According to NPR, the 99% Moslem country of Turkey really goes for Christmas, or at least the trappings thereof– the Santas and singing and decorations. I thought C would get a kick out of this, but she gave me one of those looks. I don’t think I’ll tell her about Beijing.
Karen Fowler – The Jane Austen Book Club. Nice little read with a nice little conceit: relating each book discussed to the life of a member of the club. Usually this involves more than a bit of a stretch (read artifice, read cliché, read lack of nuance). Ok, not exactly “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” but a nice break…
Saw Waitress on DVD; pleasant enough in a head full of cotton candy genre kind of way. Sort of like plowing through the entire Kathy Reich mystery series with the rationale that everyone else reads this crap, why can’t I? - but was relieved when I reached the last Reich. (I rest my case.)
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Ol' Kel in Ol' Mexico
The Cast: #4 (Kelly) #4a (Kevin) #4b (Robin) #2 (MissKG). Cameraman: #3 (Chris)
The Place: El Sabado
The Time: October, 2007
The Menu: Jugo, coffee, hot chocolate, beer, tequila, Mole, Pozole, Menudo, Bacon, Sausage, eggs, empanadas, fruit, queso, tequila, beer, tequila.
The Review: 5 Stars
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Girls' Xmas Card to The Chairman.
Merry Christmas to General Ed Leslie of the Budgie Liberation Army of God, even though you’ve done a crappy job of liberating anything, feathered or otherwise.
A donation has been made in your name to the Drew Peterson Defense Fund.
— Mazie & Stella
Are these birds a couple of sick fucks or what?
A donation has been made in your name to the Drew Peterson Defense Fund.
— Mazie & Stella
Are these birds a couple of sick fucks or what?
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Entertainment
If you're planning on seeing Lions for Lambs, bring a pillow. Very boring; C and I walked out maybe halfway through.
At the tender age of whatever, I have finally read War & Peace. This was accomplished by skipping all of the boring parts and only reading the soap opera. Short on sex, high on epiphinies. Cheat notes say that Tolstoy's characters are always becoming. A lot of them are busy becoming dead.
At the tender age of whatever, I have finally read War & Peace. This was accomplished by skipping all of the boring parts and only reading the soap opera. Short on sex, high on epiphinies. Cheat notes say that Tolstoy's characters are always becoming. A lot of them are busy becoming dead.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Good Morning
Paul Krugman on "Islamofacism":
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/opinion/29krugman.html?hp
My Birds on Drugs:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/opinion/29krugman.html?hp
My Birds on Drugs:
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Parting is such sweet sorrow...
Farewell to Dennis Hastert, resigning his House seat so he can spend more time with his refrigerator.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Those who do not learn from history include just about everybody...
The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows...We are today not far from disaster.
-- T.E. Lawrence, in the Sunday Times, August 1920.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Quote of the Day*
"Knowing that George W. Bush is our nation's leader is not unlike knowing that Jeffrey Dahmer's your brother..." -- The Rude Pundit
*If you think you are really going to get a new quote every day, you haven't been reading this blog....
*If you think you are really going to get a new quote every day, you haven't been reading this blog....
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Gore and Me
Though he admired the magazine, it was clear from early on that his short stories did not meet the moral standards or fit the literary mold The New Yorker embodied. It “was a marvelous support group of middlebrow writers called John like Cheever and Updike,” Vidal observed. –Gore Vidal: A Biography – Fred Kaplan
Slogging through this biography, wishing I liked it more. Kaplan has done a tremendous amount of research, but could benefit from some judicious editing – the book is vastly overpopulated. Total indexing items under W: 52. Of these 50 are people, comprising 248 page references.
To be fair, all of Vidal’s literary works are indexed under “Vidal, Gore – writings of (fiction), “Vidal, Gore – writings of (nonfiction), “Vidal, Gore – writings of (plays, screenplays, and teleplays). Thus Julian would not be indexed under “J” (14 entries, Felix Jackson to Judith Jones, all people).
Though I do enjoy the references by Vidal and friends to Anais Nin as “stupid,”
55 pages (references to) are more than enough. I was sick of her after two.
