On Leave
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Far From the 'Banning' Crowd
I hope it's the frenzy of the dying that has made the religious right, and all the people duped and terrified by them, ratchet up the forceful increase in 'shut up and disappear' tactics. You know, the ones they use instead of trying to make a point through reason and calm argument.
You tell them the earth has been around for billions of years and we are just a minuscule dot in an otherwise unfathomably large set of endless universes and their response is 'shut up and disappear'. Suggest that the human experience is colourful, endlessly surprising, diverse, full of more questions than answers and, therefore, beautiful...'shut up and disappear'. Suggest that humans are capable of thinking, choosing and learning from their own mistakes, and need I say it? 'shut up and disappear'.
Fear, paranoia and sexual obsessions are unfortunately the calling cards of these fanatics who want the world in little tiny simplistic boxes that are to0 small and too weak to hold in the crazily gorgeous multiplicity of possibilities offered up by science and art and the ability to love and create and be brave. So they get mad and have to shut us all up and make us disappear.
And yet, here we all are still talking and still dancing and still singing and still loving and still saying we are not afraid. They are so small and they are dying, so we understand that they need to be loud right now, but facts and reason and hearts bigger than their tiny misfiring brains are always going to sway to that everlasting tune they may someday, if they're lucky, recognize as freedom. Before they take their own advice and shut up and disappear.
You tell them the earth has been around for billions of years and we are just a minuscule dot in an otherwise unfathomably large set of endless universes and their response is 'shut up and disappear'. Suggest that the human experience is colourful, endlessly surprising, diverse, full of more questions than answers and, therefore, beautiful...'shut up and disappear'. Suggest that humans are capable of thinking, choosing and learning from their own mistakes, and need I say it? 'shut up and disappear'.
Fear, paranoia and sexual obsessions are unfortunately the calling cards of these fanatics who want the world in little tiny simplistic boxes that are to0 small and too weak to hold in the crazily gorgeous multiplicity of possibilities offered up by science and art and the ability to love and create and be brave. So they get mad and have to shut us all up and make us disappear.
And yet, here we all are still talking and still dancing and still singing and still loving and still saying we are not afraid. They are so small and they are dying, so we understand that they need to be loud right now, but facts and reason and hearts bigger than their tiny misfiring brains are always going to sway to that everlasting tune they may someday, if they're lucky, recognize as freedom. Before they take their own advice and shut up and disappear.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sulayman Al-Bassam's Richard iii on PBS
A friend described him as a 'national treasure'... I might have to agree.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Donald Macintyre says we should be '..very Afraid' of the Israeli elections... One candidate plants a tree in occupied territory as an election ploy (and that isn't his worst behaviour)... Another is in the lead thanks to his racism and his ability to publicly say things like the Egyptian president can "go to hell". And Gaza knows too well what another bunch of candidates did to gain votes...
Well at least someone that doesn't sound ignorant, childish or insane can be elected somewhere.. even though it won't affect the nonsense above much.
Speaking of fear, the racist far right in Russia are also turning their crippling fear of 'the other' into a murderous rampage of stupidity and terror..
The strange contradictions of the human spirit are tugging at me... that flutter we get from the prospect of adventure can make a 56 year old swim across the Atlantic or an 18 year old sign up to kill and die thousands of miles from home... That nagging fear of death can make you an artist or a madman, and which is better at erasing the end? The desire to devour everything can make you a scholar or an adulterer or both...who isn't an adulterer after all with our unquenchable sense of entitlement that grows greater the faster time passes and we see our ability to care for anything other than our fading selves get weaker and hazier... as the noose tightens we try to spread our cornered flesh over its borders, forgetting the endless wonders swarming within...
Time, you damn killer, how we yearn for you in our multitude of final gasps.
But I digress...
Now see here, the NYTimes has some swell photos of "Generation Faithful: Away from Home in Dubai", Gaza/Israel photos in "A War's Many Angles".
And I leave you with... nothing.
Well at least someone that doesn't sound ignorant, childish or insane can be elected somewhere.. even though it won't affect the nonsense above much.
Speaking of fear, the racist far right in Russia are also turning their crippling fear of 'the other' into a murderous rampage of stupidity and terror..
The strange contradictions of the human spirit are tugging at me... that flutter we get from the prospect of adventure can make a 56 year old swim across the Atlantic or an 18 year old sign up to kill and die thousands of miles from home... That nagging fear of death can make you an artist or a madman, and which is better at erasing the end? The desire to devour everything can make you a scholar or an adulterer or both...who isn't an adulterer after all with our unquenchable sense of entitlement that grows greater the faster time passes and we see our ability to care for anything other than our fading selves get weaker and hazier... as the noose tightens we try to spread our cornered flesh over its borders, forgetting the endless wonders swarming within...
Time, you damn killer, how we yearn for you in our multitude of final gasps.
But I digress...
Now see here, the NYTimes has some swell photos of "Generation Faithful: Away from Home in Dubai", Gaza/Israel photos in "A War's Many Angles".
