Prayers, light, good vibes please ~~

This is one very very sick little boy, and he belongs to people that I love dearly.

♥

(That is his grandfather, my next to youngest brother, in the background.)

A print of this is available here (clicky)

The Enemy

This is a new trend for the White House: rendering an illegal act legal retroactively by fiat. The trend manifested itself in another area of illegal activity by the White House, the warrantless wiretapping of thousands of American citizens by the National Security Agency, in defiance of the black-letter law contained within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. For several weeks now, Congress has been threatening to hold hearings on the matter. Bush advisor Karl Rove worked feverishly behind the scenes to keep such hearings from taking place, and has succeeded. Rather than investigate the matter, Congress will instead rewrite the FISA law, thus rendering retroactively legal White House activities that blatantly broke the law.

We hear a great deal about enemies these days, and many of them are quite real and quite perilous. It is difficult to imagine a more perilous enemy, however, than the one operating out of Washington today. This enemy would set itself on high, beyond control or censure, and create of itself that permanent faction James Madison so earnestly warned us of. This enemy deletes or hides evidence of its calumny, or simply alters existing laws that would otherwise derail its plans. This enemy destroys lives out of hand, lives by the tens of thousands, and reaps a pretty profit in the process.

The difference between the enemies we hear about and the one in Washington is simple and deadly: only the enemy in Washington can annihilate the constitutional government we have enjoyed for more than two centuries. The idea that is America cannot be terminated by terrorists or rogue states. Were the nation entire to be somehow obliterated, the idea that is America would endure. Only its keepers can kill it completely. They are well on their way.

"As nightfall does not come at once," wrote Justice William O. Douglas, "neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness."

We must deal with the enemy within the halls of our government, the enemy whose power to destroy far outstrips any enemy beyond our borders. In doing so, we save that which is unique in the world. In doing so, we deal a death blow to all other enemies. In doing so, we save ourselves from that darkness.

~~ William Rivers Pitt

Thanks seashell ♥

Thanks jc! ♥

Ned Lamont ~~ clicky!

Congratulations. Since we launched www.NedLamont.com more than 1,000 people from Connecticut have signed up to volunteer, giving us the beginnings of the ground army we need to launch our campaign. During the next few weeks a team of volunteers will be individually contacting each volunteer from Connecticut who signed up and get you involved in specific campaign activities.

Because of your enthusiasm I have established a candidate committee and am in the process putting together a great campaign team.

I will formally announce my candidacy in March -- but first we need to do some more work. Joe Lieberman has already raised over $5 million and not surprisingly Republican lobbyists in Washington DC, including George H.W. Bush's former Chief of Staff, are stepping up to raise money for the Senator that was voted the most popular Democrat amongst lobbyists and Republicans in the National Journal's annual poll.

In addition to what I will contribute, it will cost $500,000 to launch this campaign and we need to begin right now. You can make a secure contribution directly to my campaign on my Act Blue page.

http://www.nedlamont.com/actblue.html

An Act of Love, for a very Beloved woman. . . .

Painted in Blood, an Abstract Expression of Horror

. . . .a photograph that began popping up on Web sites yesterday, of what seems to be a toilet floor covered with blood and litter, framed by a small glimpse of tiled walls. It suggests a bathroom turned into a holding cell, or perhaps a scene from a hospital or triage center, or a torture chamber. The blood on the floor instantly suggests the splatter and drip paintings of the abstract expressionists.

Newspapers have often turned to blood as a substitute for violence, showing photographs of the gore that lingers on streets long after the bodies -- too graphic to show -- have been cleared away. Here, in a photo that contains no particular information, no names, no certainty even about whether it shows what it seems to show, is the blood image in a new form. This is no substitute, no polite euphemism for what can't be shown. Blood as a substitute for death deflects horror; this blood demands answers.

Comparing blood to paint, violence to art, is dangerous, even repellent. But in one sense, the blood on this floor is exactly like the paint drippings of Jackson Pollock, who captured the visible traces of action, the visual memory of gestures. In Pollock's painting, the gestures fixed on canvas were often graceful, melodic even, with paint obeying the law of gravity with a gentle quiescence. If this is blood, we can only imagine what the gestures were.

