Mom's in the hospital

Just wanted to let you all know that I may not be around much for a
while because my mom has multiple injuries from a fall last Sunday, so
I'm spending a lot of time at the hospital. I'll check in and post
when I can.

Peace~

Obama, Rev. Wright and the worst news coverage since the Lewinski scandal

Anybody here give a shit about Hannah Montana posing for Vanity Fair? Me neither. I've got bigger fish to fry and she's about to become a billionaire, so I'm not all that worried about her reputation. Every major news agency has been covering 3 stories this week: Hannah's "racy" pictures; The freak in Austria who kept his daughter and their 7 kids in a cellar for 24 years (ugh); and Reverend Wright. This, America, is what your media thinks you want to hear about. Or maybe it's what they want to tell you to kee you from focusing on what's really going on. Either way, the media sucks.

You would almost think Reverend Wright was running for office, because he has dominated the news cycle for a couple of weeks. As with most ministers, he says some outrageous things in the heat of the moment, mostly for effect. He's got some strong and controversial opinions, and he isn't shy about sharing them. That should be the concern of his congregation and only his congregation. The fact that his congregation included Barack Obama is not relevant to... anything. It's not relevant to the election, certainly. I've been in a lot of churches and I've heard preachers say some pretty offensive things. Not once did I worry that my mere presence in the building when these things were said tagged me with those beliefs. My attendance certainly didn't mean I agreed with everything, or even anything, that was said from the pulpit.

The Radical Right and Hillary Clinton, who are rapidly becoming one and the same, have been trying to tarnish the reputation of Barack Obama for weeks because he sat in a particular church most Sundays and because he attended a fundraiser once for a guy who has never been convicted of anything like the terrorism he may or may not have committed. Ayers is a blip - only an idiot would spend time on it. Like Sean Hannity. An idiot.

The Rev. Wright issue should have been closed for good when Obama made his historic speech in Philadelphia where he spoke so eloquently about matters of race in this culture. Being a good and decent man, Barack didn't disown Rev. Wright, but gently acknowledged that sometimes imperfect people can have a positive effect on us, and stated that Wright's views were not his views. In a reasonable society, that would have been the end of the controversy. WE, however, are about as far from reason as we could possibly be. Our founders would be ashamed of the "gotcha" politics and journalism that comprises our public discourse. We're supposed to be the first nation founded solely on reason and logic, but we fall very far short of that position these days. In a reasonable society, we would have moved forward with conversation about the failing dollar, rising gas prices, record housing foreclosures, corporate welfare, and possible food and water shortages - but we didn't.

It seems that Rev. Wright has a book to sell. And there was an excuse to bring him to Washington DC (which may have been orchaestrated by the Clinton campaign.) And he decided to screw Barack Obama for his own benefit. He apparently decided that Barack couldn't win the Presidency, so he'd help himself in spite of the damage he would do to the Obama campaign. And so he did. He railed against the government, and acccused them of starting the AIDS epidemic to oppress black people. He gave his best anti-Zionist screed. He praised Louis Farrahkan. He painted Barack into a corner.

Barack has tried to take the high road in every situation, even when people might prefer that he would come out swinging. In Wright's case, Barack first refused to disown him, then later admitted some of his comments were offensive, and then finally, today, Barack had to put his foot down and pretty much end his association with Wright altogether. He had no choice. He didn't want to have to go to that extreme, and it was obvious over recent weeks that he was doing everything short of that. But Wright saw an opportunity for... what? Self-aggrandizement? A larger forum? Book sales? Whatever his motivation, Wright hurt Obama, who had gone so far out of his way not to hurt Rev. Wright.

Part of me still wishes Barack had told his oppenents and the yammering press to pound sand. The behavior of the media, from the odious Christ Matthews to the normally sympathetic Keith Olbermann, was shameful, and they deserved to be told off. Hillary Clinton and her Neo-Republican machine smelled blood in the water, and something had to be done to end the controversy definitively. So Barack had to cut Wright loose, and make it clear that he didn't speak for him, nor did he even seem to understand him. I'm sorry he had to do it. I'm sorry Rev. Wright pushed him to it. I'm sorry that our media and our culture are no better than this.

I choose Barack Obama because his movement represents our last best chance to really change the culture in Washington DC. He's our best shot at restoring the rule of law, opposing the corporate control of our government, and getting us out of Iraq. I don't know if he can win, but given that he is setting records for donations and new registrations, his chances look damned good. Add to that the fact that I have no desire to go back to Monica 24/7, as we certainly will if Hillary steals the nomination and has to go head to head with the Karl Rove's of the Right, and I am adamant that I want Barack Obama to be my next president. When the chips are down, he always tries to take the high road. He tries to stay calm, he tries to be reasonable. What a refreshing change that will be for us all.

LINK TV's Dear American Voter Project

Ode Magazine has a link to this project which allows people outside the US to post a video message weighing in on our upcoming presidential election. Only Americans get to vote, but our choice impacts the entire world. Check it out.