And I leave you with... nothing.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
This girl's photo is one I can't stop coming back to... A sense of guilt and shame, at the world community which has fiddled as Gaza burned and our impotence in the face of these crimes, makes me unable to make her invisible..
===
See photos of Gaza from the relief organization Care.
And Photos of Gaza from Save the Children
===
"The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while two male members of his family shrieked and roared their grief. Below, at half the size, was a photograph from Israel of Western leaders joking with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister." Robert Fisk
And Photos of Gaza from Save the Children
===
"The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while two male members of his family shrieked and roared their grief. Below, at half the size, was a photograph from Israel of Western leaders joking with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister." Robert Fisk
===
Paul Kaye lost his mother-in-law to a Hamas rocket, and he describes his family's sadness at what Israel is doing:
"My wife says she feels scared and lost and full of guilt. "It's my country and I see myself as Israeli not Jewish," she keeps shouting at me. Does that make you feel better or worse about what's going on, I ask? "That's worse!" she says, "because Israel is nothing to do with God." I digest this, but don't even know where to begin to start unravelling that statement." continue
===
The Observer reports that eyewitnesses in Gaza say that Israeli Soldiers:
"My wife says she feels scared and lost and full of guilt. "It's my country and I see myself as Israeli not Jewish," she keeps shouting at me. Does that make you feel better or worse about what's going on, I ask? "That's worse!" she says, "because Israel is nothing to do with God." I digest this, but don't even know where to begin to start unravelling that statement." continue
===
The Observer reports that eyewitnesses in Gaza say that Israeli Soldiers:
- attempted to bulldoze houses with civilians inside;
- killed civilians trying to escape under the protection of white flags;
- opened fire on an ambulance attempting to reach the wounded;
- used indiscriminate force in a civilian area and fired white phosphorus shells continue
===
Caoimhe Butterly, An Irish Human Rights activist riding with ambulances in Gaza reports:
"The morgues of Gaza's hospitals are over-flowing. The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa hospital morgue. Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in. Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, husband, father, mother, wife, child." continue
===
Despite the fluffing of feathers that comes with Israel continuously saying it 'withdrew' from Gaza in 2005, Ralph Nader writes:
"In 2006, the Israelis added to their unrelieved control of air, water and land around the open-air prison by establishing a blockade. The natives became restless. Under international law, a blockade is an act of war. Primitive rockets, called by reporters "wildly inaccurate" were fired into Israel. During this same period, Israeli soldiers and artillery and missiles would go into Gaza at will and take far more lives and cause far more injuries than those incurred by those rockets. Civilians-especially children, the infirm and elderly-died or suffered week after week for lack of medicines, medical equipment, food, electricity, fuel and water which were embargoed by the Israelis."continue
===
Who Violated the ceasefire? A Chronology of events assembled from the news and human rights oranisation by Howard Friel
===
Israel's disconnect: Surgical strikes and careful warnings to civilians are what the IDF claims. As I learned in Lebanon, the reality is far different Julie Flint, The Guardian.
===
Video of a boy wounded by the white phosphorus that Israel is being accused of using
===
Friday, January 9, 2009
A very dear friend is writing an excellent poem/song, to deal with the frustration and horror at what is happening in Gaza... and to hopefully move people to feel things they should feel at this disgusting display of human cruelty.
I am afraid I can't be as articulate. The frustration cripples the mind, and the outrageous and vicious statements made everyday to justify the slaughter of civilians is beyond comprehension.
Some lives are more precious than others, and it is so savagely clear in these bloody days.
3 United Nations Schools where civilians were finding refuge are hit, even though their coordinates were known.
More than 700 Palestinians killed, so far
Thousands injured
Medics targeted
The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme was bombed
UN Aid workers shot at
11 Israelis dead 8 of them soldiers, so far.
Another sound bite is that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 so the Palestinians have nothing to complain about...The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has this to say:
"Israel issued an order declaring the end of the military government in the Gaza Strip, and claimed that it was no longer responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of life there. However, Israel continued to control the air and sea space, movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (also via neighboring countries), the population registry, family unification, and the crossing of goods to and from Gaza . Also, residents of the Gaza Strip rely solely on Israel for its supply of fuel, electricity, and gas. Until 28 June 2006, an independent electric-power station operated in the Gaza Strip, producing about one-half of the electricity needed by the residents in the Strip. The station relied completely on fuel and gas from Israel. On 28 June, Israel bombed the electric-power station. Since then, residents of the Gaza Strip have relied completely on Israel for their electricity."
==
Another sound bite involves the idea that civilians are being avoided:
"Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead – almost all civilians, most of them children and women – in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians?
What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties"
Robert Fisk. The Independent
"Israel's use of white phosphorus airburst shells over the densely populated Gaza Strip came under fresh criticism last night for endangering civilians."