Slogging through this biography, wishing I liked it more. Kaplan has done a tremendous amount of research, but could benefit from some judicious editing – the book is vastly overpopulated. Total indexing items under W: 52. Of these 50 are people, comprising 248 page references.
To be fair, all of Vidal’s literary works are indexed under “Vidal, Gore – writings of (fiction), “Vidal, Gore – writings of (nonfiction), “Vidal, Gore – writings of (plays, screenplays, and teleplays). Thus Julian would not be indexed under “J” (14 entries, Felix Jackson to Judith Jones, all people).
Though I do enjoy the references by Vidal and friends to Anais Nin as “stupid,”
55 pages (references to) are more than enough. I was sick of her after two.
Nice news from Riverbend
Baghdad Burning
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
Thursday, September 06, 2007
>Leaving Home...Two months ago, the suitcases were packed. My lone, large suitcase sat in my bedroom for nearly six weeks, so full of clothes and personal items, that it took me, E. and our six year old neighbor to zip it closed.Packing that suitcase was one of the more difficult things I’ve had to do. It was Mission Impossible: Your mission, R., should you choose to accept it is to go through the items you’ve accumulated over nearly three decades and decide which ones you cannot do without. The difficulty of your mission, R., is that you must contain these items in a space totaling 1 m by 0.7 m by 0.4 m. This, of course, includes the clothes you will be wearing for the next months, as well as any personal memorabilia- photos, diaries, stuffed animals, CDs and the like. I packed and unpacked it four times. Each time I unpacked it, I swore I’d eliminate some of the items that were not absolutely necessary. Each time I packed it again, I would add more ‘stuff’ than the time before. E. finally came in a month and a half later and insisted we zip up the bag so I wouldn’t be tempted to update its contents constantly.The decision that we would each take one suitcase was made by my father. He took one look at the box of assorted memories we were beginning to prepare and it was final: Four large identical suitcases were purchased- one for each member of the family and a fifth smaller one was dug out of a closet for the documentation we’d collectively need- graduation certificates, personal identification papers, etc.We waited… and waited… and waited. It was decided we would leave mid to late June- examinations would be over and as we were planning to leave with my aunt and her two children- that was the time considered most convenient for all involved. The day we finally appointed as THE DAY, we woke up to an explosion not 2 km away and a curfew. The trip was postponed a week. The night before we were scheduled to travel, the driver who owned the GMC that would take us to the border excused himself from the trip- his brother had been killed in a shooting. Once again, it was postponed.There was one point, during the final days of June, where I simply sat on my packed suitcase and cried. By early July, I was convinced we would never leave. I was sure the Iraqi border was as far away, for me, as the borders of Alaska. It had taken us well over two months to decide to leave by car instead of by plane. It had taken us yet another month to settle on Syria as opposed to Jordan. How long would it take us to reschedule leaving?It happened almost overnight. My aunt called with the exciting news that one of her neighbors was going to leave for Syria in 48 hours because their son was being threatened and they wanted another family on the road with them in another car- like gazelles in the jungle, it’s safer to travel in groups. It was a flurry of activity for two days. We checked to make sure everything we could possibly need was prepared and packed. We arranged for a distant cousin of my moms who was to stay in our house with his family to come the night before we left (we can’t leave the house empty because someone might take it).It was a tearful farewell as we left the house. One of my other aunts and an uncle came to say goodbye the morning of the trip. It was a solemn morning and I’d been preparing myself for the last two days not to cry. You won’t cry, I kept saying, because you’re coming back. You won’t cry because it’s just a little trip like the ones you used to take to Mosul or Basrah before the war. In spite of my assurances to myself of a safe and happy return, I spent several hours before leaving with a huge lump lodged firmly in my throat. My eyes burned and my nose ran in spite of me. I told myself it was an allergy.We didn’t sleep the night before we had to leave because there seemed to be so many little things to do… It helped that there was no electricity at all- the area generator wasn’t working and ‘national electricity’ was hopeless. There just wasn’t time to sleep.The last few hours in the house were a blur. It was time to go and I went from room to room saying goodbye to everything. I said goodbye to my desk- the one I’d used all through high school and college. I said goodbye to the curtains and the bed and the couch. I said goodbye to the armchair E. and I broke when we were younger. I said goodbye to the big table over which we’d gathered for meals and to do homework. I said goodbye to the ghosts of the framed pictures that once hung on the walls, because the pictures have long since been taken down and stored away- but I knew just what hung where. I said goodbye to the silly board games we inevitably fought over- the Arabic Monopoly with the missing cards and money that no one had the heart to throw away.I knew then as I know now that these were all just items- people are so much more important. Still, a