Measi's Musings

Archive for the ‘News & Politics’ Category

Sun? I do not know of this sun of which the weatherman speaks.

All of a sudden, we have sun… Erich responded this morning as he got up by hissing and pretending to pull a cape over his head.

Vampire, or gamer geek– I really can’t tell what brought that on.

Let me recap the last several days of New England Weather… rain. Nine effing days of it. And Friday night, which was the last full night of it, was the worst of all. It poured all night. We received over 4 inches from Friday night to Saturday night alone. We’ve received over a FOOT of rain already this month.

Even our basement, a declared dry basement, has a small amount of standing water in it. Thankfully under the oil tank, where nothing else is sitting. We’re lucky because only a few short blocks away from our place across the city line in Cranston, we saw this in person on Saturday. These are all on US Route 1. (these photos were taken by others):

Some areas of Rhode Island are even worse, depending on their elevation and proximity to a river. Amazing how something that seems annoying, yet harmless while happening causes so much destruction, isn’t it?

This morning, the sun came out, revealing a bright blue sky free of clouds, beckoning everyone to come outside.

And we did go out, despite the blustery winds that threatened us instead. Erich and I headed up to Concord, Mass. for our annual cheese shop trek– only to find it closed on Sunday (le sigh). We made up for it with a nice lunch across the street and a lengthy wander through an antique store (leading to the purchase of three old books, including a first printing of Bambi and an 1840′s printing of Paradise Lost).

We headed back south toward the farm stands in southern Mass. Erich and his dad always talk about The Big Apple in Wrentham, Mass., so we stopped by there to get… apples (duh) and a hot (!!) pumpkin pie. It was a madhouse, so we didn’t stay long. I’ll want to go back there again at some point when it’s a bit calmer (if that is possible).

We also stopped at another stand closer to home, where I bought my obligatory autumn mums to decorate the front step, two mini pumpkins, and wicked cheap, but wonderful looking bell peppers (for 75 cents a pound!!).

And then we came home to wince as the Patriots lost again. (sigh)

Now Erich is curled up on the bed, working on his gaming campaign in a couple weeks. The kittens have been in a serious thumb-sucking mode this weekend and keep trying to suckle on whatever they can find (necks, stomachs, furry blankets, Colley). Last I knew, Elly was going for Erich’s stomach again.

It’s cute, but a little freaky, too.

Erich’s chasing me to get dinner, given that it’s nearly 11 p.m. I guess I should stop.

Exactly what’s talked about in this article. And for the record, before taxes, the two of us are well over this “family of four” basic needs. While right now we can chalk our finance struggles to adjusting to the new house (and the expenses incurred therein), we lived paycheck to paycheck in our apartment.

from The Boston Globe (via Fark)

Report rates Boston most expensive city – Housing drives up cost of living

By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff  |  September 8, 2005

Propelled largely by high housing costs, Boston is now the most expensive metropolitan area in the country, outpacing Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and even New York City, according to a report that will be released today.

The report found that last year, a family of four living in the Boston area needed $64,656 to cover its basic needs. This was $6,000 more than in New York City, and about $7,000 more than in San Francisco. Living expenses, which include healthcare, child care, and other basic needs, were $44,000 or less in Austin, Texas; Chicago; Miami; and Raleigh, N.C.

The third annual ”Housing Report Card,” produced by the Boston Foundation and the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, concludes that even an uptick in housing production could not halt the relentless climb of Greater Boston’s housing prices, which are increasing far more rapidly than are wages.

The result: In 2004, there were only 27 Boston-area communities in which a household whose members made the median income could afford the median-priced home in that city or town.

By comparison, in 2003 there were 59, and in 1998 there were 148.

In 2004, the median price of a single-family home in Greater Boston was $376,000, up 9.5 percent from 2003, the report says. The median price of a condo was $282,000, up 9.3 percent. Even though Massachusetts was the only state to lose population last year, prices continued to rise because demand is still higher than the supply of many types of housing.

The price increases in the Boston region slowed in 2004 relative to other parts of the country; the national rate was 12.5 percent. But home prices in Massachusetts have increased more over the past 25 years than in any other state; they remain among the highest in the country.