The Guardian
"In a scathing statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) accused the Israeli army of failing to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded"
ABCNews
Roger Cohen, The International Herald Tribune
"Many kids have stopped eating. They are inactive, they barely talk, they cling to their parents all the time," said Sajy Elmaghinni, who works for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Gaza.
AFP
"Four exhausted children have been discovered cowering in a house next to the bodies of their mothers by staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross" The Guardian
"The major news outlets meekly accepted Israel's banning of journalists from entering Gaza as an excuse for downplaying collateral civilian casualties" The Nation
===
And then:
"Israel pushed ahead with its offensive in the Gaza Strip today, ignoring a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. " The Independent
BBC
The Huffington Post
Youtube/video:
The massacre of children in Gaza
News footage from french channels
The 19 month blockade of Gaza, an exchange between the two sides.
Clips from a film about life in Gaza: Occupation 101
UN Official outside Gaza Hospital
A Palestinian woman not allowed out of Gaza to get cancer treatment
"Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, has four correspondents in Gaza and its bulletins are broadcasting graphic images that would never find their way on to western TV screens."
The Guardian
Here are the Jazeera English news channel clips on youtube.
"All we had heard about conditions in Gaza – deprivation, a sense of despair, the lack of economic activity – had not prepared us for the stark reality which we saw."
Desmond Tutu after visiting Gaza during the blockade.
A UN report on the blockade/siege includes the following:
UNICEF photoessay
“It seems the international community is neglecting them, that somehow Palestinian children don’t deserve the protections guaranteed under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law.
Science Daily, 2006
'Routine day' that made two teenagers a bloody statistic
Political cartoons about the blockade: 1, 2, 3
I leave you with Lama Al-Othman
I am afraid I can't be as articulate. The frustration cripples the mind, and the outrageous and vicious statements made everyday to justify the slaughter of civilians is beyond comprehension.
Some lives are more precious than others, and it is so savagely clear in these bloody days.
========
The Casualties
More than 200 Palestinian children killed, so far.The Casualties
3 United Nations Schools where civilians were finding refuge are hit, even though their coordinates were known.
More than 700 Palestinians killed, so far
Thousands injured
Medics targeted
The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme was bombed
UN Aid workers shot at
11 Israelis dead 8 of them soldiers, so far.
=========
The Talking Points
Anyone who has heard the Israeli spokespeople in the media is bound to have realized that they have a set of talking points that they stick to no matter what question they are asked. Here are some responses and refutations of those arguments:The Talking Points
Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood- Fom the Huffington Post
"Israel has tried to take the initiative in the propaganda war over Gaza but, in one important instance, its version has been seriously challenged". BBC
==
One of the talking points/sound bites is that Hamas broke the ceasefire two weeks before the war on Gaza:
Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen The Guardian, NOV 5th 2008
"Hamas had respected the previously negotiated ceasefire except when Israel used the ceasefire as cover to make assassination raids against Hamas and other Palestinian leaders" Rabbi Michael Lerner
CNN video on Israel breaking the ceasefire
"Israel's military and political leadership took many aggressive steps during the ceasefire that escalated a crisis with Hamas" Foreign Policy in Focus
=="Israel has tried to take the initiative in the propaganda war over Gaza but, in one important instance, its version has been seriously challenged". BBC
==
One of the talking points/sound bites is that Hamas broke the ceasefire two weeks before the war on Gaza:
Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen The Guardian, NOV 5th 2008
"Hamas had respected the previously negotiated ceasefire except when Israel used the ceasefire as cover to make assassination raids against Hamas and other Palestinian leaders" Rabbi Michael Lerner
CNN video on Israel breaking the ceasefire
"Israel's military and political leadership took many aggressive steps during the ceasefire that escalated a crisis with Hamas" Foreign Policy in Focus
Another sound bite is that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 so the Palestinians have nothing to complain about...The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem has this to say:
"Israel issued an order declaring the end of the military government in the Gaza Strip, and claimed that it was no longer responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of life there. However, Israel continued to control the air and sea space, movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (also via neighboring countries), the population registry, family unification, and the crossing of goods to and from Gaza . Also, residents of the Gaza Strip rely solely on Israel for its supply of fuel, electricity, and gas. Until 28 June 2006, an independent electric-power station operated in the Gaza Strip, producing about one-half of the electricity needed by the residents in the Strip. The station relied completely on fuel and gas from Israel. On 28 June, Israel bombed the electric-power station. Since then, residents of the Gaza Strip have relied completely on Israel for their electricity."
==
Another sound bite involves the idea that civilians are being avoided:
"Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead – almost all civilians, most of them children and women – in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians?
What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties"
Robert Fisk. The Independent
"Israel's use of white phosphorus airburst shells over the densely populated Gaza Strip came under fresh criticism last night for endangering civilians."
