Rants, Raves and Other Fun Stuff

Dia de los Muertos, part I

Summer in Mississippi. I am nine years old and I'm playing outside with my older sister and my two younger cousins. It's 102 F / 39 C and I smell musty air, cut grass, melting black asphalt and other oppressive smells of the Ol' South. My aunt calls my sister and me inside and sits us both down on the bed. "Stolie," she says in a rural southern drawl, "yaar grandfather daayead." But, I'm only 9. I don't understand death yet. It would be years before I would learn that Grandpa Tucker died of cirrhosis of the liver (a.k.a "he drank himself to death"). In the meantime, to attend the funeral in Illinois, we drive 645.16 miles / 1,038.28 kilometres over 11 hours and 32 minutes. It's strange to me. This person-this human being, my grandfather-with whom I've danced, talked, laughed, smiled, and spoken is gone. All that remains is a cold, suit-donned, lifeless body lying still in the coffin before me.

Technorati Tag: death

Gluten-Free Girl

I've recently discovered Shauna's blog, Gluten-Free Girl. It's a blog that both celebrates a gluten-free diet as well as Shauna's culinary adventures. I found myself going back to this post several times today, because quite frankly, the only time I've had a fig was in a Newton. It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and Shauna's food photography is as tantalizing and colorful and textured as the food she talks about.

I guess you could say my Inner Foodie was intrigued.

In this post of hers on 27 August, she tempts us with a platter of split figs dabbled with some goat cheese that are toasted briefly under the broiler until the cheese is melty, bubbly, and browned.

Christa made these broiled figs often in the penthouse apartment. Madamde CFP loved them. And so did I. Ridiculously easy to make, they tasted decadent, like gourmet candy and expensive restaurants at the same time. So I put little dabs of leftover goat cheese on the figs I had sliced in half, then put the tray under the broiler. Five minutes later, and I was sighing with pleasure as I ate. Softly sweet, with a crunch of seeds, everything melting into one, the smooth taste of goat cheese spreading into the sweetness, and all of it over in thirty seconds. But the taste lingers and fingers its way down to my stomach. I'm happy and absolutely awake.

I decided that I HAD to try this recipe today.

I don't even know if you can call it a "recipe," since it seems way too simple. But perhaps that's the idea: Food doesn't have to be elaborately prepared for to it to have meaning - what's important are the memories you associate with the food, be it the first time you tried it, or a special meal out with the significant other, whatever.

So I tried to create some fig memories - of experimentation - tonight. I tried one fig with brie (as the original recipe suggests) and one fig with dabs of chevre. And I have to say, the chevre wins out in my book. The creamy and mildly tart cheese is the perfect complement to the fig's natural sweetness, which is only heightened when you broil it.


Technorati Tag: food

Occupied

The quiet before AND after the storm (the next one)

Four dead in two weeks time


While writing last night's post, i didn't know that the next murders had already taken place. Two men, Mustafa Abu Huti aged 42 and Yaser Abu Shahab, 26 years old, reported to be close to the Hamed family (one of the families involved in the feud), were murdered in the "Etrog" market, not far from my home.


I write "the next" because everyone knows it's just a matter of time.

Technorati Tag: Israel

Soft Pretzel Love

What's that you say? The US would never fabricate evidence to further its own political agenda?

Well, aside from the reasons for going to war with Iraq, there's an article in the UK Scotsman that asserts key evidence in the Lockerbie investigation was fabricated.

I'm going to direct you now to my friend Erica's post over at Soft Pretzel Love. She's a friend of mine who did some journalism work in Lockerbie a few years ago as part of a project in partnership with our alma mater. I forwarded her the article (which was forwarded to me by my friend BYO - how's that for full disclosure?) because I knew her personal involvement would yield a better post than I could ever write.


Technorati Tag: politics

Aspects of Amber

What Does It All Mean?

