Roller Warriors 2005 bout schedule

The Kansas City Roller Warriors 2005 bout schedule.

EXHIBITION BOUT
SATURDAY JANUARY 22ND -- 8 p.m.
Winnwood Skate Center
4426 N Winn Rd (I-35 & Chouteau Trafficway) KC, MO 64119

GAME 1
SATURDAY MARCH 19TH -- 8 p.m.
Winnwood Skate Center
4426 N Winn Rd (I-35 & Chouteau Trafficway) KC, MO 64119

GAME 2
SATURDAY APRIL 23RD -- 8 p.m.
Winnwood Skate Center
4426 N Winn Rd (I-35 & Chouteau Trafficway) KC, MO 64119

GAME 3
SATURDAY MAY 21ST -- 8 p.m.
Winnwood Skate Center
4426 N Winn Rd (I-35 & Chouteau Trafficway) KC, MO 64119

GAME 4 -- CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT
SATURDAY JUNE 25TH -- 8 p.m.
Winnwood Skate Center
4426 N Winn Rd (I-35 & Chouteau Trafficway) KC, MO 64119

friday elfgirl blogging 

I Heart Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy has been awarded the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize.

This is an edited extract from the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize lecture delivered by Arundhati Roy at the Seymour Centre 3 November 2004. Via IndyMedia Sydney.

The Iraq war is a sign that the world has lost the will to fight for true justice. Sometimes there's truth in old cliches. There can be no real peace without justice. And without resistance there will be no justice. Today, it is not merely justice itself, but the idea of justice that is under attack.

The assault on vulnerable, fragile sections of society is so complete, so cruel and so clever that its sheer audacity has eroded our definition of justice. It has forced us to lower our sights, and curtail our expectations. Even among the well-intentioned, the magnificent concept of justice is gradually being substituted with the reduced, far more fragile discourse of "human rights".

This is an alarming shift. The difference is that notions of equality, of parity, have been pried loose and eased out of the equation. It's a process of attrition. Almost unconsciously, we begin to think of justice for the rich and human rights for the poor. Justice for the corporate world, human rights for its victims. Justice for Americans, human rights for Afghans and Iraqis. Justice for the Indian upper castes, human rights for Dalits and Adivasis (if that.) Justice for white Australians, human rights for Aborigines and immigrants (most times, not even that.)

It is becoming more than clear that violating human rights is an inherent and necessary part of the process of implementing a coercive and unjust political and economic structure on the world. Increasingly, human rights violations are being portrayed as the unfortunate, almost accidental, fallout of an otherwise acceptable political and economic system. As though they are a small problem that can be mopped up with a little extra attention from some non-government organisation.

This is why in areas of heightened conflict - in Kashmir and in Iraq for example - human rights professionals are regarded with a degree of suspicion. Many resistance movements in poor countries which are fighting huge injustice and questioning the underlying principles of what constitutes "liberation" and "development" view human rights non-government organisations as modern-day missionaries who have come to take the ugly edge off imperialism - to defuse political anger and to maintain the status quo.

It has been only a few weeks since Australia re-elected John Howard, who, among other things, led the nation to participate in the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

That invasion will surely go down in history as one of the most cowardly wars ever. It was a war in which a band of rich nations, armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, rounded on a poor nation, falsely accused it of having nuclear weapons, used the United Nations to force it to disarm, then invaded it, occupied it and are now in the process of selling it.

I speak of Iraq, not because everybody is talking about it, but because it is a sign of things to come. Iraq marks the beginning of a new cycle. It offers us an opportunity to watch the corporate-military cabal that has come to be known as "empire" at work. In the new Iraq, the gloves are off.

As the battle to control the world's resources intensifies, economic colonialism through formal military aggression is staging a comeback. Iraq is the logical culmination of the process of corporate globalisation in which neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism have fused. If we can find it in ourselves to peep behind the curtain of blood, we would glimpse the pitiless transactions taking place backstage.

Invaded and occupied Iraq has been made to pay out $US200 million ($270 million) in "reparations" for lost profits to corporations such as Halliburton, Shell, Mobil, Nestle, Pepsi, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Toys R Us. That's apart from its $US125 billion sovereign debt forcing it to turn to the IMF, waiting in the wings like the angel of death, with its structural adjustment program. (Though in Iraq there don't seem to be many structures left to adjust.)