Networks continue to ignore NY Times ' military analyst story, but all find time for Hannah Montana

Media Matters

Summary: Since The New York Times reported on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon on April 20, ABC, CBS, and NBC have still not mentioned the report. By contrast, during their April 28 evening news broadcasts, all three networks reported on the Vanity Fair photo of Miley Cyrus."

Miley is a cute kid, and the photos are much ado about nothing, but I find it disturbing that our supposedly professional news people find her more important than the Pentagon sending out shills to promote the fucking war on false pretenses. Soviet-style propaganda produced at taxpayer expense is a big damned deal.

We officially have no news media on television at all anymore. It's all meant to distract us from what is really going on. I hope all of you are reading some real journalism - BuzzFlash.com and InformationClearingHouse.info are good places to start.

Yes, we still CAN!

Gold Star Mom Wants Answers from Laura Bush

CONTACT: Gilda Carbonaro 301-792-8854 Gold Star Families Speak Out
Mike Ferner 240-274-9785 DemocracyRising.US

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


LAURA AND JENNA BUSH PROMOTE “READ ALL ABOUT IT,” A GOLD STAR MOTHER ASKS THEM TO READ HER LETTER

Mother of Marine killed in Iraq delivers letter to Bushes at book signing event at D.C. Borders


On Friday, April 25, at 7:00pm, at the Borders bookstore at 14th and F Streets, NW, the mother of a Marine Corps Sergeant killed in Iraq will deliver a letter to Mrs. Bush and her daughter, Jenna, who will be at the store promoting their children’s book, “Read All About It.”


THE LETTER:

Gilda Carbonaro
Bethesda, Maryland





Laura and Jenna Bush
c/o Borders Books
14th and F Streets NW
Washington, D.C.


April 25, 2008


Dear Laura and Jenna Bush,

As you promote your new children’s book, “Read All About It,” and advocate for literacy tonight I hope you will take but a few moments to read these heartfelt lines.

I write to you as one of thousands of parents and family members whose loved ones have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan; whose child, parent or spouse has returned blinded or deaf, armless or legless, or unable to ever move their limbs again; or perhaps have returned apparently unharmed, but with nightmares and a ticking timebomb in their minds.

You may think this a grim postscript to an evening’s chat about a book for children, but when someone you love has been taken from you forever, or returned so terribly damaged you barely know them, it becomes foremost in your thoughts every waking moment. You then begin to understand what is truly grim. And, I must add, there are those among us who still carry such unspeakable pain and anger they’ve become all but exhausted.

But many of us have felt exhaustion be replaced by an energy and a clarity of purpose we have never experienced before. One thing that has become clear to us is an answer to the question, “How could anyone send the youth of its nation to invade Iraq?” We see now how differently someone would answer that question if they suffered the anguish of a family member being killed as the result.

Your children, Mrs. Bush, are safe and I am glad for you. But I wonder, have you ever urged them to enlist in this heroic adventure? Your husband has told us many times how important this cause is. Your children appear well qualified, and as part of the First Family you’ve no doubt taught them the value of demonstrating leadership for the nation.

Why, then, has the price for this war been paid only by people like my son, Marine Corps Sgt. Alesandro Carbonaro, who died May 10, 2006, eight days after being horrifically burned in an IED blast in Al Anbar Province, Iraq?


Can you not see the simple, basic unfairness of asking others to do what you yourself are unwilling to do? Have you drifted so far from an understanding of fundamental justice that you cannot see the contradictions apparent to so many of us?

These are not rhetorical questions. They are as real as the knot in our stomachs and the ache in our hearts. It is time – and past time – that you face these questions without blinking or dodging and give us a satisfactory answer.


Most sincerely,



Gilda Carbonaro
Bethesda, Maryland

Goddess speed, Mrs. C. Never back down!

Enough is enough

Hi,
If you missed the Democratic presidential debate on ABC Wednesday night,
Editor & Publisher called it "perhaps the most embarrassing
performance by
the media in a major presidential debate in years."

Moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson spent the first 50
minutes obsessed with distractions that only political insiders care
about--gaffes, polling numbers, the stale Rev. Wright story, and the
old-news Bosnia story. And, channeling Karl Rove, they directed a video
question to Barack Obama asking if he loves the American flag or not.
Seriously!

I just signed a petition to ABC and other media that says: "Debate
moderators abuse the public trust every time they ask trivial questions
about gaffes and 'gotchas' that only political insiders care about.
Enough
with the distractions--ABC and other networks must focus on issues that
affect people's daily lives."

Want to sign it too? We need a bunch of signers for ABC to take this
concern seriously.
Click here to sign:

http://pol.moveon.org/enoughdistractions/?r_by=12457-4538487-.faMoh&rc=mailto

Thanks!