We watched Hotel Rwanda the other night and it deeply affected me. Don't worry, I won't give away any spoilers so if you haven't seen the movie, rest assured I won't ruin anything. I do highly recommend renting it; it is a superb film and, like other films in its genre; "Life is Beautiful", "Schindler's List", etc., it is the kind of movie that makes you stop and think.


Or, as in my case, interrupt your sleep because you're thinking so hard.


I can't sleep since I've seen the movie two nights ago, you see. Last night I woke up around 2:30am and thought about the world and what happens in the world, struggling with *why* there is such insanity and darkness and hatred in the world until 5:30am when I finally dozed off and on for a while until I got up at 6:30.


Where is the good in evil? Where is the good in genocide? In murder? In abuse? If God is good and everything has a purpose, then where is the good in these bad things? I was an atheist/agnostic for most of my life, ever since I turned 13 or so and had read enough books on religion to realize that *somebody* is lying about what God is. Everyone says their religion is the right one, but they are all different, sometimes radically so, so they can't all be right. And I'm not quite vain enough to believe that just because I was born in a predominantly Christian country that Christianity is right and everyone else over the centuries has been dead wrong.

Technorati Tag: religion

Boinkette

Only in, er, Bangkok

I wish our government was this interesting:


Thailand's prime minister is trying to ferret out a government minister who allegedly had a penis enlargement procedure, saying news of it is affecting the Cabinet's reputation, a news report said Wednesday.


"Who did it? Tell me," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told his ministers at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, triggering a round of banter and causing some to squirm in their chairs, The Nation newspaper said.


Talk about asking hard questions.

Technorati Tag: Thailand

Windy City Dreamer

Crystal over at Windy City Dreamer's post this week discusses Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible and how it presents a haunting tale of an American missionary family that moves to the Congo, and how their life in Africa changes them forever.

She then goes on to discuss the brutal murder of the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. He was assasinated in January 1961 and was replaced by Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Wa Za Banga ("The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake"). Mobutu - aside from having the longest name ever - turned out to be not so much a great leader. The Poisonwood Bible also makes many references to Mobutu.

Anyway, so here's what happened to Lumumba. Read the whole Wikipedia entry to find out the horiffic things this man went through at the hands of Mobutu and the Belgian government. I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert on African history and politics, but I urge you: Know this happened.

In February of 2002, the Belgian government apologized to the Congonese people, and admitted to a "moral responsibility" and "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba." In July of the same year documents released by the United States government revealed that the while the CIA had been kept informed of Belgium's plans, they had no direct role in Lumumba's eventual death.


However, this same disclosure showed that US perception at the time was that Lumumba was a crypto-Communist. The same documents also record that US President Eisenhower directly called for Lumumba's murder in one meeting, and a CIA effort was initiated, involving an infamous CIA hit man codenamed QJ/WIN. [Emphasis mine.]

Interesting, eh? You mean Pat Robertson isn't the only one calling for assassination of international leaders?

Technorati Tag: politics

Damn She Can Ramble!

Something I learned last hurricane season

Do your laundry before the storm.


Seriously, while your neighbors are out drinking beer, boarding up or running to Publix for ice and water, do your laundry.


I tell you this because before one storm last year, I did not do this.


We were without electricity and water for....8 days.

Technorati Tag: hurricane

kat

How to get yourself noticed.

Arrive at a Manchester conference centre just that little bit later than everyone else. Collect a freshly brewed black coffee and walk elegantly through the bar to join the others in the sunny garden. Notice the second step, at the door way, but fail to see the one immediately in front of you. Throw the coffee cup up into the air and have its contents rain down on you as you fall flat on your face and smash the saucer on the concrete floor. Remain calm and silent as three men pick you up and allow one of them ( whom you have never met before ) to carry you to a garden seat. Calmly stem the fuss as everyone thinks it would be best to get the first aid box and mop up the blood.