So what does peace mean in this savage, corporatised, militarised world? What does peace mean to people in occupied Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Tibet and Chechnya? Or to the Aboriginal people of Australia? Or the Kurds in Turkey? Or the Dalits and Adivasis of India? What does peace mean to non-Muslims in Islamic countries, or to women in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan? What does it mean to the millions who are being uprooted from their lands by dams and development projects? What does peace mean to the poor who are being actively robbed of their resources? For them, peace is war.

We know very well who benefits from war in the age of empire. But we must also ask ourselves honestly who benefits from peace in the age of empire? War mongering is criminal. But talking of peace without talking of justice could easily become advocacy for a kind of capitulation. And talking of justice without unmasking the institutions and the systems that perpetrate injustice is beyond hypocritical.

It's easy to blame the poor for being poor. It's easy to believe that the world is being caught up in an escalating spiral of terrorism and war. That's what allows George Bush to say, "You're either with us or with the terrorists." But that's a spurious choice. Terrorism is only the privatisation of war. Terrorists are the free marketeers of war. They believe that the legitimate use of violence is not the sole prerogative of the state.

It is mendacious to make moral distinction between the unspeakable brutality of terrorism and the indiscriminate carnage of war and occupation. Both kinds of violence are unacceptable. We cannot support one and condemn the other.

The Real Best Political Bloggers

Rox Populi started her own blogger awards in response to WaPo's Ridiculous Best Political Bloggers contest. Congrats to Austinites Norbizness and Mouse Words.

Court Jester
Winner: Happy Furry Puppy Time with Norbizness

Least Polite Political Blogger
Honorable Mention: Mouse Words

Take a look at all the winners here.

busy busy busy

Saturday, November 6th
This is the first of (hopefully many to come) interstate rollergirl bouts. It's the AZRD vs. Texas Rollergirls at Surfside Skateland in Tempe. Featuring Electric Shock & ADHC (from CA). Doors at 7pm.

Texas Rollergirls:
5 Misty Meaner Team captain
4x4 Loosetooth Lulu Team co-captain
00 Sparkle Plenty
.44 Derringer
4 Hydra
8 Eight Track
10 Trouble
12 Bettie Rage
28 Muffin Tumble
31 Jen Entonic
47 Speedy Marie
i Pixie Tourette
XX Cat Tastrophe
13 Anna Mosity (alternate)

Arizona Tent City Terrors:
9 Babe Ruthless
22 Ivanna S. Pankin
23 Denise Lightning
50 Sheriff Dent
64 Kick Start
67 Helen Wheels
70 Lawna Moher
77 Bam Bam
99 Trish the Dish
138 Sick Girl
666 Dazy Duke
888 Brassy Knuckles
911 Gamzilla
3¡Æ Ms. Tress Trouble
XXX Suzy Homewrecker

Pre Party for the TX Rollergirls VS AZ Rollerderby is Friday, NOV 5TH at 1 E Jackson, In downtown PHX. 9:00pm

Sunday, November 7th
The Texas Rollergirls take on the Tucson Roller Derby Saddletramps at Bladeworld. Music by The Knockout Pills. 3pm.

Texas Rollergirls:
5" Dagger Deb Team captain
67 The Wrench Team co-captain
3 The Crusher
4 Bloody Mary
8 Strawberry
10 Kitty Kitty Bang Bang
21 Buckshot Betsy
22 Slim Kickins
23 Tinkerhell
23 Electra Blu
56 Lucille Brawl

Tucson Saddletramps:
666 Jezze James Team captain
13 wyatt eeka Team co-Captain
0 Clit Eastwood
6 Six Shooter Flo
14 Zoe Bowie
45 Juana Chisum
74 Kamanche
333 Doe Holliday
1881 O. Kay Corral
.30-.30 Bitch Cassidy El Bombadora

***************

The Mad Rollin' Dolls will skate their first exhibition bout at Fast Forward Skate Center, 4649 Verona Rd. in Madison, WI. The Quad Squad and the High Rollers face off. 7pm. Pre-game and intermission entertainment by Knuckel Drager. DJ Smitty spins during the game.

