought were common criminals. Instead, they found themselves up against the uncommon kind. The kind that comes in force. The kind that has little fear of being prosecuted for murder if they shoot an innocent homeowner. The kind who almost always wears body armor."
On Being "Made" by Kyle Bennett
The Greatest Debt-Beat President in History by Bill Bonner
"We have made the point before. The old are ignored. The dead are buried. No stockbrokers ask for their custom. No pollsters ask their opinions. No politicians are so desperate for votes that they plead for them in cemeteries. More’s the pity, but that’s just the way things are. Each generation has to learn its essential lessons the hard way."
Bush: 30,000 Iraqis Have Died in the War by Mike Tennant
We already know the issue at hand, whatever the details of the price.
Not so silent night by Cal Thomas
"I have never understood why so many Christians feel the need to see and hear 'Merry Christmas' proclaimed to them at stores by people who may not believe its central message. While TV personalities, junk mail letters and some of the ordained bemoan the increasing secularization of culture; perhaps some teaching might be helpful from the One in whose behalf they claim to speak."
December 2, 2005
Fear, Inc.
"How homeland security became the biggest market opportunity since the dotcom boom."
Help Out Fred Woodworth from Kevin Carson
"Fred Woodworth, publisher of The Match! in Tucson, Arizona, has fallen on hard financial times because of health problems.
Fred's periodical has been an anarchist institution for over 35 years. The last I heard, it has about two thousand readers. I suspect most of them, as I do, get a pleasant surprise every time they get that distinctive big envelope in the mail. The Match! is printed without computers, with loving care, and chock full of interesting prints. The layout and typography on every page display Fred's exacting standards of craftsmanship. Every issue contains Fred's individualist anarchist commentary, and the most amazing letters section you've ever seen. And although Fred has managed to run The Match! on whatever contributions his readers have seen fit to send in, it's cover price is listed as free.
For over 35 years, Fred has avoided anarchist fads of all kinds, and never once compromised his plumbline of 'ethical anarchism' (what some might call treating the means as the end in progress) for the sake of short-term expediency."
Anarchism by Fred Woodworth
How to Smash the State by Fred Woodworth
Death in a Whorehouse from Cryptome
Perspectives on the recent hotel bombings in Jordan
Bill St. Clair summarises new travel regulations proposed by the CDC and provides links (PDF) to the proposed regulations.
Trace and the 12 Apostles by Rodger Jacobs
"Trace nodded curtly and studied the spines of the DVDs that stood in for books in the oak-paneled living room bookshelf. 'Silence of the Lambs' was sandwiched between 'The Ten Commandments' and 'Ben-Hur.' And there was David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' resting next to 'The Greatest Story Ever Told.' Trace wondered where Casey hid the porno.
'Do you need a Bible, Trace?'"
Free Trade not Free in Free World by Garry Reed
"In early November, President Bush failed to win agreement from leaders of five South American countries on his pitch for a hemisphere-wide misnomered 'free trade' accord. The idea of people trading things they don't want for things they do want was apparently so unpopular that demonstrators 'had a cow,' smashing windows, torching a US flag and stoning cops in Argentina, where the trade summit took place. Since trade is an excruciatingly complicated topic for most people, this tract, which can be folded into a pamphlet and handed out at Libertarian Party outreach booths, will attempt to clarify the concept."
Christmas In the Schools from Butler Shaffer