Morgaine Swann
morgaine@the-goddess.org

Change In Farming Can Feed World

CommonDreams.org:

"The authors of the 2,500-page International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development [IAASTD] say the world produces enough food for everyone, yet more than 800 million people go hungry. “Food is cheaper and diets are better than 40 years ago, but malnutrition and food insecurity threaten millions,” they write. “Rising populations and incomes will intensify food demand, especially for meat and milk which will compete for land with crops, as will biofuels. The unequal distribution of food and conflict over control of the world’s dwindling natural resources presents a major political and social challenge to governments, likely to reach crisis status as climate change advances and world population expands from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050.”"

I've been saying it for years - we produce enough food, so let's feed everybody, I wish our government and the UK and Canada would stop dragging their feet and do what this report suggests. We can be at the beginning of a golden age if they do, or a global catastrophe if they don't. It's time to get serious about acting globally.

Echidne on the 4th Wave of Feminism

My Comments:

I'm sorry - I'm gonna ramble a bit.

Hillary's case has at least started the conversation we should have been having all along. I don't think of feminism as an after thought - it's the foundation of all other forms of social justice. There's going to be a building wave because women are learning to use the internet to weave new kinds of webs of power. We communicate better, quicker, no matter where we are or what our resources are. We've never had such unfettered access to such a populist medium.

Women are 54% of the population. Men are less than 46% when you allow for the number of transgender people that lie in the center of the continuum. The state of women and their children is the state of the entire race. No culture can prosper when over half of it's population is hobbled or oppressed, especially when that group has the primary responsibility for raising children. If women are impoverished in any way, then the entire culture becomes so.

All of the social movements have been driven by women - the move for abolition, prohibition, suffrage, civil rights, the labor movement. What are the names we remember for these changes? Harriet Tubman, Carrie Nation, Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks, Norma Ray. I'm not saying they are exclusively responsible, but the foundations of those movements were built on the backs of women who had simply had enough and took back their own power. If you want to heal racism, feminism has to be a part of it, or it won't work. If you want to build a labor union, you've got to get the women on your side. When you control the next generation, you determine the future.

One generation relaxed and the next generation didn't get it because they were rebelling against the rebellion. We're into a new generation now, and they're sitting at home watching Chris Matthews talk about how shrill Hillary's voice is - and they're pissed. It's about damned time. I'm so happy to see it. I'm not just looking for a wave, I want a tsunami, and I just might get it.

Prosecuting Polygamy

AlterNet

My comment:

I have no problem with polygamy, polyandry, or any other form of plural marriage in which all participants are willing and over 18. Adults should live as they choose. That is freedom. It's not the issue here.

The problem with these cults is that they're abusing children. No girl of 14 should be married to anyone for any reason, but forcing her to marry an old man, who is often a relative, or even her mother's husband in some cases, is child molestation, plain and simple. The state has an obligation to protect children when the parents are incapable or unwilling to do so. These groups are fronts for institutionalized pedophilia. Young girls are raped, young boys driven out into the world with nothing, babies forced to have babies. That's what has to stop.

We have to stop kowtowing to ancient desert custom. This is NOT religion - it's culture that's been passed down from thousands of years and half a world away. It has nothing to do with worship, belief or free exercise of anything. Have 45 wives if you choose, but let them enter the arrangement willingly after age 18. If you can't find adult women who'll marry you, tough luck. We don't all get to live as we choose, and nothing gives anyone the right to force a child into an adult relationship. This is the 21st century - we know better than this, and we must do better than this. The state needs to be far more aggressive in saving these children.

Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for DOMESTIC purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority. Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved,

UN. Fucking. Real.

read more | digg story

I'm so bitter my eyes hurt - Go Barack!

Shame, Shame, Shame

There are some kinds of shame that are prevalent in our culture and they shouldn’t be. No one should be ashamed of his or her sexual orientation. No one over 18 should be ashamed of consensual sex, or having a baby, or choosing not to have one. No one should be ashamed of healthy expressions of sexuality or of any expression of sex in art. These are Puritanical values out of step with the rest of Western culture and it’s time to let them go.

On the other hand, shame can serve a purpose. It tells us that what we are doing is wrong, and hopefully it makes us less likely to do it. It can make someone aware that what they are doing isn’t something that should be memorialized on You Tube. It should kick in when you have just shown the world, on film, that you are an asshole. This is the shame I’m talking about. Psychologists call this a Super Ego. Some call it good parenting. I call it increasingly rare, and that scares me.

I recently posted a video, from You Tube, in which an Australian journalist makes absolute jack asses of some apparently average Americans. They were embarrassing, but a commenter pointed out the truly disturbing aspect - none of them was ashamed or embarrassed at their own poor education. Americans are not only stupid, we appear to be quite content with that fact.