The high cost of living is prompting many residents, especially younger ones who can’t afford to buy into the housing market, to decamp for other states, the report said. It is the latest to warn that such an exodus could have dire consequences for Massachusetts, which was the only state to lose population last year.

”Continued out-migration may solve the housing problem by reducing demand,” the report concludes. ”But, the cost to the Commonwealth’s long-term prosperity of losing its workforce is practically incalculable. Much more housing, appropriate for young working families, must be produced if this is to be avoided.”

Barry Bluestone, coauthor of the 64-page report, heads the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University. Bluestone described the study as a compilation of data from a variety of sources, including the US Census and real estate firms.

The cost-of-living ranking comes from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank Bluestone helped start. In addition to housing, the institute weighed the cost of healthcare, child care, taxes, and other necessities.

Bluestone said the report has ”strong warning signs” for Massachusetts. ”Dealing with housing costs is absolutely integral to the economic development strategy of the state,” he said. ”It may be, in the long run, the most important thing we can do.”

If the state doesn’t do anything, it is at risk of losing thousands of people like Lynn Walder.

Walder, a 27-year-old Watertown resident who owns an engraving business, grew up in Connecticut, but fell in love with Boston while attending Northeastern University. She and her husband, who owns a record store, would like to stay, but they’ve given up on trying to buy a house.

Three years ago, she said, the couple had $60,000 for a down payment, but were outbid on three houses in Dedham and Canton that were probably too expensive for them, anyway. For the time being, they are renting in Watertown and have decided to delay having children.

When they can’t delay any longer, they say, they may have to leave the state.

”To get anything affordable, we’re talking about being an hour to two hours away,” Walder said. ”At that point, I might as well move back to Connecticut and be near my family.”

Jennifer Norris, a 34-year-old Medford resident, said the struggle to buy a house is a wrenching topic of conversation.
Norris, who works for an environmental group, and her husband, employed at Harvard Law School, make a combined salary that exceeds $100,000. But that isn’t enough to buy a house near their jobs, they say, and for five years they have rented a two-bedroom apartment.

”At every gathering of people our age, this is the topic of conversation we inevitably end up on, and we all get depressed,” Norris added. ”It’s something we’re all angry about and obsessed over.”

Boston-area renters are also under strain. The report notes that even though there were 34,000 fewer rental households in 2003 than in 2000, 19,000 more rental households were paying more than 50 percent of their incomes for rent in 2003 than in 2000.

The federal government recommends that families spend no more than a third of their income on housing. ”There’s a close link between adequate affordable housing and economic competitiveness in the region,” said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association.

”We continue to lag behind,” Gornstein said, ”and although we have made some modest progress on increasing housing production, it’s still falling short for many moderate-income families who can’t afford a home and are, therefore leaving the state or considering leaving the state.”

The report does note that in 2004, there were 13,556 building permits issued in Greater Boston, the highest figure since 1987.

And for the first time since before 1998, both single-family and multifamily production were up. The authors also praise state lawmakers for approving a measure last year that rewards communities for relaxing their zoning to make way for mixed-income housing near transit stops and in town centers. Many people contend that overly restrictive zoning, rather than a scarcity of land, is the cause of the state’s high housing prices.

But Finley Perry, president of the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts, said there are still barriers to producing single-family homes. ”There is no incentive for the home-building industry to do anything at the starter-home level,” Perry said. ”Land is so expensive, you can’t really afford to put an inexpensive house on it.”

While I realize most of the people who read my journal have never seen my house in person, I’ll give you the rundown on the comparison…

We bought our house for $250,000. It’s approximately 1,800 square feet, 3 bedrooms (all small), older bathroom, older kitchen. Oil heat. Window boxes A/C on 1st floor. Detached 2-car garage. Just shy of 1/4 acre of yard. Erich, due to fabulous credit, managed a fantastic fixed rate 30-year mortgage, and we’re paying just shy of $1,600 per month on our mortgage.

In Massachusetts, even in east bum fuck, we would not have been able to find our house– in the condition that it’s in- for less than $450,000.