house is like a museum in that it tells a certain history. You look at a cup or stuffed toy and a chapter of memories opens up before your very eyes. It suddenly hit me that I wanted to leave so much less than I thought I did.Six AM finally came. The GMC waited outside while we gathered the necessities- a thermos of hot tea, biscuits, juice, olives (olives?!) which my dad insisted we take with us in the car, etc. My aunt and uncle watched us sorrowfully. There’s no other word to describe it. It was the same look I got in my eyes when I watched other relatives and friends prepare to leave. It was a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, tinged with anger. Why did the good people have to go?I cried as we left- in spite of promises not to. The aunt cried… the uncle cried. My parents tried to be stoic but there were tears in their voices as they said their goodbyes. The worst part is saying goodbye and wondering if you’re ever going to see these people again. My uncle tightened the shawl I’d thrown over my hair and advised me firmly to ‘keep it on until you get to the border’. The aunt rushed out behind us as the car pulled out of the garage and dumped a bowl of water on the ground, which is a tradition- its to wish the travelers a safe return… eventually.The trip was long and uneventful, other than two checkpoints being run by masked men. They asked to see identification, took a cursory glance at the passports and asked where we were going. The same was done for the car behind us. Those checkpoints are terrifying but I’ve learned that the best technique is to avoid eye-contact, answer questions politely and pray under your breath. My mother and I had been careful not to wear any apparent jewelry, just in case, and we were both in long skirts and head scarves.The trip was long and uneventful, other than two checkpoints being run by masked men. They asked to see identification, took a cursory glance at the passports and asked where we were going. The same was done for the car behind us. Those checkpoints are terrifying but I’ve learned that the best technique is to avoid eye-contact, answer questions politely and pray under your breath. My mother and I had been careful not to wear any apparent jewelry, just in case, and we were both in long skirts and head scarves.Syria is the only country, other than Jordan, that was allowing people in without a visa. The Jordanians are being horrible with refugees. Families risk being turned back at the Jordanian border, or denied entry at Amman Airport. It’s too high a risk for most families.We waited for hours, in spite of the fact that the driver we were with had ‘connections’, which meant he’d been to Syria and back so many times, he knew all the right people to bribe for a safe passage through the borders. I sat nervously at the border. The tears had stopped about an hour after we’d left Baghdad. Just seeing the dirty streets, the ruins of buildings and houses, the smoke-filled horizon all helped me realize how fortunate I was to have a chance for something safer.By the time we were out of Baghdad, my heart was no longer aching as it had been while we were still leaving it. The cars around us on the border were making me nervous. I hated being in the middle of so many possibly explosive vehicles. A part of me wanted to study the faces of the people around me, mostly families, and the other part of me, the one that’s been trained to stay out of trouble the last four years, told me to keep my eyes to myself- it was almost over.It was finally our turn. I sat stiffly in the car and waited as money passed hands; our passports were looked over and finally stamped. We were ushered along and the driver smiled with satisfaction, “It’s been an easy trip, Alhamdulillah,” he said cheerfully.As we crossed the border and saw the last of the Iraqi flags, the tears began again. The car was silent except for the prattling of the driver who was telling us stories of escapades he had while crossing the border. I sneaked a look at my mother sitting beside me and her tears were flowing as well. There was simply nothing to say as we left Iraq. I wanted to sob, but I didn’t want to seem like a baby. I didn’t want the driver to think I was ungrateful for the chance to leave what had become a hellish place over the last four and a half years.The Syrian border was almost equally packed, but the environment was more relaxed. People were getting out of their cars and stretching. Some of them recognized each other and waved or shared woeful stories or comments through the windows of the cars. Most importantly, we were all equal. Sunnis and Shia, Arabs and Kurds… we were all equal in front of the Syrian border personnel.We were all refugees- rich or poor. And refugees all look the same- there’s a unique expression you’ll find on their faces- relief, mixed with sorrow, tinged with apprehension. The faces almost all look the same.The first minutes after passing the border were overwhelming. Overwhelming relief and overwhelming sadness… How is it that only a stretch of several kilometers and maybe twenty minutes, so firmly segregates life from death?How is it that a border no one can see or touch stands between car bombs, militias, death squads and… peace, safety? It’s difficult to believe- even now. I sit here and write this and wonder why I can’t hear the explosions.I wonder at how the windows don’t rattle as the planes pass overhead. I’m trying to rid myself of the expectation that armed people in black will break through the door and into our lives. I’m trying to let my eyes grow accustomed to streets free of road blocks, hummers and pictures of Muqtada and the rest…How is it that all of this lies a short car ride away?
