A lot of my friends this weekend seem particularly intent on demonstrating to everyone within cyberspace that they are brighter and better than the rest of us. Yep. They're all waving the flag of political right-onness. Mother's Day was started by a trio of women who were more interested in celebrating women's commitment to peace than their ability to appreciate flowers. Still, one might note, a flower was chosen as the symbol of this: a red carnation.
I value peace and justice. I value mothers. And though I can't actually verify this and don't actually care to even try, I do suspect it's true that those of us who know what it's like to raise a child, to value another life more than you do your own, are those who know better than anyone else the yearning for peace in the world. Few mothers, after all, outlast their children. Those who do feel no joy in this.
But I am so tired of the people I know who seem to think they are better than those outside our little intellectual circles on the political and artistic left. I was raised by people, well-meaning people, who were convinced they were better than almost everyone else in the world, and I'm done with that as much as I can be.
Send me flowers, take me to brunch, feed me chocolates, or plant gardens with me. There is no way you might propose to commemorate Mother's Day with me that I would not find wonderful and full of meaning. You don't have to make it politically right. Just smile at me and say you love me.
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November 6, 1909 LA Times Wire
"We're at this crisis in this country, and I think on the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's historic election, people better take a really deep breath," he says. "Maybe people thought it would be easy, and he'd wave his magic Obama wand and we'd have health care and then we'd have immigration reform. No. The forces that ruined this country are out there, and they're not going to give an inch. As Rush Limbaugh has said repeatedly, they're very happy to see Barack Obama fail."
Interviewed by David Medearis in Isthmus newspaper, October 23, 2009
"America's odds of winning this war are slim. The Karzai government is corrupt, incompetent and resistant to reform. The Taliban have sanctuaries in Pakistan and can hide among the local populace, making it possible for them simply to outlast us. Pakistan has backed the Afghan Taliban in the past and is not a reliable partner now. Our European allies are war-weary and looking for the exits. The more troops we send and the more we interfere in Afghan affairs, the more we look like foreign occupiers and the more resistance we will face. There is therefore little reason to expect a US victory."
Stephen Walt in the October 21, 2009 "The Nation"
From an article titled "Foods to Increase Your Breast Size"
"Hormonal imbalance is one of the reasons why women have small breasts. If the female body produces too much of the male hormone, testosterone, it hinders the growth of breasts. So keep your testosterone production within the normal level by reducing your carb intake and getting more of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, the female hormone, estrogen, causes breast enlargement and is responsible for the distinguishing appearance of a mature female breast. That’s why flat-chested girls in China are served with chicken soup with chicken head, which is believed to contain a high percentage of estrogen."
http://yournaturalwellness.com/2009/08/08/foods-to-increase-your-breast-size/
"The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko... I'd seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna. It was Ginsburg, in particular, I was referring to. The words "Element'ry penguin" meant that it's naïve to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol. In those days I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Walrus
Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.
Lay your long shadows on the sundials,
and on the meadows let the winds go free.
Command the last fruits to be full;
give them just two more southern days,
urge them on to completion and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.
Who has no house now, will never build one.
Who is alone now, will long remain so,
will stay awake, read, write long letters
and will wander restlessly up and down
the tree-lined streets,
when the leaves are drifting.
English translation: Edward Snow
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child ... long way from my home.
Sometimes I wish I could fly, like a bird up in the sky. Oh, sometimes I wish I could fly... Fly like a bird up in the sky. Sometimes I wish I could fly, like a bird up in the sky... Closer to my home.
Motherless children have a hard time. Motherless children have such a hard time. Motherless children have such a really hard time -- A long way from home.
Sometimes I feel like freedom is near. Sometimes I feel like freedom is here. Sometimes I feel like freedom is so near, but we're so far from home.
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child ... Long way from my home.
Edward T Hall's "Personal Reaction Bubbles"
"'Why are we sadder?' I persisted.
'Because you care,' he replied with a mock sneer. 'You have feelings.'
'Oh, that."
-Maureen Dowd, NYT
Mom's New Wheels
I'm a writer. Sometimes things just don't make sense until put down in lines of print.
Followers
And 100 Years Ago On the UW Campus It Was Radical to Flirt
November 6, 1909 LA Times Wire
Glenn Silber on the war at home, today
"We're at this crisis in this country, and I think on the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's historic election, people better take a really deep breath," he says. "Maybe people thought it would be easy, and he'd wave his magic Obama wand and we'd have health care and then we'd have immigration reform. No. The forces that ruined this country are out there, and they're not going to give an inch. As Rush Limbaugh has said repeatedly, they're very happy to see Barack Obama fail."