The Guardian
"In a scathing statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) accused the Israeli army of failing to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded"
ABCNews
========
"I have never previously felt so despondent about Israel, so shamed by its actions, so despairing of any peace that might end the dominion of the dead in favor of opportunity for the living."[The Israeli Foreign minister Tzipi] "Livni rejected on Thursday a French proposal for a 48-hour truce to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying there was no humanitarian crisis in Strip.
Livni said Israel had been careful to protect the civilian population and had kept the humanitarian situation in Gaza "completely as it should be".
Alertnet
And yet:
Livni said Israel had been careful to protect the civilian population and had kept the humanitarian situation in Gaza "completely as it should be".
Alertnet
And yet:
"The European Commission on Sunday called on Israel to respect international law and allow access to people "suffering and dying" in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip." AFP
Roger Cohen, The International Herald Tribune
"Many kids have stopped eating. They are inactive, they barely talk, they cling to their parents all the time," said Sajy Elmaghinni, who works for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Gaza.
AFP
"Four exhausted children have been discovered cowering in a house next to the bodies of their mothers by staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross" The Guardian
"The major news outlets meekly accepted Israel's banning of journalists from entering Gaza as an excuse for downplaying collateral civilian casualties" The Nation
===
And then:
"Israel pushed ahead with its offensive in the Gaza Strip today, ignoring a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. " The Independent
========
In Images
Photos of the attacks:In Images
BBC
The Huffington Post
Youtube/video:
The massacre of children in Gaza
News footage from french channels
The 19 month blockade of Gaza, an exchange between the two sides.
Clips from a film about life in Gaza: Occupation 101
UN Official outside Gaza Hospital
A Palestinian woman not allowed out of Gaza to get cancer treatment
"Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, has four correspondents in Gaza and its bulletins are broadcasting graphic images that would never find their way on to western TV screens."
The Guardian
Here are the Jazeera English news channel clips on youtube.
=========
The blockade/siege of Gaza that preceded the attack:
"All we had heard about conditions in Gaza – deprivation, a sense of despair, the lack of economic activity – had not prepared us for the stark reality which we saw."
Desmond Tutu after visiting Gaza during the blockade.
A UN report on the blockade/siege includes the following:
- Only 23 out of 3,900 industrial enterprises are currently operational
- 70% of agricultural land in Gaza are no longer being irrigated, leading to desertification
- A lack of available cash in the Gaza Strip could lead to a collapse of the financial system
- Half of Gaza City's population is receiving water only once a week for a few hours
- Residents of Gaza City are without power for up to 16 hours each day
- Quality of health services severely affected
UNICEF photoessay
“It seems the international community is neglecting them, that somehow Palestinian children don’t deserve the protections guaranteed under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law.
Science Daily, 2006
'Routine day' that made two teenagers a bloody statistic
Political cartoons about the blockade: 1, 2, 3
Help:
I leave you with Lama Al-Othman
فلنقم جنازاتنا... ولنقدم تعازينا لموت الإنسان فينا
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Take a Ride..
It is with no small irony, after watching a film like Taxi to the Dark Side, that this should be the first thing on a loop all over the news...
The Oscar winning film unfurls all the ugliness and savagery of the war prisons, set up by the US, piece by piece till you see the whole damnable picture. It really makes you wonder "how little outrage there is" at these crimes.
The film is full of footage, not only of the horrific torture in the prisons and of the US soldiers admitting to it, but of officials, in the smug safety of their untouchable positions, using slippery language to defend their indifference to the suffering they have unleashed upon so many people.
This week Cheney says " he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods" LA Times
Then there is: "So What?"
The latest Harper's has an article called The Torture Presidency
The legacy of the presidency is outlined in this video from Keith Olbermann
Of course we have to expect the nauseating string of comments like Arabs/Muslims see shoes as a supreme insult... As if a shoe thrown at you anywhere else in the world is like having roses sprinkled on your cheeks.
How is the shoe story spreading?
A Flickr group has already been set up for people who would like to photograph the shoes they would like to add to the mix... A facebook group is also sending shoes in protest and solidarity...There is a game out where you dodge the shoe...Here are measurements of how quickly the video spread...And the spoof videos that are already out there are collected here.
Wouldn't you wish that the places the shoe thrower might end up in would get as much coverage and outrage as they deserve.
I know that changing the world is not easy
but it remains necessary nonetheless.
Fadhil Al-Azzawi
The Oscar winning film unfurls all the ugliness and savagery of the war prisons, set up by the US, piece by piece till you see the whole damnable picture. It really makes you wonder "how little outrage there is" at these crimes.
The film is full of footage, not only of the horrific torture in the prisons and of the US soldiers admitting to it, but of officials, in the smug safety of their untouchable positions, using slippery language to defend their indifference to the suffering they have unleashed upon so many people.
This week Cheney says " he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods" LA Times
Then there is: "So What?"
The latest Harper's has an article called The Torture Presidency
The legacy of the presidency is outlined in this video from Keith Olbermann
Of course we have to expect the nauseating string of comments like Arabs/Muslims see shoes as a supreme insult... As if a shoe thrown at you anywhere else in the world is like having roses sprinkled on your cheeks.