What's powerful, and infinitely sad, about this bloody floor is the silence. Whatever happened in this room, it almost certainly was accompanied by a cacophony of pain. That's gone now. As is anyone involved with what happened there. The garbage on the floor, the opening of a toilet, suggest human beings reduced to refuse. The anonymity of those who may have suffered is absolute. Other photographs have appeared with faces decorously blacked out, a nod by those publishing the images to the dignity of the victims. Here, everything has been blotted out, and strangely enough, the dignity is now complete.

The victim is now just blood, there is no face to put on him or her, nothing we can say about what or where the wounds were, and how they happened. And in this abstraction from anything identifiable, the victim becomes completely, finally Human, not a particular man or woman, with a certain color of skin, or cut of hair, or any clothing to place him or her in the categories that we use to make sense of the faraway, the foreign or the frightening. The abstraction of blood leaves an open space for anyone looking at this picture to imagine himself or herself in its midst, to imagine, say, that the blood pooling on the floor like wax before it drains to the opening of a rank toilet is our own. And that these dull industrial tiles, with their insidious repetition of a pattern, are the last things we remembered before the lights went out.

Those who deplore the release of these images are right in that they may add no specific new evidence to a forensic or political or journalistic argument. And they draw us -- no, wrench us -- further from what Americans like to think of as "closure," the end of the shame, the end of the argument. But this one image, just a pattern of darkness on a canvas of cement and tile, opens up everything, because who can look at it without going there? If the original Abu Ghraib photographs compelled us to realize our connection to the perpetrators -- our soldiers, fighting our war -- this sad, silent image begs us to at least imagine that we are connected, in a deeper, human way, to the victims.


Picture in question at original ~~ click title

Hat tip to The O C

Judgement Factor. . . .

The wildlife department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a "hunter's judgment factor." No other secondary factors were found to have played a role.

Click title for whole story.

Taken at noon on Sunday, Feb 12, 2006. Midwood section of Brooklyn, NYC...

How'd you like to dig *this* one out?

Biggest. Snow. Fall. Ever.

This has been an amazing and beautiful couple of days. . . .

Yesterday morning, woke a little before six, just as the sky was getting a little pink behind the clouds. I'm told the lightening and thunder began at two, but I don't think I heard it before. Sitting here, at the desk on Avenue C, looking out towards the inner park, I both saw the lightening, and heard the thunder. It was very close, less than a second behind the flash. And huge. A great rolling clash of cymbals and drums. An hour later when I went to bed again, it still continued as I drifted back to sleep.

When I woke again, around ten, the thunder was gone, but the snow and wind continued till late afternoon. Joined by armies of children and a few parents. The Village plows that had operated all night made no showing during the day. The gambol was undisturbed by men with snow shovels. The parents mostly stayed on the newly tramped pathways, but it was clearly the children's joy to fall and throw themselves into the fresh fluffy stuff. Imagine being able to fall without hurting oneself!

Dusk was beautiful. The sky still a little light, and the lamps sparkling in all the white. Still lots of people rambling about, but the children had gone in (to thaw out?). By lamplight could be seen the spoils of the day: the great fields of snow trampled and pocked by footprints and seat marks and arising, where none had been before, three rather modest sized snow persons, casting shadows.

As a pure bonus, street parking rules had been suspended so I needn't go out this morning to move my car. By next Monday, the snow should have melted, and the task a breeze.

Did I say I'm loving being here? Need I say it?

N.B. ~~ trains didn't run, planes didn't fly, but Broadway did not shut down. After all, The Show Must Go On. And they did.

You did it!

Another Record Broken

Looking at total snowfall in Central Park: 22 1/2" . This is now the second largest blizzard on record for NYC; just passed the 1888 blizzard, pictured yesterday. . . .

Records. . . .

Record nine inches of snow in Central Park, breaking the previous record of 8.5" set in 1897.

Watching this as I type, it's beautiful. Visibility about half a block. Snow is coming sidewise. How lovely to be snowbound!

Snow began an hour ago. Blizzard conditions predicted. . .

