Buy One, Wear One, Fight Back!!!  Get it in green!

This photo is Tehran, yesterday.   The Huffington Post has been particularly adept at following this story as it unfolds, even as they are being accused by Rush Limbaugh of ignoring the extent of the violent repercussions.

This is the revolution that will take place in 140 characters or less and the MSM can barely keep up.

In case you hadn’t heard… two American journalists have been jailed in North Korea since March and are about to stand trial… what ever that might consist of … in the People’s Paradise of North Korea.  Euna Lee and Laura Ling (sister of Lisa Ling, a former regular on “The View”) were following stories about refugees fleeing North Korea very near that nations border with China when they were detained.

There has been little contact with their families and they continue to lobby hard with the State Department and through the media to gain their release.  You can follow the story a little more closely on  the blog, Liberate Laura and Euna.

You can also find more information about public vigils and sign an online petition to the UN on Facebook at the “Detained in North Korea” common interest page.

No posts since February!  Who maintains this blog?  What is this site all about anyway?  Someone once said it was about news and current events….

Get on your boots…. great title!  Especially for all of us practically sleeping with our boots on Up North.  Give it a listen to see if you think the quality extends beyond the title and cover art for ‘No Line on the Horizon.”

You can hear the rooftop rendition at the BBC’s website  and the full recorded version at U2’s website.

Can the stimulus work?

Will he solve the global climate crisis?

What about the war on terror?

And what about Lois Lane posing for Vogue?

Is it all just too much for one mere mortal?

 Some recommended reading for those long, cold nights.  Punxsutawney Phil says there will be six more weeks of this, so that’s plenty of time to hunker down.

The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Bailouts for Bunglers by Paul Krugman

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover

And because there was a historical precedent….

1776 by David McCullough

When John Lennon wrote the classic lyrics to “Revolution” he made his case to all of his fans saying…”we’d all love to change the world.”  He then issued the warning that “if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.”

In an opinion piece on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, author Joseph Lindsey makes a good case for tweeking John Lennon’s “Revolution” to say something like…. “if you go wearing that picture of Che Guevera, you ain’t gonna say anything revolutionary anyhow!”  With biographical background on his Cuban-immigrant father, Lindsey expresses his opinion about a new call to arms involving cotton,,,, as in tshirts.

Tired of the ever-present Che Guevera political tee, Joseph Lindsey tells us about his father’s immigration to America after being raised in a Cuban military orphanage, and his subsequent devotion to his adopted country.  It is through his father’s influence that Lindsey comes to regard Ronald Reagan as a national hero and understand Guevera as less than heroic and not even Cuban, at that.  Lindsey lets us in on his distaste for more than just the proverbial ‘revolutionary’ tshirt he sees in his day-to-day living in Hollywood:

“Today, if one uninformed celebrity is seen on ‘Access Hollywood’ wearing Che across their chest, then every misinformed teen wants to put one across theirs. Sarah Louise Heath Palin is not the new Ronald Wilson Reagan. Reagan must be the new Reagan. Let’s see Reagan t-shirts on the catwalks of Milan, up and down the mean streets of Melrose, on the lead singers of arena rock bands and at every red carpet event that’s touting the latest brilliant, genius filmmaker!”

He’s an iconoclast and a bit of a dreamer, but we respect his position and share his distaste for the ill-informed.  Wear your favorite Che shirt if you like, but be open to the fact that some folks (including some of Cuban heritage) aren’t impressed.  You say you want a revolution? Here is  one of Lindsey’s preferred cotton arms found at thoseshirts.com:

*Tshirtjihad disclaimer: Not all of “thoseshirts” represent our own revolution.  We just really like the discussion and the call to cotton arms!

We’ve been busy here lately adding some new content to our tshirt collection.  Now, we like to be pretty tongue-in-cheeky and not pound political points too hard.  However, there has been some really disconcerting stuff lately about the continuing conflict in Gaza.  When we posted our “Team Israel” tshirt, it was with the intent that our visitors get the fact that if your going to choose sides, avoid the one that does the death chant thing.  Hamas has it written in their official charter that they are committed to the destruction of Israel (please see below).  Today, news outlets around the web ran the Bin Laden call for jihad against Israel.  Fan those terrorist flames, baby!  Dead or alive… he’s still talking.

Other troublesome images are showing up on the internet.  Here are just a few shots taken at a protest in Los Angeles on Saturday -

What exactly does this last one mean?  Nazis are Recycled Jews? Or the other way around?  Maybe that’s the idea for our “Team Hamas” tshirt?

Anyway, the propaganda war is so on it remains to be seen what the fallout will be in places very far removed from Gaza.  Time Magazine online had this to say about the propaganda tactics:

“Hamas’ propaganda efforts are cruder and rely on the civilian casualties inflicted by the Israelis to win international sympathy. Hamas fighters have shed their uniforms and blended into the civilian population, hiding weapons and communications systems in houses and mosques. That may have contributed to a death toll so lopsided that it speaks louder than any Israeli press officer — and weakens Hamas’ political rival, the moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel’s decision to keep the Western press out of Gaza may also have backfired, because it’s given a monopoly of coverage to the more inflammatory reporting of Arab satellite television stations such as al-Jazeera and al-Arabiyya, which maintain bureaus in Gaza. And while there are many excellent Palestinian journalists working for the Western press in Gaza, there have been some examples of doctored photographs and suspicious-looking videos showing civilian suffering. Conservative blogs have singled out one video of doctors trying to resuscitate the brother of the CNN cameraman actually shooting the video, and suggested that it was really a re-enactment.”

Even Facebook endured some casualities:

“Activists have turned to defacing websites, taking over computers, and shutting down Facebook groups. US Military sites, Nato, and an Israeli Bank have all been targeted.  Experts have warned users to be on the lookout for phishing emails and webmasters to ensure their servers are secure. The hacking of security barriers for political or ideological reasons has been branded by some as hacktivism. And it is thought that as use of the internet grows, so too will the number of attacks.”

Read from the Council on Foreign Relations website:

What does Hamas believe and what are its goals?

Hamas combines Palestinian nationalism with Islamic fundamentalism. Its founding charter commits the group to the destruction of Israel, the replacement of the PA with an Islamist state on the West Bank and Gaza, and to raising “the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.” Its leaders have called suicide attacks the “F-16″ of the Palestinian people. Hamas believes “peace talks will do no good,” said the Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz Rantisi in April 2004. “We do not believe we can live with the enemy.”

We remain committed to our “Team Israel” tshirt.  Whatever the current crisis and propaganda, Israel still remains locked in to a tiny patch of land surrounded by a sea of very intractable enemies.  

So, what is up with Russia putting the boot down on gas supplies?  Obviously they are exerting their muscle over the Ukraine and Ukraine is pressing right back.  Czar Putin is claiming it’s definitely the Ukraine holding up the transit, the Ukraine is saying Russia is “blackmailing” them.  Meanwhile, our friends in Europe suffer the consequences.  Maybe Barack Obama can start an international infrastructure project; building a transoceanic gas pipeline from the US.  Sound ridiculous?  Let’s see how long this strangle hold persists.  Hillary will use “smart power” to sort it all out, perhaps.