We literally had to move to another state– and most specifically, the state to the south (since southern New Hampshire is as obscene as Massachusetts is… it was “discovered” first, I suppose) to be able to afford anything. And I was part of that “paying over 50% of income to rent” crowd until I moved in with Erich. The Beast was probably closer to 2/3 of my take-home income per month. Once I was in that apartment, I literally got trapped there because Boston landlords require at least first, last, and a full-month’s security (and if you use a realtor to find the apartment, as most people do, that’s another month’s rent on top of that).

It’s really sad, but not surprising at all to me.

They’re focusing on the very spot of this whole tragedy where it makes more than perfect sense for us to make a difference…

They’re opening a disaster fund starting with $500,000. They will match all donations to it or any other related charity we choose. We can arrange for it to be taken out of our paychecks directly if we wish, or write a check, wire money, etc.

They’re focusing the company’s disaster fund on helping the schools and students recover– to rebuild, to help schools taking in the displaced students, etc. Educational supplies are now on their way to Texas, and they’re coordinating with other school districts to do supply drives, replace textbooks, and help as needed. Divisions of higher-ed will be doing the same on its level, the trade publishing division is sending books to the the temporary shelters. Other divisions will help the Red Cross with behind the scenes work at the call centers.

I’m thrilled that my company has taken this approach, and focused on an area – education – where it can make a direct impact. While I am donating some time (and little blood bits) to the Red Cross in the next several weeks, I think I will focus my monetary donations in that direction to help give these kids some shred of normal life as soon as possible. AND it makes much more sense to take the opportunity to have my donation doubled.

I’m rather proud of my company today.

While I enjoyed the three days off from work, my heart wasn’t truly into the holiday weekend. I imagine a lot of people were feeling the same way. I did have a good time, but I’d be lying if I said that a good portion of every day wasn’t drifting down to the the South.

Late last week, the flurry of calls commenced to find and confirm that my godmother was okay. She and her husbad lived in Slidell, Louisiana, and the last we’d heard, their house was gone. Thankfully, they’ve been found to be fine, staying with her son. But all I’ve seen in my mind are memories of two years ago, when she and I met up for the first time since I was a little girl… and how she told me that I must come down to Louisiana soon, and that we definitely should come down for Mardi Gras, since her husband is the king of one of the parades.

I grew up getting a yearly supply of multicolored aluminum coins and long strings of beads. I didn’t know what they were from at the time, but my godmother was always the cool relative who gave me dress-up toys.

I still haven’t found a couple of my penpals who lived in southern Louisiana. Since I’m not clear as to the exact damage area, it’s possible that they’re just fine, but power hasn’t been restored. From what I’ve gathered, areas in the deep southern bayous were slightly flooded, but weathered the storm okay. I’m hoping that that’s the case. It may be months before I find out what happened, since the postal service is now starting to restrict or freeze delivery to some zip codes.

But my appointments with the Red Cross are now made– 7 platelet donations over 6 weeks. The earliest they could get me started was in two weeks. Since I don’t have the money to give right now, I’ll do whatever I can. Hopefully by mid-month, I’ll be able to give some on the financial side.

From idrewthis.org:

The irony is enough to make you vomit.

People are dead because of your policies. If you really do talk to God, I hope he gives you an earful for this one.

From CNN this morning…

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — President Bush told reporters on Friday that millions of tons of food and water are on the way to the people stranded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — but he said the results of the relief effort “are not acceptable.”

“A lot of people working hard to help those who’ve been affected, and I want to thank the people for their efforts,” Bush said before leaving the White House for a tour of the devastated areas in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Let me get this straight– the results of the relief effort are “not acceptable?” Where were you, Mr. President?

Where were you on SUNDAY, when every network was reporting that a Category 5 storm was bearing down on the gulf coast– which would have been the fourth ever to hit the U.S.? Every single station covering it was describing it as catastrophic and bringing up what happened with Andrew, Camille, and the Labor Day storm of 1935, not to mention Galveston at the turn of the 20th Century, which was a Category 4?

Oh, that’s right– you were on vacation.

Where were you on MONDAY, while the Gulf Coast was being destroyed? Oh, that’s right– you were plugging your war of aggression in Iraq and praising the results of forcing the Iraqis to come up with a constitution in an attempt to soften the increasing anger toward the war. You were at your ranch in Texas. Still on vacation.

Where were you on TUESDAY, the day after, when sunlight came out and reporters everywhere were describing the devastation? Still on vacation. Pledging that support will come, but that’s about it.