This is an old post, but after the day, week, month, oh hell, year I've had ... this actually made me realize that it's not just me that has bad days!

Technorati Tag: conference

New Employment/Work Category at Blogs by Women

We've just added a new category to the directory -- Employment/Work. If you have any ideas about new categories, please email us.



Technorati Tag: employment

Random Ramblings Of A Madwoman

Another First Anniversary

This time exactly a year ago, Jeffers was in School and I was somewhere over the Atlantic 3 hours outside Toronto, cursing the 8 hour plane flight with a numb ass and wondering what I ever did to deserve such punishment.


Yep, I was on my way to meet the man of my dreams for the first time since we got together in May. I still remember the fears I had, but funnily enough they weren't fears of actually meeting Jeff for the first time. They were fears of getting off the plane and being told that Iwasn't allowed in the country for whatever reason, and fear of Jeff not being there waiting for me, irrational I know but hell I was so not thinking straight at the time.

Technorati Tag: anniversary

Kim's Notebook

What scares me more than the GOP?

The other day we were all sitting around talking about phobias. I found that I have some friends that are afraid of snakes, some that are afraid of sharks, so and so forth. When I tried to think of what my phobia was I couldn't think of one. Sure I there are things that scare me like men in ski masks who have knives or guns, terrorists with bombs in their backpacks, Republicans...but I wouldn't really say any of those count as phobias.


Then yesterday it came to me. I'm afraid of the beast they call "The Relationship". I get goosebumps just thinking about it!

Technorati Tag: relationships

Supernatural Women

What do you think of when you think of the phrase "spirit medium"?

Various writings hint to a somewhat natural affinity of the spirit world to women. For example, in the Daoist religion, it is said that women make much better sorceresses and spirit mediums because they "are more sensitive and vunlerable than men. It's easier for them to empathize with the sufferings of others, so it's especially easy for gods to enter their bodies."

Virge, in this weekend's blog post, talks about her brush with the supernatural during her graveyard shift at a local shelter for a transitional living program.

If you don't believe in this sort of thing, it still makes for an entertaining story. However, you've got to ask yourself: Who was she talking to then, if it wasn't the person she thought it was? What is the "logical" explanation for it? Or is there one?

Can you get to the point in your own personal logic in which you accept that there are just some things that just cannot be explained away by scientific theory?

And are women more "in tune" with the spirit world, more so than men are, if a "spirit world" - as we imagine it - truly exists?

Technorati Tag: ghosts

Aussie In The Orient

It was the breast of times, it was the worst of times

I tried to buy a new bra this morning, but was told my breasts were too big for any of the bras in the shop.

No really.

Stop laughing.

Those of you in cyberspace who are unaware of my bra size should be tipped off by the raucous uncontrollable laughing you can hear echoing around the world at this very moment. Obviously this is a very new phenomenon for me.

As it happens I am too 'fat' to fit into most of the pants off the rack here. I have a 30 inch waist: yeah I'm a regular whale.

I guess the only consolation to being a human whale, is that in comparison to the girls around me I have Pammy Anderson's breasts.

Shut-up, I said in comparison!

Technorati Tag: bra

Brilliant at Breakfast

The best way to counteract the anti-military right

We live in strange times indeed, when it's people on the right who bulldoze rows of memorial crosses dedicated to lost men and women serving in the military. It's people on the right doing opposition research on a woman who lost her eldest son in a war. It's people on the right who elect representatives who vote for cuts in veterans' medical care and benefits.


People on the right love war, but hate those who fight it and their families.

Technorati Tag: politics

In A Nutshell

My First Bridal Show!

So Sunday afternoon, I went to lunch and then to a bridal show with my fiancee's mother and sister -- and it was so much fun! We looked at dresses, tasted cake, drank punch, and avoided the lingerie booths. (His mother says she can't look at those booths with me and will I please humor her?)