How is the shoe story spreading?
A Flickr group has already been set up for people who would like to photograph the shoes they would like to add to the mix... A facebook group is also sending shoes in protest and solidarity...There is a game out where you dodge the shoe...Here are measurements of how quickly the video spread...And the spoof videos that are already out there are collected here.
Wouldn't you wish that the places the shoe thrower might end up in would get as much coverage and outrage as they deserve.
I know that changing the world is not easy
but it remains necessary nonetheless.
Fadhil Al-Azzawi
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Can't get enough of this, so I thought I'd share...
Greenland, the big bear of the north, is rattling in its chains.. I must visit soon.
Yay! Patrick Fitzgerald is back :) .. (remember him)
Here is a current film that is related to the whole 2005 drama.
Here are the comedians on the 2008 scandal.
And talking of things you shouldn't pick...Picking your nose can lead to this...
And talking about all round bad ideas...yup, here you go.
Arundhati Roy writes in The Guardian about the Mumbai attacks..
Did you hear music under the big bright moon this weekend?
I leave you with Rumi..
Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
Greenland, the big bear of the north, is rattling in its chains.. I must visit soon.
Yay! Patrick Fitzgerald is back :) .. (remember him)
Here is a current film that is related to the whole 2005 drama.
Here are the comedians on the 2008 scandal.
And talking of things you shouldn't pick...Picking your nose can lead to this...
And talking about all round bad ideas...yup, here you go.
Arundhati Roy writes in The Guardian about the Mumbai attacks..
Did you hear music under the big bright moon this weekend?
I leave you with Rumi..
Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.
The speechless full moon
comes out now.
–Rumi,
comes out now.
–Rumi,
Don’t worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn’t matter.
We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.
Rumi
Saturday, December 6, 2008
I am winning the battle against cat scratch fever, or maybe that is the hopeful delirium that comes at the end...
The cat and I have worryingly similar notions of playfulness, but while I spend my time-between swatting and wrestling- biting my nails, she has a rigorous routine of honing her wolverine paws to the point where it's just dumb of me to go near her. But apparently I do dumb well. And do pain well too. Dumb pain.
How pretty is the weather these days? Very, I'd say.
We are so small, so small... But we dream big, poor creatures..
Here are some more crazy pictures of teeny tiny things from National Geographic.
Musicians out there try your hand at the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and music lovers, enjoy the Smithsonian Global Sound site.
Now onto matters more deathly serious:
Finally the DR Congo is on people's radars, too late for the millions that have been killed in the past decade... But not enough is being done, and activists are trying to draw attention to the 'rape as a weapon' horror going on there.
Want to help? Visit Women for Women International
----
I leave you with Paz, Williams, Seferis and Lenny... Because I have been reading too much.
Two bodies face to face
are two stars falling
in an empty sky.
–Octavio Paz
this morning for someone I’m not even sure exists
I waste tears. I count down by fractions
through the ash. I howl. I use up everything.
–CK Williams
but your heart's anguish
didn't cry out, became
what gives the world
a star-filled sky
--George Seferis
O friend of my scribbled life
Your heart is like mine—
your loneliness
will bring you home.
–Leonard Cohen
How pretty is the weather these days? Very, I'd say.
We are so small, so small... But we dream big, poor creatures..
Here are some more crazy pictures of teeny tiny things from National Geographic.
Musicians out there try your hand at the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and music lovers, enjoy the Smithsonian Global Sound site.
Now onto matters more deathly serious:
Finally the DR Congo is on people's radars, too late for the millions that have been killed in the past decade... But not enough is being done, and activists are trying to draw attention to the 'rape as a weapon' horror going on there.
Want to help? Visit Women for Women International
----
I leave you with Paz, Williams, Seferis and Lenny... Because I have been reading too much.
Two bodies face to face
are two stars falling
in an empty sky.
–Octavio Paz
this morning for someone I’m not even sure exists
I waste tears. I count down by fractions
through the ash. I howl. I use up everything.
–CK Williams
but your heart's anguish
didn't cry out, became
what gives the world
a star-filled sky
--George Seferis
O friend of my scribbled life
Your heart is like mine—
your loneliness
will bring you home.
–Leonard Cohen
Saturday, November 22, 2008
If you are anything like me (and believe me these days I would recommend anything but) then your heart races a little faster every time you hear that creaky little voice coming from the mighty and deadpan Ms. Sarah Vowell...
So as I debate whether allergies or closed coffin-like rooms are more palatable, and whether it would be annoying for people if I eat a LOT of nachos at the movies tonight, I find my very own Quantum of Solace by trawling the web for the lady that makes me look so much less nerdy than I am accused of being.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, this is my version of shouting off the rooftops, so bear with me, because I need there to be something worth shouting about these days.