This is largely the result of the bizarro shift in cultural values that is known as the Reagan Administration. Lies became good business, greed became good, and stupid became macho. Reagan was already suffering from Alzheimer’s when he was in office - I told people at the time to wait and see, that in years to come, long after he was out of office, they’d announce that he had it. I hate to say I told you so, but I did. It was SO obvious that he had no concept half the time what he was saying. People worshiped him and still do. (Usually not the people who had to drop out of college because he slashed the student loans, btw - as with many things Republican, it’s mostly true of the rich people. ) Reagan was a pretend cowboy - he played one in the movies, you know - and cowboys didn’t care about sissy stuff like readin’ and ritin’ and ‘rithmatic. I blame Reagan for the fact that people on TV, including journalists and media professionals, can’t conjugate a verb. If I hear one more person say they “had went” somewhere, I’m going hurt somebody. I won’t have to wait long.

Stupid is what the adults are, and that’s bad enough, but their kids are something far worse - sociopaths. As Whoopi Goldberg said in a recent comedy special: “They have raised BARBARIANS!” Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I have a tag for my posts called “generation of sociopaths.” You’ll see it at the bottom of this post, for example. I know I’m getting old, and people have been bemoaning the younger generation since ancient Greece, but this is something new. This is different. Kids aren’t just undisciplined or wild - they’re sub-human. Human beings feel empathy for others. We feel guilty when we do something wrong. If we do something wrong, we tend to hide it rather than advertise it. That’s not true for an alarming number of today’s kids.

Case in point: Florida recently saw a case where 6 girls and 2 boys conspired to beat a young girl so it could be taped and posted on You Tube. They picked their victim, Victoria, because, they claim, she said something “unfriendly” about them when they went into the restaurant she worked in, but they taped it so they could show it on You Tube and be “popular.” Knocked into unconsciousness at the outset and continuously beaten by the 6 girls for half an hour, poor Victoria has lost the sight in one eye and part of her hearing. The news is continually showing the video, and it is disgusting. Note that they don’t just show it once, they keep running it over and over while they talk about it. I actually heard people saying the girls might not be too badly punished because it was a first offense.

So far, they have been charged as adults with kidnapping and misdemeanor battery. They could face life in prison. Not nearly enough, as far as I’m concerned, but here’s my point: they never seem to have thought that beating up another girl was a bad idea. This was planned, and video cameras set up around the room to catch the action. When the girl was unconscious, they kept hitting her. Get that? The sight of an unconscious person, whom they had just knocked out, didn’t slow them down. No remorse. No empathy. No little bell in their head going “ding, ding, ding - this is not a good idea!” They didn’t have the instinct to stop. They didn’t have an emotional response to her suffering. They were so proud of what they had done they uploaded the video to You Tube to brag about it. It apparently never occurred to them that this was a CRIME. That, my friends, is the textbook definition of sociopathy.

So, why am I connecting this to stupid Americans? I believe the two issues are intimately entwined. An uneducated person might feel empathy, but not necessarily know how to foster its development in a child. They might not know that their teenager shouldn’t have access to social networking sites like You Tube, or even know what You Tube is. I’m a firm believer that if you want to raise a kid, you need to be smarter than she is. That’s not the case in most families I see. How do 8 people conspire to do something like this and none of their parents knew anything was up? Are you going to tell me that 8 sets of parents didn’t know their kids were this fucked up? Stupid.

Isn’t anyone afraid of their parents anymore? If I had done something like this when I was young the police would have been the least of my worries. I’d be afraid my mom would find out, and there was no wrath greater than the wrath of Mom. I wasn’t particularly concerned about being “cool,” and I went out of my way to avoid cliques of any kind. If I did do something wrong, I wouldn’t advertise it. I’d know that putting something on the internet is like making a global confession. But then, I’d also know that fighting is wrong, and a planned team assault is nothing to be proud of. If anything, it’s cowardly. 6 on 1 makes the 6 look weak, stupid and incapable of independent thought. Three qualities I think makes them ripe for life in prison. These kids are in their mid-to-late teens. They aren’t going to grow a conscience at this point - they’re a done deal. The only choice society has is to lock them away with other equally damaged people and let them victimize each other. We’re producing so many damaged people that we’re going to have to legalize marijuana just to make room for them. I’d much rather my kid smoke a little weed than commit an assault.

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. These kids have spent half their lives with a pResident who is a war criminal. With an administration that conspired to torture people in violation of international law. They probably can’t remember a fair election, if they even know what an election is. I’d bet money none of them could find Iraq on a map. I don’t see any Rhodes Scholars coming out of this crew.

OMFG! I’m watching Bill Maher and he’s saying this is not a big deal! That it’s “kids being kids!” What an asshole. I used to like him, but I’m reconsidering that. He thinks the film is funny! Ugh. I'll never think he's funny again.

I have nothing more to say. This country is going to hell and nobody cares.

Can you view this video?

ETA: OK, Video is not working. You'll have to download until I figure something else out. Somebody let me know if that works.