There were a lot of people there so some of the booths I didn't get to look at as closely as I would have liked, but there were several good ideas that I found for invitations and such. I know his mom must think I'm looney because I kept looking at portraits and saying, "Wouldn't Justin and I look good in that?" or "Oooh, that invitation -- my name would look perfect right there." But then again, his sister is married so she's been through this once before.

Technorati Tag: wedding

...imperfectlikeus...

Landing Strip

Don't know if it's the wildfire to the northwest or my eyes. The night sky seems hazy to me. But at least the moon has set.


The low blanket noise of the insects is broken by a car on the road below our hill. Sound travels oddly through the trees to the middle of the field where I sit. It all sounds like beat up country warbling on those dark turns into the valley. I like to think that it's Waylon or Kris coming through their dashboard.


There! To the east!

Technorati Tag: meteor

faboo mama

Out of my butt...

Another reason I'm tired is the whole Cindy Sheehan wonderama (please visit the link and donate what you can). Every morning I wake up and Google has thousands of stories on her and the beauty that is Camp Casey. I know I'm draining myself just crying over the blogposts I've been reading from everyone who's gone down there to help. I'm also expending energy on those wingnut dumbfucks who apparently can only scare up a few hateful anti-protesters for 30 min. Pretty fucking pathetic. They probably had to bribe them with lunch or beer. Losers.


Anyway, every time I hear Mrs. Sheehan speak, I am riveted. She so softspoken, yet totally entrances you. You can hear the anquish in her voice. I'm glad to hear she wasn't at the camp when those wastes of space were chanting, "We don't care". I know that if I were in her shoes and I heard that, ya'll would have seen me get medieval on some fools. Those sacks of flesh aren't even fit to be called people.

Technorati Tag: politics

vitriolica webb's ite

I'm changing my bank

I swear, if I have to stand in that bloody bank for another whole hour just waiting to deposit some cheques, I'm gonna lose it and scream at some old ladies who just stand there, resigned to it all, saying "well, this is how it is".


I have no idea why "my bank" bothered putting in an expensive senha/ticket system... little has changed: only that one doesn't have to stand in a line that snakes round the room any more, just in a kind of cloud of people... and one could theoretically read a book while waiting, as there's an annoying "bing bong" everytime the numbers go up... but one would be so irritated by the "bing bong" that one couldn't possibly concentrate.

I picked this post less for the content and more for the drawing, so please click over and check it out. In fact, check out the blog. All the drawings are very cool!

Technorati Tag: drawings

Echo Mouse

Bad News Week

There's certainly been enough bad news this week. But the worst came this morning.


In April, 1990, a young woman, on her way back to University in London, Ontario, Canada, was murdered en route. Her car was sabotaged at a rest stop. The killer(s) followed her until she broke down on the dark highway in the middle of the night. Her car was brand new so when I heard about this murder, I knew immediately it was set up.


The victim was Lynda Shaw, a young woman studying Engineering at a London University. She was on her way back to school after a weekend visit home. She never made it back to school. The killer(s) sexually assualted her, murdered her, then set her body on fire. Despite the fire, police did recover DNA evidence. But because this was 1990, they couldn't get anything from it. Finally, this summer, they ran DNA testing on the evidence and found a match. That's where this news gets even worse, if that's possible to imagine.

Technorati Tag: rape

Plein Air

Pastel Landscape Portraits created by Rebecca Grantham

...en plein air | this French phrase translates as "in the open air", and it is used to describe the act of painting outdoors

I didn't go thru the archives, but I think Spring Poetry is my favorite just from the main page.

Technorati Tag: landscape

Open Letter to Margaret Cho

My friend Dan, the one I wrote about back in May who's making a documentary on Bernie Baran, just wrote this letter to Comedian and Gay-Friendly Activist Margaret Cho, in the hopes that she'll help build awareness about his case. I'm reproducing the letter here, because as a Person-Who-Loves-Gay-People, I want Bernie's voice to be heard. Every American deserves the right to a free trial. And in the tradition of the West Memphis 3 and Mumia Abu-Jamal, I want to do my part - however small - to end injustice in our own country.