The Great Blizzard of 12 March 1888. New York, New York

Howard!! ONE YEAR AND COUNTING. . . .

To find the bat that links to the actual donation site, click title.

Fine: I evolved. Some didn't. . . .

Just as safe as CAN BE!

NASA scientist James Hansen makes an interesting point about the coverage of Deutsch’s lack of a college degree:
Yesterday, Dr. Hansen said that the questions about Mr. Deutsch's credentials were important, but were a distraction from the broader issue of political control of scientific information.

"He's only a bit player," Dr. Hansen said of Mr. Deutsch. " The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what I'm really concerned about."

"On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed," he said. "The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here."

Hansen is really on to something here, and instead of the story being about a 24-year-old lying, it should be about this: how did this guy, who already had dubious qualifications, make it into NASA with such an obvious lie on his resume? To work for a federal agency, including NASA, extensive background checks are usually required. If I was able to uncover the truth about Deutsch in one phone call, then he must have been placed in his current position without any investigation, due to his loyal service on the Bush presidential campaign.

For a president that paints himself as a champion of national security, the NASA incident is a major blow to Bush’s credibility. This isn’t the first time either, with George Deutsch now joining the ranks of Michael Brown, the embattled former director of FEMA, and Harriet Myers, Bush’s Supreme Court nominee who was subsequently withdrawn. Congratulations, Deutsch, this is a pretty elite circle!

The NASA censorship scandal was originally about partisan figures compromising the science, and it still is, but now it’s also about something much deeper and much more troubling. I don’t know how many others there are out there like Deutsch, but it shouldn’t be hard to find out. Journalists, it’s time to make some phone calls!

In the meantime, NASA needs the authority to remove the rest of those who are interfering with the scientific process for partisan gains. Although NASA's credibility has tragically taken a big hit here due to political interference, the real victim is the science. And, when the science suffers, we are all affected.

Oh yeah, REALLY safe. . .

On the left side of the face, the side that represents the unconscious, the deeper levels of the personality, the hidden, private side, there is no smirk. If you block off the left side of the picture and look only at the left side of his face, there is no trace of a smile. There is no warmth, none of the familiar, friendly fratboy we have come to know.

Instead on the left side of the face, you see a cold stare. A deep hollow stare that looks right through you. The end of the mouth turns down sharply, in stark contrast to the right side, on which his mouth turns up a bit.

click title for source

Oh boy, now I REALLY feel safer. . . .

State Department sees exodus of weapons experts
By Warren P. Strobel
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - State Department officials appointed by President Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political operatives who share the White House and Pentagon's distrust of international negotiations and treaties.

The reorganization of the department's arms control and international security bureaus was intended to help it better deal with 21st-century threats. Instead, it's thrown the agency into turmoil and produced an exodus of experts with decades of experience in nuclear arms, chemical weapons and related matters, according to 11 current and former officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.

The reorganization was conducted largely in secret by a panel of four political appointees. A career expert was allowed to join the group only after most decisions had been made. Its work was overseen by Frederick Fleitz, a CIA officer who was detailed to the State Department as senior adviser to former Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a critic of arms agreements and international organizations.

More: click title

Okay, I admit it ~~ I'm hopelessly in love.

It is turning out that one of the things that I love about NYC (aside from the company I'm keeping) is *exactly* what I most love about the Wilds of West Virginia: Stay alert, keep your eyes and your heart open, and you will be continually surprised and delighted by what you are seeing.

Last night, coming in on the Jersey Turnpike, just past Bayone, suddenly, is the city across the water, looking against the black velvet of the sky and black silk of the water like nothing quite so much as a diamond bracelet. So sudden, so bright, so *there* your heart contracts before you even realize what you are seeing. Forgive me if country mouse just sez "WOW!!"

Home!

Traveling Mercies

When I first came to What Joy Farm (actually, created What Joy ) eleven years ago, I thought it was to be the end of my Journeying. Until about a year ago, I still believed that. Home is the sailor home from the sea, and the hunter, home from the hill. . . . I was content with that.