I have been looking for the digital version of this show for YEARS and I finally got it. I uploaded it to my server. It doesn't seem to work, and I am SO FRUSTRATED.

It's an episode of The Outer Limits in which a post-apocalyptic society of Goddess-worshiping women have to contend with a male soldier who emerges from 40 years of cryogenic suspension. I want every feminist and every Witch in the world to see it!

It's over 40 minutes long, and over 200MB, so I was hoping you could just watch it here or here but if that doesn't work, you can always download it by control-clicking HERE and saving it to your disk. Be warned that this could take a LONG, LONG time but it's totally worth it.

Previous posts I've written that mention LITHIA are here and especially here, where I describe my idea of a feminist Utopia.

I know it takes a lot of time but seriously, if you like what I write about, this is for you.

Are Americans Stupid?

YouTube:



Apparently, yes, Americans are really, really stupid. Not that we didn't already know that, but every now and then, it's good to stop and remember that some of these dunces vote.


Anybody see the news that over 1 MILLION kids drop out of school every year?
We're fucked. The conspiracy to keep us poor and stupid is working.

Free Ride: Media Myths of McCain

Free Ride: Media Myths of McCain

Forewarned is forearmed. Go to this site and check out the truth about John McCain, or as I like to call him, The White Nightmare. He can NOT be our president kids - he will finish what Bush started, ie the end of America.

Zentangle = Marketing. Genius.

Zentangle Home Page

Somebody has turned doodling into both high art and commerce. Of course you know I'm dying for a kit of my own, but that's not going to happen at $49. I wish!

I've been drawing black and white art like these my whole life. Somebody has turned it into a career. I'm in awe of such people.

The Green Light: Politics & Power

vanityfair.com

Vanity Fair has an in-depth look at the Bush administration's moves to commit torture - when do the war crimes tribunals begin?

Top 25 Censored Stories for 2007

Project Censored

These are the headlines no one wants you to read. Go to the link above to find links to the stories.

Top 25 Censored Stories for 2007

1. Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
2. Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
3. Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
4. Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
5. High-Tech Genocide in Congo
6. Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
7. US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
8. Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
9. The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
10. Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
11. Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
12. Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
13. New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
14. Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
15. Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
16. Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
17. Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
18. Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
19. Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
20. Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
21. Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
22. $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
23. US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
24. Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
25. US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

If you aren't scared, pissed off, and thinking of the phrase "French Revolution" then you need to wake the fuck up. It's almost too late.

Don't Forget Earth Hour at 8 PM tonight!

Earth Hour US - Earth Hour 2008

People all over the globe are turning everything off for an hour tonight at 8 PM. Try to participate if you can. For more information, follow the link above.

I love it when scientists admit we don't know everything...

Why matter matters in the universe : Media Releases : News : The University of Melbourne

So they know that matter and anti-matter are not equal but they don't know why. And according to what they think they know about physics, life shouldn't be possible. But it is.

They say that according to the Law of Aerodynamics, neither the bumblebee nor the B12 Bomber can fly - whether that's true or not, it's obvious that we still have a long way to go before we can claim we understand our physical reality.

WMC Commentary About That Writers’ Strike at DailyKos

by Alegre - March 25, 2008

Alegre is upset at being treated badly by the sexists at the Daily Kos. I'm shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED. NOT.

Seriously, why do women continue to support his site? It's a boy's club over there and they throw women's rights under the bus without hesitation if it benefits their candidate in the slightest. Women have never been treated well there, nor should they expect to be. If you lie down with dogs, don't bitch when you wake up covered with fleas.

Markos never liked "the Women's Studies set" and never will. That kind of hate doesn't fade with a half-assed apology. This is the third time women have left the site en masse. At this point, ladies, you're beginning to look co-dependent. It happens at every election when the women expect their interests to be represented by the party. At some point, going back to her abuser becomes a woman's conscious choice.

The site is popular because all the women writers link to it even though they've been told they aren't worth reading. Women go there and provide their own work, free of charge, and support his reputation, which is wholly built upon his connection to Joe Trippi. Until women begin to put their work and their links where they will help women, this will continue to happen. If you're going to sell your soul for a little exposure, go all the way and be Ann Coulter. At least she's allied herself with the hypocrites with money. Why stick with a group that is equally sexist and poorly funded to boot? You certainly aren't helping women this way.

This bullshit has been going on since 2002, and it will happen every two years when the boys find it politically convenient to abandon your rights. Wake the fuck up. Seriously.

Dig optical illusions?

Check out Akiyoshi's illusion pages but only if you have a strong stomach. The first one is a doozy!

They talk about atrocities and the Press doesn't care...

Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News?

Click on the link, read the article, write to the media addresses they give and tell them that you think our soldiers committing war crimes is a big damned deal and you expect them to pay attention when these things are discussed. Seriously.