***
From: Daniel Alexander
Date: Aug 11, 2005 12:56 PM
Subject: Bernie Baran
To: margaret@margaretcho.net

Dear Margaret & Margaret's People,

I'm writing to tell you about a gay man I have gotten to know while making a documentary film about him, his story, his family, and the injustice done against them.

His name is Bernie Baran. He likes to be called Bee. He's one of the most courageous and sweetest guys I have ever met. He reminds me of the guy at the Gap on Upper Market in San Francisco that can fold a sweater perfectly while simultaneously chatting you up and ringing you up, and noticing that you've lost a few pounds when you haven't. Unfortunately, Bee has not had the chance to work at the Gap, or see San Francisco.

Bernie Baran has the dubious distinction of being the first conviction from the day care panic of the 1980s where dozens of innocent day care workers across the country were wrongly convicted of child abuse. In some ways the Baran case is just like all the other day care cases: false accusations from one, crazed parent, then a panic amongst the other parents; aggressive, suggestive interviews with young children leading them to believe they were abused when they weren't; bad science introduced in the court room; constitutional rights to face your accusers overridden; parents allowed to make hearsay testimony in place of their children.

Bee's case gets worse than the others in that he was targeted because of his open homosexuality. The mother who sparked the panic in the Baran case said in a deposition that gay people shouldn't be around kids, shouldn't be allowed to have kids, shouldn't be allowed to get married, shouldn't be allowed out in public. Her son has boasted privately as recently as this year that he and his mother got away with accusing a gay guy of raping him when he didn't so they could file a civil suit for millions of dollars.

Baran's trial transcript reads like a homophobic melodrama. Think of those cases in the Deep South where African-American men were accused and convicted of rape without any evidence when the all-white juries just wanted to see black men hang. The Baran trial was much like this, with the assumption that any gay man around children must only be there to molest regardless of there being no evidence of it and plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Baran was 19 at the time of his arrest in a small town in Western Massachusetts. When he went to trial in 1984 It was still months before Doris and Rock appeared on television and AIDS became AIDS. It was still a mysterious disease during the Baran trial, and Baran was portrayed as some kind of diseased animal because he was gay and worked with children. He is still in prison today.

I recently read your blog entries about Zach and his incarceration. I also noticed you have several links to cases of injustice similar to Bee's case. I thought perhaps you might write a blog entry about Bernie Baran. (Please, pretty please: your voice goes much farther than any of the rest of us who have told Bee's story.)

Each time his story is printed (which has been rare), or each time I screen some clips from my film, a few new people come into the fold to support him in some way which he appreciates in ways we can't understand.

I've included links at the end of the email so you can read much more about him. Or you can contact me with questions; I know the case inside and out.

A ruling on overturning his conviction comes down this fall in Worcester, Massachusetts. Baran loves to hear from people on the outside who read about his story and contact him in writing to say they believe he is innocent (which he is). He especially likes to hear from gay people and people-who-love-gay-people, the luckiest people in the world. Although he is on "the inside" he was worked to keep up with the changes in gay culture. He is Queer Eye and Will & Grace literate, sneaking a portable television into his cell to watch the late night reruns hidden under the covers. He does a great Megan Mullally.

Bee is a genuinely nice guy who lives in hell but whose spirit withstands it all. In person, he's almost as funny as you.

Thanks for considering posting an entry about Bee, thanks for being a person who loves gay people, and thanks for making us laugh.

Sincerely,
Dan Alexander
917 385 4714

Attached is an article by Katha Pollitt from The Nation that encapsulates the Baran case in a page.

[...]

For all the details of Bee's case, go to the Bernard Baran Defense Fund. The site and fund are managed by two Boston justice activists who have been Bee's staunch supporters – and his gay dads -- for 6 years now. The site is comprehensive.

