“The proper personal and societal response to war should involve remorse and reflection. Remorse involves being accountable and acting responsibly. Denial, in contrast, insulates us from the pain and suffering of others. But denial has characterized America’s response to this war. There are certain things our culture just does not want to see, hear or feel.”
Check out this bizarre collection of mp3s. There’s some great wacky songs and spoken word items there, and hilarious comedy bits.
It’s the 50th anniversary of the Marshmallow Peep, y’all. Whether you love them or hate them, they’re ubiquitous at this time of year. Personally, I think I’ve eaten some Peeps that were made in 1953, from the taste of them. Read some of the peep history, and them check out these fan sites.
Official Peeps Site
Peep Show – A Gallery of Art made of Peeps.
Peep Research – “Science” experiments on the pastel creatures.
Peeps Homage – A fan website.
Interesting article on how Congress (specifically Republicans in Congress) is having trouble getting the Bush Administration to give information on how it’s using the PATRIOT Act. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (Wisconsin, R) told Ashcroft, “If you want to play, ‘I’ve got a secret,’ good luck getting the PATRIOT Act extended. Because if you’ve got bipartisan anger in the Congress, the sunset will come and go and the PATRIOT Act disappears.”
However, the new draft of the PATRIOT Act proposes deleting the sunset clause and making the act permanent.
I have completely failed to mention that I have a brand-new cat courtesy of my girlfriend Kathy. Well, she’s new to me, really, but I think she’s a year old or so. I have named her Drusilla, who was Spike’s girlfriend on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Apparently Drusilla is also from the Bible. Who knew?
I will post photos of the new resident, as soon as I can take some. Right now, she’s hiding under my bed. She came out about 4 a.m. this morning to use the litter box, and then around 5:30 a.m., she came out and was playing with the kitty gymnasium I bought her. But when I moved and she realized I was there, she dove back under the bed. She’s dark grey all over with green eyes, and is very pretty, although obviously quite shy. She isn’t ferocious, though, like Idgie was, so she won’t terrorize house guests.
Dru, hiding under the bed.
Photo Set: My Pets.
Also:
Petfinders.org
Indy Feral
Alliance for Responsible Pet Ownership
Southside Animal Shelter
May primaries are coming up in states where the Republicans aren’t trying to prevent them. Don’t forget to register to vote. In many states you can register online.
Although repeatedly warned of it’s importance to world history, the military failed to prevent looting at the Iraqi National Museum, leaving 5,000 years of written records, irreplaceable cultural history, to be destroyed. The oldest examples of human writing, clay tablets containing cuneiform are gone.
“It’s extraordinary,” says Joan Aruz, curator in charge of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “It’s of the utmost significance, not only for the cultural heritage of Iraq, but also for the rest of the world. The museum contained the greatest work of art created in the first cities. The loss is just outstanding. I haven’t gotten over the shock.”
Rumsfeld’s response:”The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over and over and over,” he said, “and it’s the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase, and you see it 20 times, and you think, ‘My goodness, were there that many vases? Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?'”
Of course, this is overlooking the fact that that vase is probably the oldest object created by man and worth over a billion dollars.
Apparently, the military is stationed to defend Iraq’s oil wells, leaving it’s people, hospitals and civic infrastructure to be looted and destroyed. “Protecting people should be a primary responsibility of any power that expects to enter a country and justifies its intervention on the basis of liberating the people or protecting their rights.”
Tim Robbins gives an excellent speech to the National Press Corp on the war, civil liberties, and the current media climate. Excerpt:
A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. ‘If you oppose this administration there can and will be ramifications.’ Every day the airwaves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends I saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and in fear.
It takes one person with the courage and a resolute voice. The journalists in this country can battle back at those who would re-write our Constitution in the Patriot Act II (or Patriot, the sequel, as we would call it in Hollywood). We are counting on you to star in that movie. Journalists can insist that they not be used as publicists by this administration.
It’s easy to tell how demented and irrational the country is right now regarding the war in Iraq… check out the urban legends that have sprung up lately on Snopes.com, the site that investigates and determines the truth about the e-mails you get forwarded to you by your not-too-internet-savvy friends and family members.
There are a bunch of apocryphal legends about military service members getting “denied service” or otherwise treated badly by “anti-war protesters.” It’s all a load of crap, folks. Ask any anti-war protester (hell, ask me, I’m one) and they’ll tell you they support the service people but hate the war they’re fighting in.
Mine is:
B9 d++ t++ k+ s u f i+ o++ x– e+ l c–
Go here to decode