The "Global Warming" of Women's Health

The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance | Health and Wellness | AlterNet

One in 9 American women has an autoimmune disease. Most American's are unable to name even one of these diseases, yet they are more common than breast cancer and heart disease combined. Over the last 30-40 years, the rates of these disorders has sky-rocketed in industrialized nations. We've created such toxic environments for ourselves that our own immune systems get confused and attack our tissues. This is a growing epidemic and no one is talking about it.

There's much, much more, so read the whole article - odds are, it affects someone in your immediate family.

Obama Finally Puts Race on the Table

Election 2008 | AlterNet

In case you can't tell, I'm in a lot of pain over this election. These are not the choices I hoped to have at this stage of the game, but here we are and choose we must.

There are salient arguments both for and against both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Logic isn't helping me. When I can't reason my way through a problem, I have to turn to my intuition and my intuition leads me toward Obama.

I've watched his More Perfect Union speech repeatedly. I want to believe he's the one that can move us into the 21st century. He may have been born for exactly that purpose. A Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas. He's American and international; he's ethnic but multi-racial; he can see all sides of the problem because he has a foot in each world. He said exactly what I wanted him to say in that speech. He talked about the imperfect origins of our democracy and about the fact that the Founders fully intended that we would continue to build upon what they had started. That alone puts him miles ahead of the other two remaining contenders.

I've heard him compared to Jefferson, Lincoln and Kennedy. Whether he belongs in that exalted company remains to be seen, but I want to see him try to live up to those marvelous standards. I want him to succeed. I want the world to look at our young, erudite, multiracial president as a global representative for peace and democracy. I want to feel the chills I feel when he speaks for 8 glorious more years. I want to see if he really can get something done for us in DC. I want the United States to look sophisticated enough to elect a man like Barack. I want us to be the envy of the world again.

I get angry when I hear Chris Matthews harping on Barack's attachment to his minister - a man who said nothing all that objectionable, as far as I'm concerned. It bothers me when the people around me criticize him for nothing more than being a new kind of candidate. I want to scream at everyone to JUST STOP! Stop and listen to what he's saying. It almost doesn't matter if he means it or not. It almost doesn't matter if he can follow through. Somebody said what needed to be said. He's the right person in the right place at exactly the right time in history.

The elections after this don't matter. Even the stolen elections behind us might seem less painful if that was the path we had to take to get to the place Obama can take us. All that matters is here and now and he's the one. He proved it when he stood by his pastor and when he addressed the racial divide in America with unflinching honesty and courage. He didn't back down. He didn't capitulate. He stated his position, he acknowledged the tension everyone has been feeling and he dealt with it.

Yes, the campaign against McCain is going to get ugly. He can handle it. Yes, we still need to worry about the fact that the Republicans still own the voting machines. The Clintons aren't going to go gentle into that dark night, either. But we need to remake the very image of this country and Barack seems tailor made for the position. I'm in.

Hillary's Ties to Religious Fundamentalists

Election 2008 | AlterNet

This is why I don't trust Hillary. People don't understand how intense her particular brand of Christianity is. That link is to an article by Barbara Ehrenreich in which she describes Hillary's connection to a proto-fascist religious group I've mentioned before called The Family. There is a dangerous religious undercurrent to power in Washington, and Hillary is entrenched in it. I cannot trust her. I'm sure of it.

Top 10 Quotes Against Work and a whole bunch of other stuff

Top Ten - Top 10 Quotes Against Work - Top 10 - Charles Bukowski - Factotum - American Beauty - William Faulkner - American Movie - Aldous Huxley - Fight Club - Oscar Wilde - Goodfellas - Henry David Thoreau - Office Space

(Fair Warning - I'm gonna ramble a bit here...)

Number 5:

"I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables—slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war . . . our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."
—Fight Club, 1999

I encourage you to follow the link and read the rest of the quotes on that page- they're quite good. I'm thinking a lot about tribal values and modern society, about wealth and elitism, about what really matters and what we give our time to. Our ancestors lived in mostly egalitarian, matriarchal kinship groups. It took about 20 hours a week per person to accumulate or create enough food and shelter for the entire group, and everyone shared in the groups wealth, no matter how much or how little that might be. There was no sense of exchange or entitlement. It was just life, and people had the time to live it. They worked together for common goals, and sharing the work made it less tedious. There was time to give to the sick, the very young, the very old. Life was relatively stress free. I'm not romanticizing the past - modern scholars are finding that this is probably the way humans really lived. The idea that life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" comes from Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679. Indeed, life in those days would have been just that. It was the height - or low point - of the patriarchy, with the Inquisitions in full bloom, plague sweeping through Europe over 100 times from the 1300s to the 1700s, killing 30 to 60 percent of the population because the people had moved into filthy, rat infested cities. The pandemics were a natural result of people living in the unnatural crowding of a dirty city.