On Wednesday, you “cut your vacation short by two days” to get back to Washington. Oh, how generous of you. People now have been baking and starving in the heat for those two days. The situation is worsening in New Orleans, and they don’t have the manpower to get things under control. You decide to tap the oil reserve. Oh, how generous of you. I can do without driving a bit, thanks. My gas prices aren’t as important as people’s lives ending in the middle of feces-invested disaster zones. You gave a pathetic speech about how ice, water, and blankets were being sent down there, and that anyone who wanted to help should send money, and then you SMILED and said that things would work out in the end. And that’s ALL you did. You SMILED. As people died. This is NOT a photo-op for you, Mr. President. You’re not flying a plane to an aircraft carrier three miles off-shore so you can claim Mission Accomplished.

On Thursday, you announce plans for surveying the region on FRIDAY, and that the military has been sent from Virginia. Again– you’re late. This should have happened on Monday, as it happened, at the very latest. You condemn those who are looting stores- but at this point, really– they’ve been without any food or water for THREE FULL DAYS… in the fucking 90 degree sunshine. They are starving. They are dying. And no help is coming to them. What the hell do you expect them to do? Just sit there and do nothing? Yes, there is bullet fire in the air. I find it deplorable. But I can’t blame them entirely when people are looting HOSPITALS to survive and are desperate to find any way to escape the city– no help is arriving. The New York Times begs you to finally get a clue and do your job.

Oh yeah… and rather than actually DO something, you decide to just put your father and your predecessor in charge of relief funding. Bring Daddy in– maybe he can fix it. Oh yeah, and that president that my party tried to obliterate for getting a blow job. Yeah, he seems to know what’s going on.

You are incompetent. Your administration is incompetent. This was not 9-11, which was a surprise attack. This was KNOWN. Troops should have been stationed in Atlanta for deployment on Sunday. This has been discussed ad-nauseum by scientists for years. They’ve had shows about it on the Discovery Channel, for crying out loud. You cut finding to a project in full-swing that was both repairing and extending those levees to protect New Orleans for your false war and “homeland security.”

You are not at fault for the weather, of course– but you are at fault for not doing your job and leading this nation in a time of dire crisis.

I hope that a good portion of your devotees from the election of 2004 finally have woken up and noticed that the Emperor has no clothes, and the calls for impeachment begin. You have betrayed our nation’s trust, Mr. President.

Shame on you.

Out of sadness and an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness (is that even a word? It is now.), I don’t talk politics often. I’m tired of the bullshit cop-out “If you don’t like it here, leave the U.S.” or the claims that I’m not patriotic because I’m not celebrating the behavior of our president. Last I checked, the reason our nation existed at all was because a few guys started challenging authority over in England. Questioning the authority of the government has been an American trademark since the beginning of this nation. But now, more than ever, those who do so are belittled and condemned. It’s come to the point, though, where my anger has led to exhaustion and hopelessness about the situation. Which is morally cowardly of me, I admit. Perhaps that’s what “the other side” wants– all of us to just wither in exhaustion.

Congrats, it worked for me. I quietly shake my head, occasionally crying some silent tears over the state of our nation. But I’m not a fighter. I’m a wuss. But my beliefs, I continue to hold, challenging them as I find new information– asking if my beliefs are crackpot thoughts of ignorance, or if I have a foundation to back them up. So far, most of my beliefs have stayed strong. A few have changed. A few are up in the air.

Through all of the weariness, I take some comfort in the words of those who walked before me…

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. – Edward R. Murrow

When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. – Theodore Roosevelt

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. – Thomas Jefferson

What makes me saddest of all, however, are the friendships- both online and off – that I have lost because my beliefs are liberal. Yes, I’m pro-choice, pro-equality for homosexual marriage, pro-evolution, and anti-theocratic influence in our laws. I don’t care how anyone lives their lives– if they have different morals that require strict religious observance… no problem. Just don’t dictate that I have to follow them through laws that not only make no sense to me since I don’t follow their beliefs, but are a detriment to my already law abiding, tax paying, full-time job holding lifestyle.