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
Thursday, September 06, 2007
>Leaving Home...Two months ago, the suitcases were packed. My lone, large suitcase sat in my bedroom for nearly six weeks, so full of clothes and personal items, that it took me, E. and our six year old neighbor to zip it closed.Packing that suitcase was one of the more difficult things I’ve had to do. It was Mission Impossible: Your mission, R., should you choose to accept it is to go through the items you’ve accumulated over nearly three decades and decide which ones you cannot do without. The difficulty of your mission, R., is that you must contain these items in a space totaling 1 m by 0.7 m by 0.4 m. This, of course, includes the clothes you will be wearing for the next months, as well as any personal memorabilia- photos, diaries, stuffed animals, CDs and the like. I packed and unpacked it four times. Each time I unpacked it, I swore I’d eliminate some of the items that were not absolutely necessary. Each time I packed it again, I would add more ‘stuff’ than the time before. E. finally came in a month and a half later and insisted we zip up the bag so I wouldn’t be tempted to update its contents constantly.The decision that we would each take one suitcase was made by my father. He took one look at the box of assorted memories we were beginning to prepare and it was final: Four large identical suitcases were purchased- one for each member of the family and a fifth smaller one was dug out of a closet for the documentation we’d collectively need- graduation certificates, personal identification papers, etc.We waited… and waited… and waited. It was decided we would leave mid to late June- examinations would be over and as we were planning to leave with my aunt and her two children- that was the time considered most convenient for all involved. The day we finally appointed as THE DAY, we woke up to an explosion not 2 km away and a curfew. The trip was postponed a week. The night before we were scheduled to travel, the driver who owned the GMC that would take us to the border excused himself from the trip- his brother had been killed in a shooting. Once again, it was postponed.There was one point, during the final days of June, where I simply sat on my packed suitcase and cried. By early July, I was convinced we would never leave. I was sure the Iraqi border was as far away, for me, as the borders of Alaska. It had taken us well over two months to decide to leave by car instead of by plane. It had taken us yet another month to settle on Syria as opposed to Jordan. How long would it take us to reschedule leaving?It happened almost overnight. My aunt called with the exciting news that one of her neighbors was going to leave for Syria in 48 hours because their son was being threatened and they wanted another family on the road with them in another car- like gazelles in the jungle, it’s safer to travel in groups. It was a flurry of activity for two days. We checked to make sure everything we could possibly need was prepared and packed. We arranged for a distant cousin of my moms who was to stay in our house with his family to come the night before we left (we can’t leave the house empty because someone might take it).It was a tearful farewell as we left the house. One of my other aunts and an uncle came to say goodbye the morning of the trip. It was a solemn morning and I’d been preparing myself for the last two days not to cry. You won’t cry, I kept saying, because you’re coming back. You won’t cry because it’s just a little trip like the ones you used to take to Mosul or Basrah before the war. In spite of my assurances to myself of a safe and happy return, I spent several hours before leaving with a huge lump lodged firmly in my throat. My eyes burned and my nose ran in spite of me. I told myself it was an allergy.We didn’t sleep the night before we had to leave because there seemed to be so many little things to do… It helped that there was no electricity at all- the area generator wasn’t working and ‘national electricity’ was hopeless. There just wasn’t time to sleep.The last few hours in the house were a blur. It was time to go and I went from room to room saying goodbye to everything. I said goodbye to my desk- the one I’d used all through high school and college. I said goodbye to the curtains and the bed and the couch. I said goodbye to the armchair E. and I broke when we were younger. I said goodbye to the big table over which we’d gathered for meals and to do homework. I said goodbye to the ghosts of the framed pictures that once hung on the walls, because the pictures have long since been taken down and stored away- but I knew just what hung where. I said goodbye to the silly board games we inevitably fought over- the Arabic Monopoly with the missing cards and money that no one had the heart to throw away.I knew then as I know now that these were all just items- people are so much more important. Still, a house is like a museum in that it tells a certain history. You look at a cup or stuffed toy and a chapter of memories opens up before your very eyes. It suddenly hit me that I wanted to leave so much less than I thought I did.Six AM finally came. The GMC waited outside while we gathered the necessities- a thermos of hot tea, biscuits, juice, olives (olives?!) which my dad insisted