It all started when I fell for her book Assassination Vacation, which was just the right amount of history, hilarity and quirky self revelation to hook me for life. Now she has The Wordy Shipmates which I am waiting for audible.com to make available already. You see, I have been dying to know about the Puritans, but have been wanting someone to tell me about them in a way that won't make me want to die.
ok enough personal memoir, here are some of her articles:
The Pessimism Deficit
When Bush Falls in Love
Yes, I bet some of you were thinking that if I were going to talk about matters of the heart I was going to bring up Potter Stewart again, my sexiest man ever to have graced the supreme court crush... Well you were right. Potter Stewart. There.
So as I debate whether allergies or closed coffin-like rooms are more palatable, and whether it would be annoying for people if I eat a LOT of nachos at the movies tonight, I find my very own Quantum of Solace by trawling the web for the lady that makes me look so much less nerdy than I am accused of being.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, this is my version of shouting off the rooftops, so bear with me, because I need there to be something worth shouting about these days.
It all started when I fell for her book Assassination Vacation, which was just the right amount of history, hilarity and quirky self revelation to hook me for life. Now she has The Wordy Shipmates which I am waiting for audible.com to make available already. You see, I have been dying to know about the Puritans, but have been wanting someone to tell me about them in a way that won't make me want to die.
ok enough personal memoir, here are some of her articles:
The Pessimism Deficit
When Bush Falls in Love
Yes, I bet some of you were thinking that if I were going to talk about matters of the heart I was going to bring up Potter Stewart again, my sexiest man ever to have graced the supreme court crush... Well you were right. Potter Stewart. There.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
There must be some love stories left in the world after all... And then there are those loves you wish could be explained... And still other pleasures you wish didn't sound like this.
I guess we'll be seeing everyone Tuesday on that lawn we all know so well..
Have a peek at The Crisis and What to Do About it, by George Soros in the NYRB
If you feel like hunting for expensive art pieces that will be left out for free all around the city then get yourself to London... Or just enjoy them and leave them where they are for others to enjoy too.
And I leave you with Rilke..
Every single angel
is terrible!
And since that's the case
I choke back my own
dark Birdcall
My sobbing...
...Strange
To wish wishes no longer.
Strange
to see things
that seemed to
belong together
floating in every
direction.
...Is the old tale pointless
That tells how music began
in the midst of the mourning...
Duino Elegies
Saturday, October 25, 2008
As if I needed another reason to recoil at having to touch elevator buttons: radioactive scrap from India was used to make buttons for Otis elevators in France. It makes me worry where we are getting our scrap from, considering we are in that part of the world where people like Larry Summers think dirty industries should be transferred.
See his old notorious creepy memo.
---
Yemen is flooded by a tropical storm..Dozens dead and tens of thousands displaced.
---
Jordan arrests a poet for using quotes from the Quran in his love poems... Though, it seems that we don't get enough arrests when people use quotes from the Quran to add flourish to hatred.
---
The Guardian has compiled 1000 artworks you should see before you leave the world.
---
A McCain worker's hoax might spell doom for him... But then again, scary movie characters always get back up when you think they're finished. Here is some more on the hoax including video.
---
Have a listen to some music that astronomers have recorded from stars... The beat of their pulse helps tell us their age and size and what they are made of... and it's pretty haunting.
I leave you to keep picking up all the pieces I have to put back together...
-
"Green eyes
Blue bedroom
bright machinegun sun"
love is a dog from hell
Monday, October 13, 2008
Since misery loves company, the planet and the economy in meltdown should offer some sort of comfort to my dwindling sanity... but planet you are gonna have to come up with a lot more crazy to make me feel matched.
Where do we start...oh where do we start?
The IMF said the "global financial system was on the brink of meltdown" which is triggering descriptions like "utter carnage" and "a titanic battle between greed and fear"... Last week was apparently the worst week ever... indeed.
And today the little green market arrows are pointing up... who feels reassured?
HuffPo has a list of economists who told you so (one of whom just won the Nobel Prize) and another list of those who got the economy to its dark depths...
Entire countries are feeling the strain, the beautiful Iceland is "on the brink of collapse" according to an interesting and worrying article in the Guardian.
And:
Where do we start...oh where do we start?
The IMF said the "global financial system was on the brink of meltdown" which is triggering descriptions like "utter carnage" and "a titanic battle between greed and fear"... Last week was apparently the worst week ever... indeed.
And today the little green market arrows are pointing up... who feels reassured?
HuffPo has a list of economists who told you so (one of whom just won the Nobel Prize) and another list of those who got the economy to its dark depths...
Entire countries are feeling the strain, the beautiful Iceland is "on the brink of collapse" according to an interesting and worrying article in the Guardian.
And:
"Iceland is bankrupt," said Arsaell Valfells, a University of Iceland professor. "The Icelandic krona is history. The IMF has to rescue us." Link
And if you were quaking in your boots about the financial crisis where the hell were you when Earth got pushed against a wall and stripped of every last bit of its dignity?
