A recent blog post here at TPM Cafe, caused me to go looking for some anarchistic essays, on about a coming future economic over-supply aided by great leaps in productivity caused by technological advances which would decrease workforce demand, and lead to "Zero Work" paradigms. This was floating around on the net's News Groups in the early 80's, and was a fairly commons subject published onto some of the first internet websites. I discoverd that a great deal of the websites where I read of this are no longer no longer active. Here's links to four essays

• Christian Marazzi, "Money In The World Crisis: The New Basis of Capitalist Power", 1976
• Bob Black, "The Abolition of Work", 1985
• Bob Black, "What Is Wrong With This Picture? - A critique of a neo-futurist's vision of the decline of work", 1995
• Bob Black, "Technophilia, An Infantile Disorder", 1997

Many of the members here at TPM Cafe are offended by Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. The bad feelings about Warren stem largely from his open support for California's recent Proposition 8, as well as his vocal opposition to homosexuality. Truthfully, I knew little about Warren before Obama's choice caused an uproar. The reason I know of Warren at all is because Warren often hyped his book, "The Purpose Driven Life", with the story of how Ashley Smith, who was taken hostage by Brian Nichols after he'd murdered four people at an Atlanta courthouse, convinced Nichols to give himself up by reading from the book.

"I asked him if I could read. He said, what do wouldn't to read? I said, well, I have a book in my room. So, I went and got it. I got my Bible. Then I got a book called "The Purpose Driven Life." I turned it to a chapter that I was on that day, which was chapter 33. And I started to read the first paragraph of it. After I read it, he said, stop, will you read it again? So, I read it again to him." - Ashley Smith

Was Warren purposefully driving book sales with a fable?

You might remember Ashley Smith, the woman who was taken hostage a few months ago by the Atlanta courthouse shooting suspect. Well, in a new book, she admits giving Brian Nichols methamphetamine from her own stash to put him at ease. She says she refused to take any that night. Nichols held her hostage after allegedly going on a shooting spree which left four people dead, including an Atlanta judge.

Thomas Roberts, CNN News, September 27, 2005

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