Interviewed by David Medearis in Isthmus newspaper, October 23, 2009
Get Out of Afghanistan Now
"America's odds of winning this war are slim. The Karzai government is corrupt, incompetent and resistant to reform. The Taliban have sanctuaries in Pakistan and can hide among the local populace, making it possible for them simply to outlast us. Pakistan has backed the Afghan Taliban in the past and is not a reliable partner now. Our European allies are war-weary and looking for the exits. The more troops we send and the more we interfere in Afghan affairs, the more we look like foreign occupiers and the more resistance we will face. There is therefore little reason to expect a US victory."
Stephen Walt in the October 21, 2009 "The Nation"
Amazing Facts I Found While Writing This!
From an article titled "Foods to Increase Your Breast Size"
"Hormonal imbalance is one of the reasons why women have small breasts. If the female body produces too much of the male hormone, testosterone, it hinders the growth of breasts. So keep your testosterone production within the normal level by reducing your carb intake and getting more of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, the female hormone, estrogen, causes breast enlargement and is responsible for the distinguishing appearance of a mature female breast. That’s why flat-chested girls in China are served with chicken soup with chicken head, which is believed to contain a high percentage of estrogen."
http://yournaturalwellness.com/2009/08/08/foods-to-increase-your-breast-size/
Lennon on "I Am the Walrus"
"The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko... I'd seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna. It was Ginsburg, in particular, I was referring to. The words "Element'ry penguin" meant that it's naïve to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol. In those days I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Walrus
"Autumn Day" by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.
Lay your long shadows on the sundials,
and on the meadows let the winds go free.
Command the last fruits to be full;
give them just two more southern days,
urge them on to completion and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.
Who has no house now, will never build one.
Who is alone now, will long remain so,
will stay awake, read, write long letters
and will wander restlessly up and down
the tree-lined streets,
when the leaves are drifting.
English translation: Edward Snow
The Song Sung
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child ... long way from my home.
Sometimes I wish I could fly, like a bird up in the sky. Oh, sometimes I wish I could fly... Fly like a bird up in the sky. Sometimes I wish I could fly, like a bird up in the sky... Closer to my home.
Motherless children have a hard time. Motherless children have such a hard time. Motherless children have such a really hard time -- A long way from home.
Sometimes I feel like freedom is near. Sometimes I feel like freedom is here. Sometimes I feel like freedom is so near, but we're so far from home.
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child ... Long way from my home.
Like a Bird in the Sky
Rainbow in Darkness
Female Genital Mutilation
Map of FGM Practice
Fistula
From Wikipedia:
Vesicovaginal and rectovaginal fistulas may also be caused by rape, in particular gang rape, and rape with foreign objects, as evidenced by the abnormally high number of women in conflict areas who have suffered fistulae.[1][2] In 2003, thousands of women in eastern Congo presented themselves for treatment of traumatic fistula caused by systematic, violent gang rape that occurred during the country's five years of war. So many cases have been reported that the destruction of the vagina is considered a war injury and recorded by doctors as a crime of combat.[3]
Vesicovaginal and rectovaginal fistulas may also be caused by rape, in particular gang rape, and rape with foreign objects, as evidenced by the abnormally high number of women in conflict areas who have suffered fistulae.[1][2] In 2003, thousands of women in eastern Congo presented themselves for treatment of traumatic fistula caused by systematic, violent gang rape that occurred during the country's five years of war. So many cases have been reported that the destruction of the vagina is considered a war injury and recorded by doctors as a crime of combat.[3]
Michael Pollan at His Best
An Eater's Manifesto
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly
incredibly complicated and confusing question of what
we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.
From the Introduction to In Defense of Food
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly
incredibly complicated and confusing question of what
we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.
From the Introduction to In Defense of Food
And McDonald's at Its Best
In a bid to tap into growing consumer interest in the provenance of food, the fast-food chain recently switched its supplier of both coffee beans and milk..McDonald's coffee is now brewed from beans taken from stocks that have been certified by the Rainforest Alliance, a conservation group. Similarly, milk supplies used for its hot drinks and milkshakes have been switched to organic sources...When McDonald’s received criticism for its environmental policies in the 1970s, it began to make substantial progress towards source reductions efforts. For instance, an “average meal” in the 1970s—a Big Mac, fries, and a drink—required 46 grams of packaging; today, it requires only 25 grams, allowing a 46% reduction. In addition, McDonald’s eliminated the need for intermediate containers for cola by having a delivery system that pumps syrup directly from the delivery truck into storage containers, saving two million pounds of packaging annually. Overall, weight reductions in packaging and products, as well as the increased usage of bulk packaging ultimately decreased packaging by 24 million pounds annually.
