Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Oh this isn't going to make anyone happy

Iran dumps U.S. dollar for oil trades - CNN.com: "TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, in a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq."

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

It's my birthday

so I woke up and danced it out to Prince's Let's Go Crazy. An awesome way to start the day if I do say so myslef!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Violence is never the answer....

and yet sometimes.....

NORRISTOWN, Pa. - A woman pleaded guilty Friday to third-degree murder for killing her bigamist husband just hours before he was to leave for Morocco to visit his second wife.

Myra Morton, 48, was upset about the new marriage and her husband's plans to have children with the younger woman, authorities have said. She shot her 47-year-old husband, Jereleigh Morton, twice in the head in August while he slept, and initially blamed an intruder.

Monday, April 21, 2008

of fer the love of Jesus...or not

JERUSALEM - Dozens of Greek and Armenian priests and worshippers exchanged blows at one of Christianity's holiest shrines on Orthodox Palm Sunday, and used palm fronds to pummel police who tried to break up the brawl.

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves...

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Seriously?

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The U.S. government paid more than $1.7 million in defense contracts over the last decade to companies owned by leaders of Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect, with tens of thousands allegedly winding its way back to Jeffs and his church.

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The Pentagon had contracts with three companies with ties to Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect.

In fact, some of the deals were made after Jeffs was named to the FBI's "Most-Wanted List" and remained in place while he was on the run.

CNN has learned that between 1998 and 2007, the United States Air Force and Defense Logistics Agency purchased more than $1.7 million worth of airplane parts from three companies owned by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which practices polygamy.

Those companies are Utah Tool and Die, Western Precision and NewEra Manufacturing. Today, the companies all operate under the name NewEra Manufacturing, a company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, that says it supplies precision components "for the aerospace, military, medical, recreational and other commercial entities."

"It was my understanding that Western Precision was paying roughly $50,000 a week into the coffers of the church," former sect member Richard Holm said. "It would have been close to $200,000 a month."

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Men who explain things - Los Angeles Times

Men who explain things - Los Angeles Times: "He cut me off soon after I mentioned Muybridge. 'And have you heard about the very important Muybridge book that came out this year?'

So caught up was I in my assigned role as ingenue that I was perfectly willing to entertain the possibility that another book on the same subject had come out simultaneously and I'd somehow missed it. He was already telling me about the very important book -- with that smug look I know so well in a man holding forth, eyes fixed on the fuzzy far horizon of his own authority.

Here, let me just say that my life is well-sprinkled with lovely men, including a long succession of editors who have, since I was young, listened and encouraged and published me; with my infinitely generous younger brother; with splendid male friends. Still, there are these other men too.

So, Mr. Very Important was going on smugly about this book I should have known when Sallie interrupted him to say, 'That's her book.' Or tried to interrupt him anyway"

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Random particularly offensive Misogny

I am not sure how much readership Harper's Magazine has, but the consider themselves the preeminent liberal policy magazine in the US. I have been reading them since high school and subscribing since college. It's generally speaking a good magazine. Nonetheless, there has been either a recent or only recently noticed trend of "women are less than human (male)" in both them and Atlantic Monthly. I don't know if the editors have changed or if it was there all along and I am only recently noticing it, but it's awful. That Rush Limbagh, Laura Ingram, Bill O'Reilly and their ilk are misogynists is expected, annoying, but expected. When supposedly liberal humanists writing about society at large are, it's depressing.

The following are snippets from Lewis Lapham's Notebook which is his opening soliloquy for each issue. Two times in this article women are mentioned in lists of things. Things for sale or things in a place, but things nonetheless. I see this stuff and I don't know how its going to change. I don't know how or where progress will happen and it's really frustrating.

Women dominate Spanish cabinet

BBC NEWS | Europe | Women dominate Spanish cabinet: "Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has unveiled his new cabinet, which for the first time includes more women than men.

The former housing minister, Carme Chacon, one of the rising stars of Spain's Socialist party, becomes its first ever female defence minister."

Nine of the ministers are women, and eight are men; when the prime minister is included, the cabinet is equally divided by gender.

BBC NEWS | Europe | 'World peace' hitcher is murdered

"An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.

The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the city of Gebze on Friday.

She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people."

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Daily Kos: Food Riots Breaking Out Across the Planet

Daily Kos: Food Riots Breaking Out Across the Planet: "Is the U.S.immune to the conditions that cause food riots? In March, Kossak bink documented soaring wheat prices, which are now showing up in price hikes at bakeries in Michigan, pizzerias in New York, and beer just about everywhere. Milk prices are up 26 percent and egg prices are up 40 percent.

But Americans are a tough lot. We swallowed $2 and $3 per gallon gas prices with nary a blink or change in our driving habitat (until very recently). But is something about to change? Nearly one in 10 Ohioans now receive food stamps. Middle class Long Islanders are turning to food pantries. In Windsor, CT, 350 households now visit the food bank, compared to 120 in 2006. While I don't believe food riots are in our immediate future, it appears our ability to feed ourselves is becoming increasing difficult, and a day of reckoning may now be on the horizon."

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

On Prisons, Borders, Safety, and Privilege: An Open Letter to White Feminists | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet

On Prisons, Borders, Safety, and Privilege: An Open Letter to White Feminists | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet: "Around the same time, I read and heard a whole lot of white feminist media makers explaining that 'we' need to show young women 'why feminism matters.' Sometimes I asked them why, in the face of a series of egregious, in some cases highly publicized examples of state violence against marginalized people (e.g., Jena 6 and the New Jersey 4), prominent white feminists are MIA in and largely ignorant of the work and analyses of major, often feminist-of-color-led movements against state violence? And, I wondered, what is your feminism for, and why does it matter? Because feminists of color don't seem to need convincing on that point -- they're engaged in profound, intergenerational, cross-cultural grassroots work that is transforming not only feminist movement but all social-change movements.[5]"

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

A Possible Thread

Following my watching of old BSG in preparation for the new season I ordered The Darjeeling Limited from OnDemand and watched it while having my last bit of Glenlivet. I have loved Wes Anderson movies but most specifically Rushmore. It surprised to me that he had surpassed that movie. The portrayal of sibling but also family dynamics in this move is shocking and comforting.

As I age, I find that the family dynamic is in fact an amazing mystery that embodies the conundrum described in kill the buddha. I thought for so long that my goal was to get to a place of 'peace' with my family. I now realize how utterly naive and pointless a goal that was and is. I struggle, and likely due to my disposition have always struggled, with the idea of process being the point, not the destination. So as I gamely try to embrace the concept of the importance of process I am awed by how much I love those who have become my family, how willing I am to exist within their sphere, how profoundly my youthful notions of independence as strength have been torn asunder and finally how obvious, enjoyable and satisfying that conclusion is.

At some point all i asked was that it never be boring and it never, not even for a moment has been. Slainte.

BSG

Battlestar Gallactica starts its final season this Friday and my excitement about this is embarrassing.

Starbuck: You know that the President says that we're saving humanity for a bright, shiny future, on Earth--that you and I are never gonna see. We're not, because we go out, over and over, again, until someday, some metal motherfrakker is gonna catch us on a bad day and just blow us away.
Lee: Bright and shiny futures are overrated anyway.
Kara: That's why we gotta get what we can, right now.
Lee: I'll drink to that. To right now