We know now that patriarchy got its start in the Middle East when the formerly lush environment suddenly became a desert. Food was scarce then, but we're still living with the concept of scarcity in the wealthiest nation in the world. Our value system is derived from people who were starving to death. At that point in time, the biggest and strongest, the ones who could steal the most, were the ones that survived. As they began to prosper, their value system became entrenched in their cultures and religion. Conquest became the name of the game, and that included conquest over not just resources but people as well.

Oppression, slavery, rape, greed - these are all legacies of the desert madness that has informed the history of the planet for the last 6,000 years or so. It's time to let them go, and to realize that the Earth's resources belong to everyone. It's time to start acting like family again - to take care of the very young, very old, or the sick or disabled; to share what we have in a fair way that leaves no one in desperate need; to make government work for everyone. We produce enough! We just aren't spreading it around effectively.

I'm not saying no one should ever work. I'm saying we need to stop acting like slaves and slave masters. No job should take a person 60 hours a week, and any boss who expects that is impeding the progress of our civilization. People in Europe don't work 60 hours a week. They don't even work 40 hours a week. They work shorter days, and fewer of them - up to 8 weeks fewer per year. They are driven by more than the "almighty dollar" with which America judges everything. Sick people in those countries get health care. Ours often don't. Parents get help with childcare in those countries - ours pay huge out of pocket prices for lesser care. They're kicking our asses in terms of education, scientific discovery, social justice. America has gone from being the leader in reducing work time to being the biggest slave driver in the game. We don't have to live this way.

The Puritan work ethic has ruined life in America. There's a joke in the Native American community that says before the white people arrived, men got to hunt and fish all day, women did all the work, and the white man thought he could improve a system like that. True, we don't live in wigwams or lodges anymore, but at what cost? I like indoor plumbing as much as anyone, but I happen to think we can have indoor plumbing and a quality of life that involves time spent doing what we want, spending time with friends and family, not worrying about what the clock says.

I can't tell you the amount of time wasted in just trying to enforce arbitrary work times. When I was a union steward, half my time was wasted by people upset because a worker came in a few minutes late during the week. Big shittin' deal. There was more money wasted holding those meetings than the workers ever missed out on. People took all kinds of unscheduled breaks throughout the day anyway, and half the people who came in at the early end of flextime spent their first two hours talking, eating breakfast and reading the paper rather than working. It was the classic case of being "penny wise and pound foolish" - one of those meetings cost more than those workers missed 20 or 30 times over, and they had them repeatedly. What did it accomplish? It made a few people miserable, and that's it. It didn't improve productivity, it certainly didn't improve anyone's attitude or morale, and it never made a difference in behavior because the behavior usually had a basis in some unchangeable circumstance that should have been taken into account in the first place.

Yes, someone needs to make the trains run on time - that's why the Goddess allows Republicans to persist - ha ha! No one should be working for a clock, though, and no one should be working themselves to death - the Japanese actually have a word for working yourself to death! "Karoshi"

No Karoshi, no more! No resenting your neighbor for being sick or poor or young or old. No being a slave to a clock or exploiting others to make a little green. We're all in this life together so let's care about each other. I want to know that every baby in my community has enough to eat - I don't understand the people who don't. It's just not human to be so unconcerned with the welfare of others. I don't begrudge people their food stamps or HUD benefits or LIHEAP grants or any of the very few benefits that still exist for those who are unemployed, under-employed or unemployable.

Our culture tends to polarize itself, and the particular polarity of capitalism is ambition vs. compassion. We approve of people who cheat and steal. We must, or they 'd go to jail when they steal a company's retirement funds. Instead, we give them huge bonuses and let them go on to another company they can rip-off. We let them get away with this because we all think we're going to be one of the rich people one of these days, but as Tyler Durden points out above, we won't. People don't get to move into the upper classes, but they upper classes benefit from maintaining the illusion that it's possible. It isn't, and it's time to stop letting the Vampire Elite bleed us dry.

Greed is NOT good. It's not OK to resent people for living because you can work and they can't. If, some day, heaven forbid, you become unable to work, don't you want to know that you will be OK? That your culture won't let you end up under a bridge or sleeping on a grate? I want to know that. I live in a wealthy and wasteful culture where people who fought for this country are trying to survive in exactly those conditions. So are families with children, old men and women who should be in a safe nursing home or mental facility instead of on the street or in a shelter. If this doesn't bother you, there's something wrong with you. You're too focused on yourself to care about other people the way you should, and too damaged by the patriarchy to have normal human responses to the suffering of others.

There are a lot of damaged people walking around in this culture, and we made the mistake of letting a lot of them get into positions of power. This has to change, and only we can change it.