If you prefer watching over reading, there is an 11 minute teaser from the doc about Bee posted at my site.

Technorati Tag: injustice

A rock just stays cool, very ...cool

I'll take Lungs for $500 Alex

ok here goes. My meter, which you should see at the top of the screen, is set for midnight tonight, I'm going to have one more cigg...then tomorrow I'm quitting.


I'm back on the Quit smoking support message board.


The place helped me quit for 9 months and I was dumb enough to start again...so I'm having another go....wish me luck!

Technorati Tag: smoking

The Alley Notebooks

Monday morning reading

I thought you might like to know- particulary those of you who are male and commented on "Why My Dad May Live a Lonely Old Age"- that Amanda over at Pandagon was inspired by your comments to write a post of her own on the topic. And then her commenters jumped in, of course, and things got heated, fast. As happens at Pandagon.

Please hop over, great discussions going on.

Technorati Tag: sexuality

the Hathor Legacy

Flirting for Promotions

Studies and demographic information leave me skeptical for the same reason: the entire outcome can be determined by just how you phrase the question. That said, there's a thought-provoking study from Tulane University that suggests flirtation in the workplace holds women back instead of getting them promoted. I'll be very curious to see if TV producers who assume the opposite get this menu, or accidentally file it in the round bin.


The study came about because folks like Donal Trump were shooting their mouths off about how women should use their "God-given assets" to dazzle employers. Funny... my first thought there is "brains", but somehow I don't think that's what he meant. The Tulane professors realized there was no evidence either way about whether flaunting it in the workplace gets women further, because most studies focus on sexual harrassment issues.

Technorati Tag: flirtation

Can't Keep Quiet

F#cking Moron

I had intended to use this title and post about the f#cking moron that decided to slam on his brakes and turn right across two lanes of traffic to get off the interstate today at an exit he should have just called a miss. This particular f#cking moron nearly caused at least a 3 car crash that I would have been part of.


Before I started to write that post, however, I found this at the Sisters Talk blog.


Santorum feels that contraception is harmful to women and society. In the clip you can watch him as he says


I think it's harmful to women. I think to our society. To have a society that says sex outside of marriage is something that should be encouraged or tolerated, particularly among the young.


I first started using birth control pills when I was in college. Having sex didn't have a damn thing to do with going on the pill for me. I went on the pill because my periods were out of control. I would have a period that could last for anywhere from 3 to 12 days. The time between the beginning of periods could be anywhere between 14 days and 60 days.

Technorati Tag: politics

JERUSALEM SYNDROME: a playground of messianic delusions.....

baruch dayan haemet

for the four Israeli Arabs just killed in the North. By a militant religious Jewish army deserter, one of those freaking Kahane people.


I'm so angry there aren't words.


And also scared for how this is going to affect the rest of the hitnatkut (Gaza withdrawl).


Argh.


May the souls of the murdered innocent, as always, on all sides, rest in peace.

Technorati Tag: Israel

Blue Witch

Is this the way to do it?

I was in my favourite Value supermarket earlier (I'm not going to name it because you all know which it is by now, and Google doesn't need to know), and, just as the cashier was starting to scan my goods, two uniformed policewomen, and a plain clothes female officer came out of the staff-side door, with one of the long-standing cashiers who I know to say hello to.


"We'll be in touch then," said one of the WPCs, "and do take good note of what we've said." They strode off importantly.


I was rather confused, and at first wondered what they'd done with the shoplifter. The cashier I know then came over to the till where I was, shaking her head and looking very worried. The other cashier gave her a knowing look.