Much has happened in this past year. More than will ever be on this blog, or indeed written any where, nor spoken in any words. Suffice it to say, What Joy is not to be Journey's End. What Joy is not only the name of my farm, it is, after all, the name of my Journey. The next leg of which begins this day. This morning. Began a year ago.

Wish me luck on this Journey.



And thank you, Edwin, thank you. ♥

Cute enough?

Under the wing, next to the heart. . . .

LIARS' WAR I & II

The Medic couldn't see us, although his eyes were open. He looked past us as if he were watching a horror movie in his mind. He felt he was back in the war, disconnected from us in a journey into the Twilight Zone. In his mind, he had returned to a helicopter with a Red Cross emblem and a name his buddies had painted on the chopper, "WHY?" The Medic's mouth foamed, his head tossed wildly. He wept and moaned:

"How can they shout and yell out lies with such venom? The Liars never go to war! Oh, how is it that the Liars never go? They're accusing me of being 'Un-Patriotic?!' 'Un-American?!' But they weren't in war! I saw the death, man, I saw the killing!! The Liars convince us to have a war but they never go to war! Man, I can see the dead soldiers all around me! I can see them! They're here with us!"

His eyes widened, as he looked right through us in great pain and sorrow.

"We tried to save our young men's lives ... we flew in for them but again and again we lost them. Oh, but the ones sending them to war never see the dying, man. I was there, and the people across the street in support of the war are calling me a 'Traitor?!' The Liars never go! I can feel all the pain of our dying soldiers ..."

His head was tossing to and fro. His mouth foamed even more. Then, a Veteran urgently tried to calm him as four of us held the Medic's hands and shoulders and supplied ice and water.

Again, thanks to The O C

US Marine Lance-Corporal Blake Miller

Mr Miller's image was captured by the Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco.


The mental health experts who are treating him call his condition post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but Mr Miller describes it in more immediate language: nightmares, sleeplessness and periods when he will "blank out", not knowing where he is or what he is doing. "I could tell you stories about Iraq that would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck," he said. "And I could tell you things that were great over there. But that would still not tell you what it was actually like. You had to be there and go through it to really understand."

Mr Miller is not alone. The federal Veterans Affairs (VA) department revealed last week that up to a third of US troops returning from Iraq or Afghanistan - about 40,000 - suffer mental health problems. It is to spend an extra $29m (£16.3m) on troops who have PTSD. Days ago, The Independent reported the suicide of another veteran of the Iraq war, Doug Barber, a National Guardsman who took his life after struggling with his experiences of the war after he returned to civilian life.

Mr Miller, who received an honourable discharge last November after military psychologists decided he would be a threat to himself or his colleagues if he continued to serve, said there remained a stigma about mental health issues. He told Knight Ridder Newspapers: "I want people to know that PTSD is not something people come down with because they are crazy. It's an anxiety disorder, where you've experienced something so traumatic that you're close to death." Mr Miller's photograph was taken in November 2004 during the battle for Fallujah, the insurgent stronghold. The two-week operation resulted in the deaths of up to 50 US troops, an estimated 1,200 insurgents and an unknown number of civilians.

The former Marine says he now questions the US tactics and believes troops should have been withdrawn some time ago. He said: "When I was in the service my opinion was whatever the Commander-in-Chief's opinion was. But after I got out, I started to think about it. The biggest question I have now is how you can make a war on an entire country when a certain group from that country is practising terrorism against you. It's as if a gang from New York went to Iraq and blew some stuff up and Iraq started a war against us because of that."

Hat tip to The O C

The Ballad of the Beaver Named Sisyphus

As I wade the river, pulling the white branches,
nicely gnawed, from the culvert,
I wonder at the sheer
cussedness of the god that
condemned Sisy-
phus
to keep building
and building again
his home in the floodpath. . .
That despite finding his
mate or brother
(no, I didn't check)
dead and frozen,
he doesn't quit.
Just finds another tree
and begins
again
and
again.
Your average
Republican voter,
tying together, again and again,
the wood of his little
brown
life.