"We all have it: bubble space. It's that distance we like to maintain between ourselves and those with whom we interact. When that invisible boundary is breached, we feel less at ease.
Cal Tech neuroscientists, through working with a patient with a very rare condition, have determined that the amygdala is front and center in determining the social distance at which we feel comfortable."
from http://www.tonic.com
PROXEMICS
The term proxemics was introduced by anthropologist Edward T. Hall in 1966 which is the study of set measurable distances between people as they interact. The effects of proxemics, according to Hall, can be summarized by the following loose rule:
"Like gravity, the influence of two bodies on each other is inversely proportional not only to the the square of their distance but possibly even the cube of the distance between them."
Edward T Hall's "Personal Reaction Bubbles"
"Blue Is the New Black" Excerpt
"'Why are we sadder?' I persisted.
'Because you care,' he replied with a mock sneer. 'You have feelings.'
'Oh, that."
-Maureen Dowd, NYT
Mom's New Wheels
Economics of Declining Happiness
"From 1972 to 2006, women’s happiness relative to men’s fell by (β2-β1)Δt = (-0.294-0.082)*(2006-1972)/100 ≈ 0.13 points.... To compare this change with other well-known shifters of the happiness distribution, we can consider how large an increase in unemployment would be needed to generate a similar shift in subjective well-being. In a related context, Wolfers (2003) regressed individual happiness against a state’s unemployment rate, controlling for state and year fixed effects, finding that a one percentage point rise in a state’s unemployment rate leads to a decline in happiness 0.015 points. The ratio between these two estimates suggests that the relative decline in the subjective well-being of U.S. women over the past 35 years is roughly comparable to the effects of an 8. percentage point rise in unemployment rates, that is, a rise from, say, 4% unemployment to 12.%)."
From “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, The Wharton School, Univ. of PA
From “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, The Wharton School, Univ. of PA
Mady & Mom & Me
About This Girl Effect:
This is from: http://www.girleffect.org
• When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2
fewer children. (UN Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.)
• An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent. (Psacharopoulos and Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881 [Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002])
• Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers. (Bicego & Boerma, “Maternal Education and Child Survival: A Comparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries,” Social Science & Medicine 36 (9) [May 1993]: 1207–27)
• When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man. (Borges, with foreword by Albright, Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World [New York: Rizzoli, 2007], 13.)
• Today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world. (http://www.prb.org/datafinder.aspx ).
• When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2
fewer children. (UN Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.)
• An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent. (Psacharopoulos and Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881 [Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002])
• Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers. (Bicego & Boerma, “Maternal Education and Child Survival: A Comparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries,” Social Science & Medicine 36 (9) [May 1993]: 1207–27)
• When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man. (Borges, with foreword by Albright, Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World [New York: Rizzoli, 2007], 13.)
• Today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world. (http://www.prb.org/datafinder.aspx ).
No "Girl Effect" in this Boys Club
"US Special Forces missions include direct action operations, unconventional warfare, special recon, and counter terrorism. They are the masters of training and organizing insurgents, surrogate fighters, native forces, and foreign armies."
Be a male, age 20-30 (Special Forces positions are not open to women)
www.military.com/army-special-forces
Be a male, age 20-30 (Special Forces positions are not open to women)
www.military.com/army-special-forces
from "A Gate at the Stairs"
"I wanted to go back in time. Just to send an e-mail--was that too much to ask? When Superman went back in time...it still seemed as if he might manage a passenger, like those dolphins who give rides to kids. I wanted Superman to take me whooshing with him backwards around the globe. Just to send an e-mail. That was all. Not so much. But what would I say? What grammar, what syntax would hold together sentences in this whizzing flight back? Both my kids seemed always to love the feeling of flying. What punctuation as strong as aeronautic stitchery would I know to bring with me? The apostrophe in don't held together by our chewing gum and seeds? It would do. For a moment or two."
Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold on Countering the Threat of Failure in Afghanistan
"I believe that we need to examine whether the current military strategy may potentially be counterproductive. I am concerned that our massive military presence may be contributing to instability in the region, and could be unwittingly undermining our chief national security priority, relentlessly pursuing al Qaeda’s global network."
FIRST ITEM OF THE CODE OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT, U.S. House of Representatives:
1. A Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives shall conduct himself at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.
1. A Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives shall conduct himself at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.
No words just numb..ers
From the author of "Falling Man"
"As belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone believe...Those who have abandoned belief must still believe in us. They are sure that they are right not to believe but they know belief must not fade completely. Hell is when no one believes."
— Don DeLillo (White Noise: Text and Criticism)
— Don DeLillo (White Noise: Text and Criticism)
Fair Trading
Angling
Civilization and its Contents
Linkages
Not So Much About Me
Threesome
Crockett in Sunshine Forever
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