Hell, two diarists online, who I enjoyed reading for two to three years and shared so many things with, snubbed those who didn’t agree with their conservative attitudes, myself included, under a guise of not wanting to write online anymore, although they both still were and are. Despite sharing some very, very personal things with these people, they just snubbed people and moved on. Perhaps it shouldn’t bother me, because on the surface, these were just internet friendships at this point. But given that I *thought* there was a respect and understanding to agree to disagree on some points, I just felt lied to, betrayed, and quite frankly, snubbed in a “you’re not welcome in our clique” sort of way. It’s probably stupid, but it hurt. And I often think of them fondly with thoughts of what could have been, and what seemed to happen (since I got no explanations from them). I mourn the loss. I miss their comments. I miss feeling like I have the right to comment on their entries (which I still read from time to time– the internet gives me that small comfort).

It all makes me sad. I have conservative relatives. I have conservative friends. I disagree with them. Sometimes strongly. But when the disagreement on politics is very strong, then it’s clear that politics simply is one of those topics we need to avoid discussing, or it will make us upset. That’s cool with me. It’s just like religion– sometimes, it’s just better to leave it alone.

So after all of that verbage, I come to what actually inspired me to write this entry this morning. I came across this link somehow in my morning coffee-sippage time. I found myself nodding, smiling, and honestly surprised at how well it sums up both my experiences and my opinion on the world at large right now. Only I admit that I just am too much of a coward to actually do anything about it, save post the link and story here. I’m not this intelligent. I could not write this. But it rings nearly 100% true.

This piece was written by Mark Morford for SFGate.com (the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle). The original posting of it is here.

I get this a lot: Hey Mark, you nefarious and perverted liberal commie tofu-hugging sex-drunk San Francisco medical experiment gone wrong from the land of fruits and nuts (or some iteration thereof — so cute, my hate mail can be), hey, I notice you love to ridicule those creepy Christian megachurches and you enjoy spanking wide-eyed Mormons and tweaking the litigious nipples of the cult of Scientology and you recoil at toxic Bush policy like a vegetarian recoils at undercooked veal.

And I can tell you think Dick Cheney is pretty much the devil in a defibrillator and that America is so desperately on the wrong track it might as well be North Korea, and you clearly tend to wince in savage karmic pain when looking down the rusty barrel of a welfare-happy red state and I just have one slightly nasty and pointed and cliched question for you — Here it is: Where is your supposed progressive openness? Your liberal generosity of spirit? I thought you Lefties were all mushy and passive and live-and-let-live?

In other words, where is that famous so-called tolerance I thought all you wimpy libs were supposed to possess like some sort of gentle polyamorous smiling hug for the world?

To which I reply: You cannot be serious. Does the answer really need to be articulated? Is it not painfully obvious? Can I have a shot of Patrón and a long nap before I answer? Here goes …

You, hate-mailers from the sanctimonious Right and even some of you morally paralyzed middle-grounders from the Left, are correct. I am, in fact, deeply intolerant. It is true. I can hide my deep biases and predispositions no longer.

I cannot, for example, tolerate the dark and violent road down which this nation seems intent on careering like an Escalade on meth. I cannot tolerate brutal, never-ending unnecessary wars and I cannot allow gay rights to be bashed and I truly loathe watching women’s rights be slammed back to 1952. Or 1852.

I really have little patience for the gutting of our school system and the decimation of science and mysticism and the human mind for the sake of a handful of militant Christian zealots who truly believe the Second Coming will be arriving really soon but hopefully not before the next episode of HBO’s “Cathouse: The Series,” which they watch in secret with the lights off while clutching a Bible in one hand and a big tub of Country Crock margarine in the other.

I cannot tolerate an American president, ostensibly meant to be one of the most articulate and intellectually sophisticated leaders on the planet, mumbling his semicoherent support of the embarrassing non-theory of “Intelligent Design,” to the detriment of about 300 years of confirmed science and 10 million years of common sense to the point where America’s armies of dumbed-down Ritalin-drunk children look at him and sigh and secretly wish they could have a future devoid of such imbecilic thought but who realize, deep down, they are merely another doomed and fraught generation who will face an increasingly steep uphill battle, who will actually have to fight for fact and intellectual growth and spiritual progress against a rising tide of ignorance and religious hegemony and sanitized revisionist textbooks that insult their understanding and sucker punch their sexuality and bleed their minds dry.