we take with us in the car, etc. My aunt and uncle watched us sorrowfully. There’s no other word to describe it. It was the same look I got in my eyes when I watched other relatives and friends prepare to leave. It was a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, tinged with anger. Why did the good people have to go?I cried as we left- in spite of promises not to. The aunt cried… the uncle cried. My parents tried to be stoic but there were tears in their voices as they said their goodbyes. The worst part is saying goodbye and wondering if you’re ever going to see these people again. My uncle tightened the shawl I’d thrown over my hair and advised me firmly to ‘keep it on until you get to the border’. The aunt rushed out behind us as the car pulled out of the garage and dumped a bowl of water on the ground, which is a tradition- its to wish the travelers a safe return… eventually.The trip was long and uneventful, other than two checkpoints being run by masked men. They asked to see identification, took a cursory glance at the passports and asked where we were going. The same was done for the car behind us. Those checkpoints are terrifying but I’ve learned that the best technique is to avoid eye-contact, answer questions politely and pray under your breath. My mother and I had been careful not to wear any apparent jewelry, just in case, and we were both in long skirts and head scarves.The trip was long and uneventful, other than two checkpoints being run by masked men. They asked to see identification, took a cursory glance at the passports and asked where we were going. The same was done for the car behind us. Those checkpoints are terrifying but I’ve learned that the best technique is to avoid eye-contact, answer questions politely and pray under your breath. My mother and I had been careful not to wear any apparent jewelry, just in case, and we were both in long skirts and head scarves.Syria is the only country, other than Jordan, that was allowing people in without a visa. The Jordanians are being horrible with refugees. Families risk being turned back at the Jordanian border, or denied entry at Amman Airport. It’s too high a risk for most families.We waited for hours, in spite of the fact that the driver we were with had ‘connections’, which meant he’d been to Syria and back so many times, he knew all the right people to bribe for a safe passage through the borders. I sat nervously at the border. The tears had stopped about an hour after we’d left Baghdad. Just seeing the dirty streets, the ruins of buildings and houses, the smoke-filled horizon all helped me realize how fortunate I was to have a chance for something safer.By the time we were out of Baghdad, my heart was no longer aching as it had been while we were still leaving it. The cars around us on the border were making me nervous. I hated being in the middle of so many possibly explosive vehicles. A part of me wanted to study the faces of the people around me, mostly families, and the other part of me, the one that’s been trained to stay out of trouble the last four years, told me to keep my eyes to myself- it was almost over.It was finally our turn. I sat stiffly in the car and waited as money passed hands; our passports were looked over and finally stamped. We were ushered along and the driver smiled with satisfaction, “It’s been an easy trip, Alhamdulillah,” he said cheerfully.As we crossed the border and saw the last of the Iraqi flags, the tears began again. The car was silent except for the prattling of the driver who was telling us stories of escapades he had while crossing the border. I sneaked a look at my mother sitting beside me and her tears were flowing as well. There was simply nothing to say as we left Iraq. I wanted to sob, but I didn’t want to seem like a baby. I didn’t want the driver to think I was ungrateful for the chance to leave what had become a hellish place over the last four and a half years.The Syrian border was almost equally packed, but the environment was more relaxed. People were getting out of their cars and stretching. Some of them recognized each other and waved or shared woeful stories or comments through the windows of the cars. Most importantly, we were all equal. Sunnis and Shia, Arabs and Kurds… we were all equal in front of the Syrian border personnel.We were all refugees- rich or poor. And refugees all look the same- there’s a unique expression you’ll find on their faces- relief, mixed with sorrow, tinged with apprehension. The faces almost all look the same.The first minutes after passing the border were overwhelming. Overwhelming relief and overwhelming sadness… How is it that only a stretch of several kilometers and maybe twenty minutes, so firmly segregates life from death?How is it that a border no one can see or touch stands between car bombs, militias, death squads and… peace, safety? It’s difficult to believe- even now. I sit here and write this and wonder why I can’t hear the explosions.I wonder at how the windows don’t rattle as the planes pass overhead. I’m trying to rid myself of the expectation that armed people in black will break through the door and into our lives. I’m trying to let my eyes grow accustomed to streets free of road blocks, hummers and pictures of Muqtada and the rest…How is it that all of this lies a short car ride away?