A study by a Deutsche Bank economist says deforestation alone leads to financial losses that make the financial crisis look like piggy-bank pennies... The UN suggests a Green New Deal to save the economy.
Speaking of New Deals, the great Sarah Vowell has been turning to Roosevelt's Fireside Chats to deal with the panic of the economic crisis... I have been turning to the classic film channel for all sorts of other panic.
I leave you with one of my favourite quotes which has never been more stuck in my brain...
"Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead"
King Lear
Speaking of New Deals, the great Sarah Vowell has been turning to Roosevelt's Fireside Chats to deal with the panic of the economic crisis... I have been turning to the classic film channel for all sorts of other panic.
I leave you with one of my favourite quotes which has never been more stuck in my brain...
"Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead"
King Lear
Friday, October 3, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Palin' before Palin
That icy rush you feel is just brain freeze from the new republican VP.
We can look forward to hearing more frozen-in-time comments that will still manage to warm the toes of those dinosaurs who disrespect all the science and history and philosophy that has blown such huge holes in their mythologies. It's been great news for those frozen relics who belittle all the rights that our beautiful human minds and human hearts have given birth to since that dusty ancient time they so worship.
And just as insidious is the nonsense on the environment and oil.
Here it goes:
The same party that turns off the lights every night and snuggles with oil, coal and gas giants, and then wakes up in the morning and hops into their poisoned pockets is suddenly going to pretend to be against their excesses.
How many times did Palin say she was tough on oil companies in her speech?
A great marketing gimmick since Americans for the first time in a long time are not thinking like oil addicts.
But really? Palin and oil companies, enemies?
"And she has been a friend of Big Oil, opposing a windfall profits tax on the oil industry that could fund affordable clean energy for more Americans." - Friends of the Earth Action Vice President Brent Blackwelder." Reuters
"Palin opposes greater protections for beluga whales found in the Cook Inlet, where oil and gas drilling and other development is proposed"LA Times
She sued to stop polar bears being placed on the endangered speceis list:
"She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts..." Anchorage Daily News
"We believe that the ...... decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available" Reuters, August 5, 2008
Not only that, But in an opinion piece she had in the NYT she had delusional symptoms brought on by oil fumes which makes you say things like:
"In fact, there is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future"
Really?
Uhm what do experts say?
1-"She's either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading, and both are unbecoming," said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. Anchorage Daily News
2- A study by the U.S. Geological Survey "predicted polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050".
3- "The governor's decision was clearly based on politics, not on science, and was primarily designed to protect the oil and gas industry stampede into the Arctic Ocean," said Steiner, the University of Alaska marine biologist. LA Times
4- This summer for the first time:
Nine polar bears at risk of drowning in global warming meltdown
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom August 2008
"Nine polar bears are at risk of drowning after the ice floe where they lived melted because of global warming"...
"Professor Richard Steiner of the University of Alaska’s Marine Advisory Program said: “While these bears are swimming around in an ice-free coastal Arctic Ocean, the only thing the State of Alaska is doing is suing the federal government trying to overturn the listing of polar bears" Science Daily
Oh if you think that, and her 1930's german headmistress look, isn't attractive enough to make you want to draw pink hearts to her on your voting card... There is always this:
She also supports the aerial hunting of wolves.
(oh wait, you use those unreliable electronic voting machines there don't ya? Maybe you you carve pretty hearts on the screen with a nice hunting knife)
And she is, of course, thirsting for drilling in ANWR (also known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) I repeat the words wildlife and refuge...Smoke that for a few minutes.
Here is her quotable quote on the topic :
"I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem or that more supply won’t ultimately affect prices. Of course it will affect prices."
hehehehehehehe
hehehehehehehehehhaaaaaaaaa
That laughing interlude will get no apologies from me
As I continue, you can have a gander at:
1- "the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an independent statistical agency within the Department of Energy, concluded that new oil from ANWR would lower the world price of oil by no more than $1.44 per barrel—and possibly have as little effect as 41 cents per barrel—and would have its largest impact nearly 20 years from now" US NEws and World Report
2- "even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best" Time Magazine
Links:
Palin’s first lie as VP candidate
From Salon: " It is hard to think of a more cynical and contemptuous political act this year than John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice -presidential running mate."
Here is Grist's opinion.
The Worst Vice-Presidential Nominee in U.S. History Robert J. Elisberg,
An Alaskan blogger's perspective
Sarah Palin, Wrong Woman for the Job The Nation., NY
And now back to local news:
got none for you tonight...
thank you
We can look forward to hearing more frozen-in-time comments that will still manage to warm the toes of those dinosaurs who disrespect all the science and history and philosophy that has blown such huge holes in their mythologies. It's been great news for those frozen relics who belittle all the rights that our beautiful human minds and human hearts have given birth to since that dusty ancient time they so worship.
And just as insidious is the nonsense on the environment and oil.