I have surpassed my allowable limit for how much environmental devastation I can willingly swallow or how many billion-dollar tax subsidies our cowardly CEO president gives his cronies in Big Energy while doing nothing to ease our gluttony for foreign oil, all the while trying to tell us how many undereducated misguided American teenage soldiers we have to sacrifice at the bloody altar of oil and empire before we can call ourselves king of the bone pile again.

But I am perhaps most intolerant, not of Christians per se, not of faith, certainly not of radiant self-defined spirituality, not even of organized religion — though I do fully believe more independent spirits and raw human souls and moist sexual licks have been lost to its often narrow-minded and cosmically rigid brainwashing techniques than have ever been saved. But hey, that’s just me.

I am most intolerant of, well, of those who allow such intolerance. Of those who would, based on their narrow views of sex, God, love, hope, war, the mind, the Earth, soil and animals and air and water and fire and love and spirit and drugs and guns and dildos, work to legislate those neoconservative beliefs, codify them, make them the law of the land, force their regressive beliefs on everyone else under punishment of violence and beatings and prison. I am, in short, intolerant of intolerance.

Oh, let us be clear. I love diversity, religious pluralism, peace and love and pacifism and good drugs and open-mouthed sensuality. I’m happy to let you believe in any god you like and marry any gender you like and let you love how you will and be in full control of your sex and your body and your mind.

This, to me, is the America worth fighting for. These are the laws I support. Don’t believe in abortion? Don’t understand gay people? Sexuality makes you rashy? Think Harry Potter teaches kids evil and witchcraft? Don’t marry a sexy gay witch abortionist. But don’t you dare, based on your limited understanding of God and life, make laws declaring that I can’t.

But maybe this is the problem, especially here in San Francisco, the World Headquarters of Tolerance, where liberals tend to be so PC and open- minded they merely sigh and shrug when our government and half the nation move to outlaw everything they stand for, when those people openly loathe human rights and try to codify homophobia in the U.S. Constitution and slowly annihilate Roe vs. Wade and treat any display of resistance or questioning of the norm the way a dog treats a fire hydrant.

Enough. Basta. Let’s refashion the old, stagnant definition of tolerance and make it less about merely enduring, merely putting up with the existence of other narrow-minded beliefs no matter how devastating and embarrassing they obviously are to the nation’s health.

Rather, let’s flip that sucker over and baste it with raw goat butter and sear it on the open flames of divine justice and bliss and intellectual fire and white-hot orgasm and burn it new.

Let us take the rather flaccid word tolerance and pump it full of Ecstasy and medical marijuana and sake and real divine love and fancy book learnin’, turn it on its head and spin it like a bottle and reclaim it from the neocon Right and turn it into, say, giddy outrage. Or radical reconsideration. Or ecstatic rebellion. Or wet conscious electric pointed awareness. Is this not a better way?

Let us explode those dead meanings, correct the mistaken neocon dictionary. Let us hurl that dying and mealy and abused term back at their powerful and often bigoted scowl. Here is your weak, ineffectual tolerance. We cannot swallow it anymore. In fact, we are choking on it.

Best. Letter. Ever.

Original link found here…

What the fuck do you think you’re doing?

This is London. We’ve dealt with your sort before. You don’t try and pull this on us.

Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not going to work.

All you’ve done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don’t get rewarded for this kind of crap.

And if, as your MO indicates, you’re an al-Qaeda group, then you’re out of your tiny minds.

Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we’ve got news for you. We don’t much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We’ll deal with that ourselves. We’re London, and we’ve got our own way of doing things, and it doesn’t involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.

And that’s because we’re better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we’re going to go about our lives. We’re going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we’re going to work. And we’re going down the pub.

So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.

I woke this morning, checked my email, and saw a post from FlyingBlogSpot regarding London. Did a WTF? and checked CNN.

So before I get into anything– my thoughts are with those I know in Britain, and those I know who have friends and family in and around London who may be affected by the explosions this morning.

Since communication in and out of the U.K. seems to be nearly nil at the moment and both emails and phone messages aren’t getting through… if you see this and are in and around London, please reply and let me know you’re okay.

~ Mel.