You always work as a group, not somebody singled out. There is no such thing as that with the Apache. We say, "I walk with you," not " I walk before you" or "I walk behind you"....You are not a leader, you are a part. -Philip Cassadore, Apache

It's time to heal America. She has been wounded by slavery, by theft, by genocide and cruelty. The wounds are fresh, the scars not yet formed. I want to see us wake up and realize that this is the moment when we can undo the damage of the past, and find our way to a future that includes us all. Feminists in particular should learn from the Native Nations as the Suffragists did. There are still extant matriarchies within our shores that function and thrive in spite of the generations of oppression and destruction. Some ideas are too good to die. Some ideas lie dormant, wait for another day, and come back stronger than ever.

I'm torn about this election. My Sisters say Hillary is the obvious choice, but I don't trust her. Barack says all the right words, but can a man right the wrongs of the patriarchal system? I liked his "More Perfect Union" speech, and I like the energy of the people around him. I wish I could trust that wave of energy and just surf. There's so much at stake now. Maybe it will take a transformational, cross-cultural person like Obama to create a new American face to show the world. I liked the fact that Richardson endorsed him today. I think Richardson, who is a Native American, is a good man. I think he knows an honest man when he meets one and I don't think he'd have made a choice if there were no clearly better candidate. He was 100% right about the fact that the Democrats need to stop fighting amongst themselves. There have been enormous amounts of money wasted on this election already - I don't see any benefit in continuing the fight for the nomination.

The web around the world makes a whole new way of living possible. We can look at the past, the present, where we've been and where we want to go with new eyes, from a new perspective. We can take the best of the best and create a better world. We can look objectively at our resources and find fair and efficient ways to use them. Do enough of us have the will to do that? Can we come together in a spirit of cooperation? Are there enough voices of compassion and generosity to drown out the old voices of division? Can America catch up with the rest of the world? Or are we going to let the braying of the media - the Chris Matthews and the Joe Scarboroughs - piss away this opportunity for us. Are we going to keep thinking of ourselves as individual islands of need with no connection to anyone or anything but our immediate surroundings?

Simple common sense - the ability to look at what you have, decide what must be done, then take action to see it through - is all it would take. That would mean ignoring lobbyists and special interests. It might inconvenience some people but there would be other compensation that would result. This can be a win-win situation for the world if we insist that it be so. So let's do. Let's make it happen.

Free the Grapes!:

To Ensure Consumer Choice in Fine Wine

Yes, there are more important issues, but dammit, I occasionally like to have a decent glass of wine with my dinner and that just isn't going to happen here unless they change these stupid laws about being able to buy it over the internet. Once again, Europe is laughing at us - can't we all please act like adults, and let people who drink wine order it from Amazon like we're civilized or something?! Sheesh!

I have a fever. Not that anyone around here cares...

Not a huge fever - 99.4 - but a fever nonetheless, especially considering that my temperature normally hovers around 97 instead of 98.6. It seems like everyone here has been sick for weeks. My Aunt's passing just took what little we had left and it feels like we're shells right now. We're coughing like crazy, everybody is sore and tired and it's hard to breathe.

I had to wipe my hard drive, so hopefully the computer will hold out a while longer.


Ever seen Bull Durham? "We're dealing with a lot of shit...."

Searchers find possible graves at Manson compound

CNN.com

Another KY boy who went on to fame and... well, you know. They may never know exactly how many people the Manson family did kill, but it looks like there might be at least another three out in the mountains of California. It's amazing how people who start out with good intentions can be manipulated by a charismatic lunatic who is waiting for the Apocalypse.

Love Paint as much as I do?

ENJOY~




If there's a word to describe the way this ad. makes me feel, I haven't found it yet...

Echidne on Feminism

Go to Echidne. Read posts marked Part I: Inhale and Part II Exhale. My comments on part II:

Because of time constraints and laptop problems, I couldn't read all of the preceding comments, but i do want to comment on this issue. I'm not really old enough to be a second wave feminist, and I'm definitely too old to be third wave. I guess I'm a two and a half. Anyway, I haven't really written about the presidential campaign since Edwards and Kucinich gave up because I've been struggling with just this question - who is the remaining feminist candidate? Before, I was quite certain it was Kucinich, though there are some feminists that give me crap about that. Now, I'm torn as to what to do.

I usually call myself a matriarchist, which is a "feminist plus" - in my mind. There are a few issues, like pornography, typically lumped in with the tag "feminist" that I'm not in sync with the Sisterhood about. I am most definitely a Sister, though, I'm quite sure.

My perception of second wave feminism is that it was always about social justice, and that the broader purpose was lost when people had to whittle down their mission statements to apply for funding. Funding is bad - it obligates us to and limits us by the patriarchy we're supposed to be trying to destroy. Yes, I said and mean that we should aim to destroy it, not get along with it and not try to make it more woman friendly.

The human race is 54% female, and the other 46% includes a wide array of variations on the original theme. The first step to making progress is to get out of the artificial patriarchal binary. There is one original gender and a variety of adaptations, the most common of which we call "male" but it's certainly not the only one. One and many. E pluribus unum, as it were.

Anything that affects 54% of a population, and that 54%'s children, is a human rig