Monday, August 27, 2007
Gone-Zales
And a fond farewell to Alberto, who is resigning so he can spend more time torturing his family. Thanks for helping to fuck up the country, asshole!
Friday, August 24, 2007
There is no cineplex in Stinson Beach
I have decided that the best use of my new spare time would be to read books and watch DVDs – not for any personal pleasure but so my readers (of which I have none) will not have to suffer as I have.
Children of Men – Cliché and predictable, the casting is so good it was a lot of fun to watch. A satire made of this movie would do well to keep the same cast. No, really, I did like it.
Huey Long****: I adore Sean Penn. He’s a genius. (Steve says “He’s a God.) But I couldn’t watch this movie which had a pervasive ugliness and no pitch range. Sorry honey.
Pan’s Labyrinth: I don’t think I got up and puttered once during this movie, which is the highest praise I can give to a DVD .
The Constant Gardener: Heavy foreshadowing, a trifle long (3 putters) but well done with a good cast. Thumbs up as they say…
Children of Men – Cliché and predictable, the casting is so good it was a lot of fun to watch. A satire made of this movie would do well to keep the same cast. No, really, I did like it.
Huey Long****: I adore Sean Penn. He’s a genius. (Steve says “He’s a God.) But I couldn’t watch this movie which had a pervasive ugliness and no pitch range. Sorry honey.
Pan’s Labyrinth: I don’t think I got up and puttered once during this movie, which is the highest praise I can give to a DVD .
The Constant Gardener: Heavy foreshadowing, a trifle long (3 putters) but well done with a good cast. Thumbs up as they say…
Sunday, August 19, 2007
August
Spent 8 great days in Happy Camp - walking, reading, of course eating up a storm. (Caprese Salad, step one: Go to garden, pick tomatoes, pick basil...) and consuming my fair share of Beer and Wine. Came back to work and was promptly fired by The Heir. Am now punching a time card and hostessing which will last until he finds a 20 year old to do the job. Living in Reduced Circumstances offset by no longer having to worry about the restaurant (the worrying alone was a full time job) and actually having time to -- whatever! Which doesn't mean I'll get any better at updating this blog (which no one reads anyway)....
Monday, July 16, 2007
Where is Riverbend?
Words I google just about every day. Since her 4/26/07 post stating that she is planning on leaving Iraq (not an easy task -- and dangerous) she has not posted and I cannot find any references to her on any other sites.
Her publishers have on their web page the following message:
Note: To all of Riverbend's fans, thank you for your concern about her periodic absences from her blog. She has stated that she would be leaving Baghdad, but the Feminist Press does not know where she intends to go or if she intends to keep writing. When we know more, we will post it here.
http://www.feministpress.org/Book/index.cfm?GCOI=55861100869560
Her publishers have on their web page the following message:
Note: To all of Riverbend's fans, thank you for your concern about her periodic absences from her blog. She has stated that she would be leaving Baghdad, but the Feminist Press does not know where she intends to go or if she intends to keep writing. When we know more, we will post it here.
http://www.feministpress.org/Book/index.cfm?GCOI=55861100869560
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Martin Amis
Martin Amis Experience 2000 Hyperion
Don't know what took me so long to find this guy. Started with House of Meetings, which led to Koba the Dread. Now, from Experience (pg 237):
...Princess Diana used to claim that her favourite poem was 'Ye Wearie Wayfarer' by Adam Lindsay Gordon, four lines of harmonial Victorian rubbish that go as follows:
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another's trouble,
C0urage in your own.
