"Ricardo Flores Magón is one of the most important anarchists in the history of the Americas. The movement he led and inspired shook the Mexican state in the early 20th century and helped lay the foundations for the Mexican revolution of 1910."

Whenever I walk down Lowell Blvd I see this little elementary school, Ricardo Flores Magon Academy, and I wonder what its story is and if the local community has ties to Magonismo. According to this Westword article, it's just a charter school with no anarchist influence which was named after Magon rather arbitrarily simply because of his status as a Mexican folk hero. A little bit disappointing.

Very handy collection of sources covering some of the lesser-known cynics.

One of my favorite speeches by Voltairine de Cleyre (of the few I've read so far).

"After the Arab Spring, I wasn't really sure how subsequent years could get crazier on the Internet freedom front. And then they did."

While the Spanish government pursues apartheid policies in healthcare, a Zapatista-inspired autonomous group in Barcelona pursues solidarity for all.

One of the best sites on the internet for finding anarchist-related texts.

Indeed, I always enjoy getting that inevitable query: “Isn’t anarchism just violence and destruction?” To which I usually reply: “How many people would you estimate have been killed by anarchists in the last hundred years? Now, how many would you say have been killed by liberals, or conservatives, in that time frame? If a lawyer or corporate manager were here before you now, would you ask about the blood on their hands or just let it slide as part of business as usual? The state didn’t save us from the violence of anarchy — it simply monopolized it, institutionalized it, and expanded its role in our lives.”

An excellent review of Peter Gelderloo's new book which I haven't read yet, "The Failure of Nonviolence: From the Arab Spring to Occupy".

"Zinn talks about Obama and the “possibility of change.” It seems odd to be asking this of an octogenarian but: Exactly how much time do you think we have?"

Chomsky's version of anarchism, challenging coercive institutions to justify themselves, is not terribly exciting. But I thought this article did a good job summarizing one of his typical speeches (especially for a publication called "The American Conservative").

"From 1945 onwards, J Edgar Hoover’s FBI spied on Camus and Sartre. The investigation soon turned into a philosophical inquiry…"

"On Monday November 4th, 2013 Nichole, a woman experiencing homelessness in Denver, went to court for a ticket issued to her for “unlawful camping.” She was given this ticket while lying on her blanket under the “pillars” in Civic Center park on a cold rainy afternoon. The description on the ticket said “unlawful camping”, but instead of citing the ordinance number for the urban camping ban, the officer cited 39-7a which is a park violation prohibiting sleep in or on a blanket in the park overnight. However, as noted, this ticket was issued in the afternoon, not at night when the park camping violation 39-7a would apply."

"The harmonious vision of higher wages in general benefiting both capital and labour is a mirage."

Could there even be such a thing as a non-cynical monk? Here's some nice satire from Thomas Merton.

This is the only version I could find transcribed to the www, and it has some encoding problems. You can find a hard copy in Random House's "A Thomas Merton Reader'.

Coverage from Chris Steele: "The one woman revolution Janet Matzen who organized against the restaurant Snooze got another victory when The Palm recently reversed its position on the Urban Camping Ban in Denver."

This is an open response from the staff of Global Community Communications Alliance to my weblog posts about Gabriel of Sedona and my decision to host an old NBC Dateline video expose about his group in Arizona. They originally sent this to me as an email, and I updated my posts accordingly at the time.