You know, I have to hand it to them… they have a well-oiled machine going. They’ve roped in two people who I used to love reading online (Ethne and Hooligan), who now condemn anything left-leaning as Michael Moore loving (yeah, it was an interesting documentary and finally got the left to feel unafraid to express themselves in this nation… Moore-specific haters, get over yourselves), whining, and childish (ignoring their own faults, of course) and have turned their previously wonderful live-and-let live selves into quite saddening renditions of everything I fear from the right.

Here’s why many of us who lean left fight like hell to be heard. Here’s why we have been fighting against Bush, who is the poster child for the things we are afraid of in this nation. We fight because our fears are being realized. Remember– if it’s said enough times by the current administration, it MUST be true, right?

Enjoy it while it lasts, folks– unless these kids get a smack of reality come college, we’re heading down the road the Christian Coalition wants us to, covered up Liberty Breasts and all…

Source: CNN

Freedom of what?

First amendment no big deal, students say

Monday, January 31, 2005 Posted: 11:38 AM EST (1638 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.

It turns out the First Amendment is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes released Monday.

The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

“These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which sponsored the $1 million study. “Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.”

The students are even more restrictive in their views than their elders, the study says.

When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.

The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn’t know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.

Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It’s not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can’t.

“Schools don’t do enough to teach the First Amendment. Students often don’t know the rights it protects,” Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said in the report. “This all comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything. And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment.”

The partners in the project, including organizations of newspaper editors and radio and television news directors, share a clear advocacy for First Amendment issues.

Federal and state officials, meanwhile, have bemoaned a lack of knowledge of U.S. civics and history among young people. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, has even pushed through a mandate that schools must teach about the Constitution on September 17, the date it was signed in 1787.

The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, is billed as the largest of its kind. More than 100,000 students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators at 544 public and private high schools took part in early 2004.

The study suggests that students embrace First Amendment freedoms if they are taught about them and given a chance to practice them, but schools don’t make the matter a priority.

Students who take part in school media activities, such as student newspapers or TV production, are much more likely to support expression of unpopular views, for example.

About nine in 10 principals said it is important for all students to learn some journalism skills, but most administrators say a lack of money limits their media offerings.

More than one in five schools offer no student media opportunities; of the high schools that do not offer student newspapers, 40 percent have eliminated them in the last five years.

“The last 15 years have not been a golden era for student media,” said Warren Watson, director of the J-Ideas project at Ball State University in Indiana. “Programs are under siege or dying from neglect. Many students do not get the opportunity to practice our basic freedoms.”

First: I’m more level-headed than I was at this point yesterday morning.

Second: The two people (one troll, one online friend) who basically told me to fuck off…. I’m sorry you don’t recognize a kneejerk rant when you see it. We all have them. Consider what I’ve been praying for for the past four years to happen and what I’ve been activing working to change. You’d have a kneejerk reaction, too, when all of your time and energy didn’t result in what you wanted to happen.

Mind you– that doesn’t translate to “wasted.” The time was most definitely not wasted. To say what would be to ignore and counteract every passion I’ve had about political subjects since the year 2000.

Third: To the one person who demanded that I essentially not exist in their world– I’ve respected your wishes. I disagree, and hope that when you calm down, you’ll change your mind. But that’s your mind to change. *shrug* I hope you eventually realize that, but that’s something you have to do. Until then, I’ve done as a friend would do– and respected your wishes.

Contrary to what many people think about Kerry supporters. I voted FOR Kerry. The disagreements with Bush led me to seek out another candidate. That was the catalyst to look elsewhere. In Kerry’s platform, I found what I considered a reasonable amount of ideals that I agreed with. And the ones that I didn’t agree with were either strongly felt, or in my mind not thinks that I considered cons that outweighed the pros for him. I liked that there would be a representative both of the upper class (Kerry) and someone who came from the lower class and worked his way up (Edwards). We had four options here in Massachusetts for president. I didn’t vote against Bush. I voted FOR Kerry.

He lost. It happens. Someone has to in any vote. And my kneejerk reaction was to be extremely upset, intensified by early morning exhaustion after staying up past midnight the night before, watching the news and hoping and praying…

It didn’t go the way I wanted it to. *shrug* I vented. I move on.