For fun, Kingsley had recently rewritten 'Ye Wearie Wayfarer', imbueing it with something of the spirit of the times:
Life is mainly grief and labour.
Two things get you through.
Chortling when it hits your neighbour
Whingeing when it's you.
Don't know what took me so long to find this guy. Started with House of Meetings, which led to Koba the Dread. Now, from Experience (pg 237):
...Princess Diana used to claim that her favourite poem was 'Ye Wearie Wayfarer' by Adam Lindsay Gordon, four lines of harmonial Victorian rubbish that go as follows:
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone.
Kindness in another's trouble,
C0urage in your own.
For fun, Kingsley had recently rewritten 'Ye Wearie Wayfarer', imbueing it with something of the spirit of the times:
Life is mainly grief and labour.
Two things get you through.
Chortling when it hits your neighbour
Whingeing when it's you.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Needs to be re-posted in Washington...
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen ColoniesIn CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
I think I'll just buy bigger trousers.....
(From Salon.com)
Lose weight! Feel great! Well, maybe not
Here's a question: Would you take a medicine whose possible side effects included making you poop in your pants? I'd guess that it'd have to be a pretty important pill to make it worth the risk (treating a mild headache wouldn't cut it). And I'd also think that such a med wouldn't fly off the drugstore shelves.
But I'd be wrong. Last Thursday, the first over-the-counter diet drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration hit drugstores -- and customers (mostly women) couldn't get enough of it. According to the Los Angeles Times, even a price of nearly $60 (for a one-month supply) didn't keep the drug, known as alli, on the shelves. "I've never seen anything like this," one store manager was quoted as saying.
How does this magic pill work? A lower-potency version of the prescription drug Xenical, it blocks your body from absorbing about 25 percent of the fat that you eat. (In a diet of 3,000 calories and 100 grams of fat, this would knock out about 225 calories.)
If that sounds too easy, it's because it is. First of all, it does nothing to calories that come from carbohydrates and protein. Second, if you check out alli's Web site, you'll find an entire section devoted to potential "bowel changes," which the site euphemistically calls "treatment effects," and it's quite clear that the human body is not designed to expel a quarter of the fat it eats.
What sort of treatment effects? Well, you may get "gas with oily spotting," "loose stools" or "more frequent stools that may be hard to control," the page says, before likening the undigested fat -- which will show up in the toilet -- to "the oil on top of a pizza." How do you prevent these side effects? Simple. Just limit yourself to no more than 15 grams of fat per meal. Yes, you heard that right -- in order to get the benefit of alli, you're supposed to eat a low-fat diet. Correct me if I'm missing something, but if you're already eating a low-fat diet, why would you need alli?
Putting it a different way, if alli prevents you from absorbing a quarter of the fat you eat, that means that for a meal with 15 grams of fat in it (at nine calories per gram), it'd be saving you approximately 36 calories. Not to get all philosophical, but if someone were to ask me how many calories it would take to get me to risk shitting myself in public, it'd be a hell of a lot more than 36.
Before I get even more worked up, let me point out that I understand that in cases of extreme obesity (or conditions where, for whatever reason, medication is necessary to reduce weight), alli might be a reasonable choice. But according to the pharmacists interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, most of the women (and yes, they were women) who grabbed alli weren't obese or overweight. They bought it because, as anyone in tune with pop culture knows, the "perfect" body is still -- for most people -- an unnaturally thin one.
None of this is surprising, but I still find it depressing that we live in a society where women are so obsessed with thinness that they are willing to sacrifice control of their bowels to avoid a handful of calories a day. Here's another quote from the "treatment effects" page of the Web site: "Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work." Sure, most people wouldn't mind losing five pounds, but in such a case, is it really worth it?