Julie Li
February 2, 2006

If this doesn't make you cry, your heart is stone

PHOTO: This letter released by the Toler family on Thursday in Flatwoods, W. Va was written by Martin Toler Jr., who died with 11 other miners in the Sago mine. The note was given to Martin's brother, Tom Toler, by the coroner. (AP photo)



TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - Tom Toler identified the body of his youngest brother. And then he was handed a message from the dead man. In wobbly printing, written in ink on the back of an insurance application, 51-year-old miner Martin Toler Jr. said goodbye. For now.

''(I'll) see them on the other side,'' the note said. ''It wasn't bad. I just went to sleep. I love you.''

His brother, a miner himself for 30 years, was so shocked by the simple, eloquent farewell that he didn't think to ask - standing there in a newly opened morgue in a long-closed elementary school - just exactly where his brother had stashed the piece of paper. In his pocket? In his lunchbox?

''It just shook me up when they gave it to me,'' he said.

And as he read the boxed letters fashioned with a shaky pen, ''I took it to mean that it was written in the final stages. I'd call it more or less scribbling.''

Of the 12 miners who died after Monday's explosion, at least a handful managed to scrawl a last testament to their families, according to loved ones. The exact number of messages is not yet known.

All but one of the coal workers were trapped for more than 41 hours behind a curtain erected as a barrier to deadly carbon monoxide. The 12th victim may have died from the blast itself.

Another miner's brother said he knew of at least four handwritten goodbyes. But John Groves said his family was not one of the recipients though his brother, Jerry Groves, was one of the victims.

Republicans gone wild.

The confluence of big business and too-powerful lobbyists, including the revolving door between K Street and federal government, the casual and cynical selling-off of the safety net for blue collar and low wage workers, the arrogance and secrecy that come with unchecked political power in one party -- these are all the hallmarks of Abramoff and his alleged influence peddling on Capital Hill.

But a review of the way that Washington has treated the coal industry in America since 2001 -- and the Sago mine in particular -- show all of these exact same problems coming to roost in the steep hills of West Virginia.

In the last four years, the Bush White House has named lobbyist-friendly former coal-industry officials to run the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, setting the stage for a transformation of a worker-safety agency into a tool of the industry.

During this time, MSHA has sought to weaken regulations regarding airborne coal dust -- a possible cause of Monday's deadly explosion. Even with a reduced emphasis on inspections, federal agents found a growing pattern of serious safety violations at Sago over the last two years, yet imposed fines amounting to less than a slap on the wrist.

And the United Mine Workers, the most forceful advocate for worker safety, is gone -- the result of a powerful new coal conglomerate granted power by a GOP-appointed bankruptcy judge to take over troubled mines like Sago and cancel labor agreements.

This story from today's Washington Post (on its favored dumping ground, Pg. A4) kicks off with this damning summation:

Time and again over the past four years, federal mining inspectors documented the same litany of problems at central West Virginia's Sago Mine: mine roofs that tended to collapse without warning. Faulty or inadequate tunnel supports. A dangerous buildup of flammable coal dust.

Officials with the company that recently bought the Sago mine -- International Coal Group -- have sought to spin the explosion and a subsequent tragedy as an act of God, a "horrible freak accident."

More Here

"If you prick us, do we not bleed?"

Stickler appeared Tuesday afternoon before a U.S. Senate committee that is considering his confirmation as the new assistant secretary of labor in charge of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Following two major mining accidents in West Virginia last month, Stickler faced tough questions from Democrats on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions over MSHA’s record under Bush.

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the panel’s ranking Democrat, said that he wants to reverse a trend through which Bush “has often given mine safety short shrift.”

“We need a person of vision, who will be an aggressive leader in strengthening MSHA and preventing future tragedies like the two we have already experienced,” Kennedy said.

“I am concerned that Mr. Stickler may not be that person,” Kennedy said. “Mr. Stickler’s history is long on coal production experience but short on ensuring worker safety.”

Stickler, 61, spent about 30 years working for coal companies, primarily as a mine manager for Bethlehem Steel’s coal arm. He worked briefly for Massey Energy, and then became chief of Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Deep Mine Safety.

If confirmed, Stickler would take over for David G. Dye, who has been running MSHA as acting assistant secretary since Dave D. Lauriski resigned shortly after President Bush won re-election.