Here it goes:
The same party that turns off the lights every night and snuggles with oil, coal and gas giants, and then wakes up in the morning and hops into their poisoned pockets is suddenly going to pretend to be against their excesses.
How many times did Palin say she was tough on oil companies in her speech?
A great marketing gimmick since Americans for the first time in a long time are not thinking like oil addicts.
But really? Palin and oil companies, enemies?
"And she has been a friend of Big Oil, opposing a windfall profits tax on the oil industry that could fund affordable clean energy for more Americans." - Friends of the Earth Action Vice President Brent Blackwelder." Reuters
"Palin opposes greater protections for beluga whales found in the Cook Inlet, where oil and gas drilling and other development is proposed"LA Times
She sued to stop polar bears being placed on the endangered speceis list:
"She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts..." Anchorage Daily News
"We believe that the ...... decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available" Reuters, August 5, 2008
Not only that, But in an opinion piece she had in the NYT she had delusional symptoms brought on by oil fumes which makes you say things like:
"In fact, there is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future"
Really?
Uhm what do experts say?
1-"She's either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading, and both are unbecoming," said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. Anchorage Daily News
2- A study by the U.S. Geological Survey "predicted polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050".
3- "The governor's decision was clearly based on politics, not on science, and was primarily designed to protect the oil and gas industry stampede into the Arctic Ocean," said Steiner, the University of Alaska marine biologist. LA Times
4- This summer for the first time:
Nine polar bears at risk of drowning in global warming meltdown
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom August 2008
"Nine polar bears are at risk of drowning after the ice floe where they lived melted because of global warming"...
"Professor Richard Steiner of the University of Alaska’s Marine Advisory Program said: “While these bears are swimming around in an ice-free coastal Arctic Ocean, the only thing the State of Alaska is doing is suing the federal government trying to overturn the listing of polar bears" Science Daily
Oh if you think that, and her 1930's german headmistress look, isn't attractive enough to make you want to draw pink hearts to her on your voting card... There is always this:
She also supports the aerial hunting of wolves.
(oh wait, you use those unreliable electronic voting machines there don't ya? Maybe you you carve pretty hearts on the screen with a nice hunting knife)
And she is, of course, thirsting for drilling in ANWR (also known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) I repeat the words wildlife and refuge...Smoke that for a few minutes.
Here is her quotable quote on the topic :
"I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem or that more supply won’t ultimately affect prices. Of course it will affect prices."
hehehehehehehe
hehehehehehehehehhaaaaaaaaa
That laughing interlude will get no apologies from me
As I continue, you can have a gander at:
1- "the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an independent statistical agency within the Department of Energy, concluded that new oil from ANWR would lower the world price of oil by no more than $1.44 per barrel—and possibly have as little effect as 41 cents per barrel—and would have its largest impact nearly 20 years from now" US NEws and World Report
2- "even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best" Time Magazine
Links:
Palin’s first lie as VP candidate
From Salon: " It is hard to think of a more cynical and contemptuous political act this year than John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice -presidential running mate."
Here is Grist's opinion.
The Worst Vice-Presidential Nominee in U.S. History Robert J. Elisberg,
An Alaskan blogger's perspective
Sarah Palin, Wrong Woman for the Job The Nation., NY
And now back to local news:
got none for you tonight...
thank you
Thursday, August 28, 2008
In our current days of darkness and superstitions... A little history goes a long way.
Science already known BCE/BC:
1- 500BCE/BC : Pythagoreans taught that Earth is a sphere
2- 470BCE/BC : Anaxagoras suggests that materials are made of "seeds"(atoms) (Near Izmir in Turkey)
3- 445 BC/BCE: Leucippus suggests possibility of indivisible atoms (Turkey)
4- 384-322 BC/BCE: Aristotle said it was common knowledge that earth was round.
5- 350s BC - Heraclides explained the rotation of Earth ( Turkey)
6- 220 BC/BCE: Eratosthenes of Cyrene estimated earth’s diameter correctly (in EGYPT)
In Ancient astronomy the seven known 'planets' that could be seen at the time were known as the 7 heavenly objects.
The others were not seen until the 1800's
The name of the sky/heavens god in Cannanite mythology was Shamayim the husband of earth (Eretz).
Their child was El, the supreme god.
In everyday Hebrew the name for sky and heaven is Shamayim and earth is Eretz.
Shamash was the common Akkadian name of the sun-god
(Akkadian Empire: 1050-100 BC/BCE)
Map of trade routes used by 1st century BC/BCE
The Guardian has some nice images of the day of the Eclipse.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Ideas that blow
Nuclear waste containers likely to fail, warns 'devastating' report
August 2008
Power madness: With spiralling costs, leaky reactors and dangerous cost-cutting at plants..
Jeremy Leggett
Greenpeace files complaints on Areva nuclear leaks
Reuters -
100 employees at French nuclear site contaminated
BusinessWeek -
AFP August 2008
Meanwhile:
UAE invites bids for nuclear power project
GulfNews, United Arab Emirates -
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