-- Catherine Price
Lose weight! Feel great! Well, maybe not
Here's a question: Would you take a medicine whose possible side effects included making you poop in your pants? I'd guess that it'd have to be a pretty important pill to make it worth the risk (treating a mild headache wouldn't cut it). And I'd also think that such a med wouldn't fly off the drugstore shelves.
But I'd be wrong. Last Thursday, the first over-the-counter diet drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration hit drugstores -- and customers (mostly women) couldn't get enough of it. According to the Los Angeles Times, even a price of nearly $60 (for a one-month supply) didn't keep the drug, known as alli, on the shelves. "I've never seen anything like this," one store manager was quoted as saying.
How does this magic pill work? A lower-potency version of the prescription drug Xenical, it blocks your body from absorbing about 25 percent of the fat that you eat. (In a diet of 3,000 calories and 100 grams of fat, this would knock out about 225 calories.)
If that sounds too easy, it's because it is. First of all, it does nothing to calories that come from carbohydrates and protein. Second, if you check out alli's Web site, you'll find an entire section devoted to potential "bowel changes," which the site euphemistically calls "treatment effects," and it's quite clear that the human body is not designed to expel a quarter of the fat it eats.
What sort of treatment effects? Well, you may get "gas with oily spotting," "loose stools" or "more frequent stools that may be hard to control," the page says, before likening the undigested fat -- which will show up in the toilet -- to "the oil on top of a pizza." How do you prevent these side effects? Simple. Just limit yourself to no more than 15 grams of fat per meal. Yes, you heard that right -- in order to get the benefit of alli, you're supposed to eat a low-fat diet. Correct me if I'm missing something, but if you're already eating a low-fat diet, why would you need alli?
Putting it a different way, if alli prevents you from absorbing a quarter of the fat you eat, that means that for a meal with 15 grams of fat in it (at nine calories per gram), it'd be saving you approximately 36 calories. Not to get all philosophical, but if someone were to ask me how many calories it would take to get me to risk shitting myself in public, it'd be a hell of a lot more than 36.
Before I get even more worked up, let me point out that I understand that in cases of extreme obesity (or conditions where, for whatever reason, medication is necessary to reduce weight), alli might be a reasonable choice. But according to the pharmacists interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, most of the women (and yes, they were women) who grabbed alli weren't obese or overweight. They bought it because, as anyone in tune with pop culture knows, the "perfect" body is still -- for most people -- an unnaturally thin one.
None of this is surprising, but I still find it depressing that we live in a society where women are so obsessed with thinness that they are willing to sacrifice control of their bowels to avoid a handful of calories a day. Here's another quote from the "treatment effects" page of the Web site: "Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work." Sure, most people wouldn't mind losing five pounds, but in such a case, is it really worth it?
-- Catherine Price
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Monday, April 09, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Torture Monologues
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses planning the events of 9/11, the attack on the USS Cole, the Anthrax Letters, the murder of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, Anna Nicole Smith, Laci Peterson and Sal Mineo. He denied any responsibility for the lyrics of MacArthur Park.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Wimpy Dems
I emailed Pelosi yesterday re pulling the sentences declaring that Bush has no authority to go into Iran (translate- bomb the shit out of them) without congressional approval. I told her that it seems it was a waste of my time to go vote at all.
Since the Democratic Majority has turned out to be as spineless as the Democratic Minority, the only feel good moments now rest in the ability of the Repubs to self destruct. Fortunately they are doing their fair share of this. The torture guy (now, he is a soprano why?) is whining his way out. And as for Peter Pace --with a name like that he's gotta be gay. Cheney will probably stay in office, telecommunicating from his bunker in Dubai.
I'm still not optimistic. But I am entertained.
Since the Democratic Majority has turned out to be as spineless as the Democratic Minority, the only feel good moments now rest in the ability of the Repubs to self destruct. Fortunately they are doing their fair share of this. The torture guy (now, he is a soprano why?) is whining his way out. And as for Peter Pace --with a name like that he's gotta be gay. Cheney will probably stay in office, telecommunicating from his bunker in Dubai.
I'm still not optimistic. But I am entertained.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
The Uniter
It occurs to me that W finally has brought this country together.
Thanks George!
You can go now.
Thanks George!
You can go now.
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