February 2, 2006
West Virginia Governor Urges Mining Moratorium
By IAN URBINA

Just weeks after the death of 14 West Virginia miners, two more mine workers were killed yesterday in separate accidents, prompting Gov. Joe Manchin III to urge all coal companies in the state to cease operations until safety could be reviewed.

"Today has once again been a difficult day for our state's miners, their families and our mining industry," Mr. Manchin said, confirming that there were accidents at three coal mines, two underground mines and one surface mine that resulted in two deaths. "I am calling on the industry to cease production activities immediately and go into a mine safety stand down."

Hours later, the nation's top mine safety regulator, David G. Dye, quickly followed suit, asking for all mines nationally to take an hour next Monday to review their safety procedures.

"This Monday, we urge that extra time be taken, at the beginning of each shift and before the start of any mining activity, to go over the hazards involved with mining and the vital safeguards that need to be taken," Mr. Dye said.

Both of the accidents yesterday occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m., said state officials who would not release the names of the dead.

One miner was killed at an underground mine when a wall support broke loose at Long Branch Energy 18 Tunnel Mine near Danville, in Boone County, said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The second death occurred at the Elk Run Black Castle Surface Mine in Drawdy, a mine also in Boone County and owned by Massey Energy. The miner was killed after he sparked a fire while driving a bulldozer that hit a gas line, state and federal officials said.

Lara Ramsburg, a spokeswoman for Governor Manchin, said all mines in the state had been asked to halt production long enough for each shift of workers to leave the mine and to inspect all of their equipment.

The governor said the Mine Health and Safety Administration had agreed to his request for additional safety resources.

"Each mine in the state is currently scheduled to be inspected every three months," he said. "We will immediately begin the process of inspecting every mine in the state and their equipment, conditions, engineering plans, safety procedures and safe work practices."

Mr. Manchin, a Democrat, said he was filing emergency rules last night to hasten putting into effect mine safety measures passed last week by the state's Legislature. The legislation requires miners to wear wireless devices so they can be found more quickly.

Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, joined the governor in his call for a statewide shutdown.

The rest here

Hungry Heart

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don't know where it's flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart

I met her in a Kingstown bar
We fell in love, I knew it had to end
We took what we had and we ripped it apart
Now here I am down in Kingstown again

Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart

Everybody needs a place to rest
Everybody wants to have a home
Don't make no difference what nobody says
Ain't nobody like to be alone

Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Lay down your money and you play your part
Everybody's got a hungry heart


Bruce Springsteen

Recipe Night on the BBB ~~ BEST OF SHOW

donna*in*evanston wrote on February 1, 2006 09:47 PM:

Noodle Kugel (Pudding)

1 lb. noodles, cooked and drained
4 eggs
l 1 lb. creamed cottage cheese
1 8 oz. sour cream
1 t. salt (less if you use salted butter)
1 stick melted butter
1/2 c.brown sugar
cinnamon and raisins to taste

Topping and bottom of pan
1/2 c. bread crumbs
8 T. brown sugar
1 stick melted butter.

Beat eggs and mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

Grease pan with topping mixture. Add noodle mixture. Crumble the rest of the bread crumb mixture on the top of the casserole.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours.

You can fiddle with the amounts of the ingredients. This recipe was handed down to me without measurements.

Some people like to add pineapple chunks.

Enjoy and don't forget to renew your perscription for your high cholesterol meds.

---

The State of the Union, Feb 1, 2006?

Thanks seashell, Edwin ♥

samizdat

Since we no longer have a Fourth Estate in this country, I propose:

Hacker Slang
samizdat

[Russian, literally “self publishing”] The process of disseminating documentation via underground channels. Originally referred to underground duplication and distribution of banned books in the Soviet Union; now refers by obvious extension to any less-than-official promulgation of textual material, esp. rare, obsolete, or never-formally-published computer documentation. Samizdat is obviously much easier when one has access to high-bandwidth networks and high-quality laser printers. Note that samizdat is properly used only with respect to documents which contain needed information (see also hacker ethic) but which are for some reason otherwise unavailable, but not in the context of documents which are available through normal channels, for which unauthorized duplication would be unethical copyright violation. See Lions Book for a historical example.