Technorati Tag: alcohol

asi es mi vida

school jitters

I'm starting school again after 3 yrs off. This time I'm getting my doctorate in psychology. Funny, I know I want to do this, but as usual, I have doubts about doing this. This is big committment, mentally, physically, emotionally not to mention financially. Someone asked me why am I doing this if I already have a master's degree. Mostly it's practical, I can do a lot more with a doctorate in Psychology. I couldn't find anything in dc with a masters that wasn't social work. No offense to the MSW's out there, but that's not my cup of tea. To a smaller degree, it's a personal goal. I wanted to see if I can do it. Apply, get in, and finish. I suppose my family influenced me. Not the way you think. My parents, god love em, weren't that supportive. Mostly due to the language / immigrant / cultural differences. They were too busy working 12 hour shifts in factories to go to teacher's conferences, or to presentations. They were(are) old school mexican catholic traditionalists, valuable work to them was with your hands. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful to my parents. They worked hard, gave us all we needed. I have friends/cousins my age who spent most of their childhoods in the fields. I can't blame my parents for not having the tools that they never had to begin with.

Technorati Tag: hispanics

Maribel Cuevas

Yes, she threw a rock.

Yes, it made 8-year-old Elijah Vang's forehead bleed. A lot.

Yes, the boys were teasing her.

But kids tease other kids. Kids also react irrationally. They're kids, for fuck's sake.

Leading 11-year-old Maribel Cuevas away in handcuffs, saying she "resisted arrest" by kicking officers and scratching one on the arm is a bit much. She's a kid. She was probably scared out of her right mind. Big scary white man with badge going to take little brown girl away.

The way Fresno police have treated Lil' Cuevas was as if she was the town bully or something. Quite frankly, if I was a kid, and a group of seven boys started throwing rocks and water balloons at me while I was minding my own business playing with my little brother and some friends, best believe I would throw rocks back at them.

How outrageous is it, that the more we do things to "protect the children," we end up doing things that
a) will fuck them up forever (e.g. what's being done to Maribel Cuevas),
b) end up being unsuccessful because kids will do what kids do anyway (e.g. downloading a patch so that they can play GTA San Andreas with all the nasty parts), or
c) make childhood boring as hell (e.g. trick-or-treating in malls).

Has the world really gotten worse, or has it pretty much stayed the same but we've only become more informed and, therefore, more paranoid?


(cross posted at You Forgot Poland!)

UPDATE: Luckily, the Powers That Be have come to their senses and agreed that Lil' Cuev go to into mediation with Elijah Vang's family instead of going to trial to face the felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Fresno's mayor and police chief stand by their handling of the case, asserting that it was the right thing to do.

BlogHer

BlogHer

Instead of the normal excerpt of a post, I wanted to share two links of what I feel are excellent BlogHer reviews.

BlogHer Summed Up

BlogHer Takeaways: All the Maps Change When...

Technorati Tag: blogher

Daily Pepper

Bush: Oh, Goody, I'm Going to Recess!

The word "recess" used to have such positive connotations ...


It looks like we're stuck with John Bolton, the world's most constipated walrus, as our ambassador to the UN. A "recess appointment," in which the president rams through an appointee because Congress isn't in session, let George II sneak "his man" into the post.


Christopher Dodd was on "Fox News Sunday" to speak against the appointment. Host Chris Wallace interrupted Dodd and offered the standard Fox News justification for Bush's actions:


Clinton did it. Up yours!

Technorati Tag: politics

Blogs by Women Code and Yahoo Mail

Many of you who received an invitation to join the Blogs by Women blogroll have had problems retrieving the code from your Yahoo mail. Please click here to grab the code.

Please, DO NOT email me to request that you are added to the blogroll unless you have already added the list to your blog.

One more thing: I will start ignoring the rude ass emails/comments I'm receiving from some of you lovely ladies. The list is 251 blogs long. If you have any apprehension about the size of the list please don't join the blogroll. You are more than welcome to add your blog to the directory even if you don't join the blogroll.

UPDATE August 20, 2005: Grab the code here. You MUST add the code before you send a request to join the blogroll.

--Genia
SistersTalk


Technorati Tag: blogging