ThoughtsOnThinking

How to Help in Kenya

A man I consider a friend, Andrius Kulikauskas, is actively focused in helping allay the crisis in Kenya, which is teetering back-and-forth between order and chaos, with violence rendering a great deal of unnecessary destruction.

If you're reading the headlines, and wondering how you can help, here's the short list:

• Send them mobile phone airtime (see: KenyansToCall) (which they can share with others and trade for food, medicine, transport) SendingAirtime     http://mamamikes.com
• Make phone calls to Kenya: KenyansToCall (The simplest way to help right now is to make phone calls to Kenyans and send SMS messages. We are making a list and encouraging calls (note that Kenyan time is GMT+3 and the country code is +254. Check the price per minute.  Recommended: Skype http://www.skype.com).
• Write to your foreign minister: http://www.avaaz.org/en/kenya_free_and_fair/
• Join this chat: http://www.worknets.org/chat/
• Join Samwel Kongere's email group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mendenyo/
• Help create posters, peace songs, and videos for Kenya, to get the word out.
• Share this letter (post it to your blog, send it to your friends).
  
• Contribute money for Kenyan "independent thinkers" by PayPal to ms@ms.lt or directly with credit card (Note: Andrius oversees this account directly, which is distributed to trusted leaders "on the ground" who can put the funds to direct, positive use).

Adapted from, and more information available, here: http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?HelpKenyans

It *FEELS* To Me Like You're Breaking The Law, So I Think I'm Going To Arrest You....

Some law, anyway...

Coincidentally, the cafe owner that Peterson was leeching WiFi off of didn't even realize that what Peterson was doing was a crime at the time. Neither did the police officer. "I had a feeling a law was being broken, but I didn't know exactly what," Sparta police chief Andrew Milanowski told the TV station.

Watch that free/open wi-fi surfing out there.  Crazy....

The 2nd Ammendment Continues to Be Ammended...

Generally, I try not to get too political on this blog, for a lot of different reasons.  One of those reasons being that I think politics is fundamentally reactionary, and I think reactionary politicking is generally a poor place to make anything resembling sound progress toward positive change.  This incident just proves my point... reactionary lawmaking that starts to make reality look like a bad cartoon:   

"A replica of a hand grenade — which was in reality a cigarette lighter — was discovered in a Visalia residence today and confiscated by Visalia police" ...

..."However, since Jan. 1, such replicas of explosive devices are illegal, Burns said, so the grenade's owner might face charges."