They [police] represent those who have ruled this country since 9/11 in the name of our safety and security, while they made themselves, and no one else, safe and secure.  It is an order that has based itself on kidnapping, torture, secret prisons, illegal surveillance, assassination, permanent war, militarized solutions to every problem under the sun, its own set of failed occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the closest of relations with a series of crony capitalist corporations intent on making money off anyone’s suffering as long as the going is good.

Wow, Rebecca Solnit's (correction) Tom Engelhardt's words leading into Rebecca Solnit's piece are haunting and powerful, but more than anything scary and sad. As someone who has attended/organized/participated in many dozens of protests and demonstrations, I'm aghast at the overwhelming use of force to silence people. Yes, I know that Occupy Wall Street folks were breaking park rules by camping, but I cannot believe that in civil society we cannot find a better tool than pepper spray and billy clubs to resolve conflict.

The rest of Rebecca's post in TomDispatch is worth reading.

Esquire has a nice series of posts on being better at work, although the entire thing is labeled "How to be a Man at Work." I'd leave out the man, and substitute "good person," but beggars can't be choosers.

Some of the highlights include: Your First Day, A Few Rules for Meetings, The Rules About Technology.

Is there any reason to oppose the mosque that isn't bigoted, or demagogic, or unconstitutional?" asks Michael Kinsley. "None that I've heard or read.

Salon magazine did a good piece on the Park51 controversy discussing the holes of the arguments against the cultural center. As someone who lived 1 block east of the World Trade Center site for 8 years I can't stand people spitting venom at my neighborhood. Why don't you let those people who live down there deal with their own lives. We don't need you speaking up for us, thank you very much. It is paternalistic, bigoted, offensive, and downright un-American.

I think that Frank Rich's op-ed of how the fight against the cultural center is a fight against America's wars in the middle east. It's worth a read, too.

For those who know me I'm an absolute maniac about design. I love good design, and well, can leave the other stuff behind. With so many publishing tools out there in the world people are creating more and more content. Do yourself a favor and learn some design basics. People will take your work more seriously. This article is a great start.

Hateful Ground Zero Hypocrisy

by Peter Beinart

The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart gives a stinging critique of the Anti-Defamation League's stance on building a mosque near Ground Zero.

This, like many of the articles I've seen neglected to mention one constituent group - what about all of the Muslim victims of 9/11? The mosque could certainly serve their needs. What about all of the Muslim families in lower Manhattan? I lived in lower Manhattan for 8 years, and there are churches, mosques, synagogues galore. One more just seems like a service to me.

Q&A: Rumors, Cyberbullying and Anonymity

By DAVID POGUE

Published: July 22, 2010

David Pogue interviewed John Palfrey, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society about online rumors, cyberbullying, and more. It's worth a read if you work with children or have children of your own.

On a side note, I've been following John Palfrey for years after I met him at the 2005 NYSAIS tech/library conference (which I now co-chair). My blog post about it here. His blog post about meeting me is here. One of the other directors of the Berkman Center is Jonathan Zittrain who is also a Shady Side Academy alumnus, like me.

Jane Hahn for The New York Times

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I am not a fan of microfinance; let me be clear about that. Kiva and organizations like that are what I'm talking about. This NY Times article talking about how banks and organizations like Kiva are charging huge interest rates to lendees in the developing word. I have much to say on this topic will let the article do the talking for now.

My thinking was first greatly influenced by Alexander Cockburn who wrote The Myth of Microloans. It's a short read and worth it if you're considering send your or your school's money towards a microfinance organization in helps of aiding third world workers.

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Joshua Lott for The New York Times

Jerod Reyes, left, and Dylan Powell use their bus's Wi-Fi to do homework on their way to school.

The New York Times did a piece on the "Internet Bus" in Arizona that allows students wi-fi access while commuting to school or going on school trips. Seems like a great way to keep students connected at times when they normally aren't.

The article however, seems lacking in all of the non-academic things kids would be using an Internet connection for. An entire bus full of kids with laptops and Internet connections and Facebook/social networking doesn't even come up once? Where are the kids who are gaming? Where are the kids downloading pirated music/TV shows? Where are the kids posting photos on Facebook? The article seems to be a looking at the bus through rose-colored glasses, but I get the gist of it.

It's a neat idea, but it's yet another space where the kids used to be somewhat offline, now turning online. I suppose that they already had their phones on the bus, so it wasn't all that offline. I just wonder if there will be any offline spaces left for them? The athletics field, perhaps? The NFL had to ban Twitter from sidelines recently.

update: I missed the line in the article that talked about the students playing games. I still think it leans way to heavy on the academic use. Unless these are kids who only do homework and nothing else, it's just not a reasonable expectation that it will become a study hall bus. It will be just like the Internet in their homes - often homework, but more often media consumption.