Hey so O.K., biblio/research question: anyone know anything about a the life, thoughts, work or writings of a 19th century Homeopathy or Eclectic medicine advocate, named “Charles E. Taylor, M.D., F.A.A.,” of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies? Or about “The Medical Advocate” newsletter, active in the 1880s? I’m asking because in this article on “Freethought in Medicine”: http://ift.tt/1jPLkix . . . . alongside a generally blistering attack on government privileges and monopolies to favored methods in medical care, and phrases like “The very essence of social advancement being rebellion, or a revolt against what is generally known as constituted authority,” we find a long block-quote about privileged scientific academies, “As an eminent writer has justly remarked.” The unnamed “eminent writer” being Bakunin, and the remark being a long quote from the section of GOD AND THE STATE on the nature of authority, “It is the characteristic of privilege, and of every privileged position, to kill the mind and heart of man. The privileged man, whether politically or economically, is a man depraved in mind and heart. . . . The greatest scientific genius, from the moment he becomes an officially licensed savant [missing phrase sic], inevitably lapses into sluggishness,” etc. etc. etc. (INB4 homeopathy is quackery. I know it is. So was nearly all medicine in the 1880s. I’m glad we’ve moved on since then. Not relevant to this inquiry.)

Well, yes. http://ift.tt/1baqeWW

So what I am learning from listening to a bunch of mashups on Youtube is that “Whole Lotta Love” is like the universal donor type for all late-20th century American music and will mash-up pretty well, with minimal changes , with just about anything. http://ift.tt/1jOVRdz

Abolish the death penalty. Executions are premeditated murder.

is trying to decide on cover images for this month’s Anarchist Classics booklet (the famous “What is Authority?” fragment from GOD AND THE STATE).

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You’re telling me Pete Seeger’s music didn’t actually represent the unvarnished and unmediated voice and spirit of the American People and their Struggles and aspirations? That his musical persona involved a great deal of fudging, appropriation, repackaging, idiosyncratic reinvention, fakery and posturing? God damn I never heard of such a thing before in entertainment. Next you are going to tell me that Merle Haggard did not really turn 21 in prison doing life without parole. #AuthenticityIsBullshit

No snow yet. Classes cancelled again tomorrow, though.

One of the most entertaining parts of doing prepatory research for my C.I.W./alt-labor column at Reason.com: reading through several pro-employer lobby websites dealing with CIW and alt-labor groups, in which pro-business conservative moaning about all the “loopholes” in NLRB labor law, and urging Congress to pass stricter labor regulations so that the NLRB can intervene more aggressively in labor market disputes. http://ift.tt/1f9nW9H http://ift.tt/19Zb34J etc. #Unions #LaborLaw #StateCapitalism #BossesForBureaucracyGreedAndBigGovernment

To-day, I’m @ Reason.com: http://ift.tt/1d66OiJ In which I write about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, alt-labor tactics, farmworker organizing, and CIW’s recent victory in getting a penny-per-pound agreement from Walmart. #CIW #FellowWorkers #WildcatUnionism