Tickets are $7.00 ( a portion of the proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood) and are available at: Capitol City Tattoo, The Paradise Lounge, The Buckeye, Freedom Skate Shop and Fast Forward Skate Center.

Afterparty at the High Noon Saloon w/ Bleed & The Mistreaters. 701 E. Wash Ave. Admission is free with bout ticket stub; $3 without.

Mourning in Amerika

 

election day elfgirl blogging

 

Cornhole anyone?

"It's easy to play, you don't have to dig a pit, drive stakes or tear up your lawn," said Mike Whitton, founder and president of the American Cornhole Association.

You don't have to work up a sweat, either. About the worst thing that could happen is you could spill your beer.

[snip]

As simple as that sounds, it was a scoring dispute at a family picnic that led to the formation of the American Cornhole Association, which claims to be the arbiter of the game, sanctioning tournaments, selling equipment and publishing the "official" rules of play.

Whitton said the association has more than 3,500 members, and his business has been shipping equipment to such places as North Carolina, Florida, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Christy's Bierstube, Rathskeller and Biergarten, which caters to University of Cincinnati students, has installed a game court. Teams also compete in leagues at Tommy's on the River, a bar and restaurant on the city's waterfront.

Days of Shame

Bob Herbert in this mornings New York Times.

Overseas, our troops are being mauled in the long dark night of Iraq - a war with no end in sight that has already claimed the lives of more than 1,100 American troops and thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of innocent Iraqis.

At home, the party of the sitting president is systematically stomping on the right of black Americans to vote, a vile and racist practice that makes a mockery of the president's claim to favor real democracy anywhere.

This will never be seen as a shining moment in U.S. history.

[snip]

On Saturday, as if to take our minds off the sideshow, nine more American marines were killed in the Iraq slaughterhouse. It was the deadliest day for U.S. forces in six months. The death toll for Iraqis, which the U.S. government has tried mightily to keep from the American people, is flat out horrifying. Unofficial estimates of the number of Iraqis killed in the war have ranged from 10,000 to 30,000. But a survey conducted by scientists from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad compared the death rates of Iraqis before and after the American invasion. They estimated that 100,000 more Iraqis have died in the 18 months since the invasion than would have been expected based on Iraqi death rates before the war.

The scientists acknowledged that the survey was difficult to compile and that their findings represent a rough estimate. But even if they were off by as many as 20,000 or 40,000 deaths, their findings would still be chilling.

Most of the widespread violent deaths, the scientists reported, were attributed to coalition forces. "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces," the report said, "were women and children."

That people are dying by the tens of thousands in a war that did not have to be fought - a war that was launched by the United States - is mind-boggling.

Also mind-boggling is the attempt by Republican Party elements to return the U.S. to the wretched days of the mid-20th century when many black Americans faced harassment, intimidation and worse for daring to exercise their fundamental right to vote. A flier circulating extensively in black neighborhoods in Wisconsin carries the heading "Milwaukee Black Voters League." It asserts that people are not eligible to vote if they have voted in any previous election this year; if they have ever been found guilty of anything, even a traffic violation; or if anyone in their family has ever been found guilty of anything.

welcome home elfgirl!!!

elfgirl 

Ulmers get spanked

Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 13. Spieltag
SSV Reutlingen - SSV Ulm 1846 4:1 (3:0)
Eine bittere Niederlage musste der SSV Ulm 1846 beim Erzrivalen SSV Reutlingen hinnehmen: mit 4:1 (3:0) verloren die Ulmer in Reutlingen und fallen in der Tabelle auf den 3. Platz (25 Punkte, 28:19 Tore) zurück. Bereits in der 1. Halbzeit gingen die Gastgeber durch Tore von Christian Haas, Joannis Tsapakidis und Jochen Weigl mit 3:0 in Führung. In der 80. Minute gelang Milton Tembo der 3:1-Anschlusstreffer, ehe Markus Schneider drei Minuten vor Schluss zum 4:1-Endstand traf. Am nächsten Freitag (20.00 Uhr, Donaustadion) hat der SSV 46 den Aufsteiger VfR Mannheim zu Gast.

Ulmers fall to 3rd place in the standings. Week 14 sees Ulm take on 10th place VfR Mannheim at home in Donaustadion on Friday night.