I’m here. I’m not moving to Canada or Australia, or whatever country would take my sorry ass. I survived the past four years of Bush’s presidency. The next four years will be ones that will be frustrating. But as is often said– if you don’t do anything, you can’t bitch. So I will work for what I believe in and do my part to help push liberal ideals forward because it’s what I personally feel is right to do.

I’m a woman, a Pagan, and extremely pro-choice (for obvious reasons). I have gay relatives, gay friends, and parents of friends who are gay. I live in the great state of Massachusetts which has recongized equal marriage rights for everyone. I am an adoptee with divorced parents. I over-criticize myself to do the right thing all the time. I donate to the police charity fund. I donate to Children International, where I sponsor a girl in the Dominican Republic and a girl in India. And I donate platelets, which save peoples lives.

I will continue to fight for what I believe in and try to make this world a better place.

If that bursts your bubble and rubs you the wrong way, hey… I respect that. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to change for you. I have friends and relatives who are extremely conservative, carry guns, think abortion should be illegal, and perhaps even think privately that I’m a sorry human being for the faith that I hold. As long as they don’t publically kick me specifically, for having different beliefs than them, we’re all cool. NO ONE believes in the exact thing another person does. We’re not clones.

For those who think I’m demon scum and should go to hell for my beliefs… I’m bringing the throw pillows to decorate the hell couch and my stash of drinks for the inevitable fantastic party. I’ll have a lot of company from wonderful, hardworking, lifeloving people of all creeds, religions, and nationalities.

Off to work and face the day. Because it’s a beautiful bright one out there– and I’m going to go out there with my eyes looking dead ahead.

Four more years of the dictator

Four more years of the disgusting, self-righteous swagger

Four more years of arrogance, destroying any remaining respect we have around the world

Four more years of thinly-veiled theocracy

To the good ol’ boys and rednecks of this nation – fuck off.

To the educated folks who voted for Bush – shame on you.

And I”m counting on both a draft and another country invaded within two years.

I’m just terrified and sick for this nation.

A beautifully written essay posted in the San Francisco Chronicle today… it expresses everything I feel I would need to say and more.

How to untangle the religious from the patriotic

Ayesha N. Khan, Wednesday, March 24, 2004

————————————————————————

My parents arrived here from India in one of the waves of immigration that have brought millions of families to the United States during the past 300 years. These immigrant families want to be able to express their gratitude and loyalty to the country that has taken them in. But the assertion in the Pledge of Allegiance that this is a nation “under God” prevents many immigrants outside the Judeo-Christian tradition from participating in this fundamental ritual of American patriotism.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether the words “under God” must be omitted from the recitation of the pledge in public schools. As a legal matter, the required outcome is plain: A principled application of constitutional law calls for the words to be stricken. As a political matter, however, the case is more complex: It pairs patriotism with religious faith, matters that inflame passions when they arise in isolation and are downright incendiary when they coalesce. But it is precisely because the pledge pairs religion and politics that the phrase must be removed.

A federal appeals court in California found the words “under God” unconstitutional, at least insofar as they are used in public schools. As a matter of law, this conclusion was far from groundbreaking. The framers of the Constitution believed that government should not endorse religion in general or any religion in particular, and that this is necessary to ensure that religion flourishes and the American experiment is realized. As a result of the framers’ good judgment, the United States is among the most deeply religious countries of the world.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court has rightly concluded that organized public school events are inherently coercive and that it is unrealistic to think that children — some as young as 5 years old — will be comfortable opting out of such activities. That is all the more true when a patriotic exercise is involved. The pledge, as written, places polytheistic and nontheistic children between a rock and a hard place: They can betray their religion or conscience, or they can appear unpatriotic. That is not a real choice.

Despite all of this, the appeals court’s decision led to a national outcry. Politicians lined up to ridicule the ruling, to announce their intent to defy it and to predict its quick demise in the Supreme Court. Americans throughout the country expressed the view that the decision represents hostility toward religion and religious people. Michael Newdow, the Sacramento man who filed the case, became the object of countless harassing and threatening telephone calls.

Newdow’s experience mirrors that of Lillian Gobitis, a seventh-grader who, in 1935, sought to remain true to her Jehovah’s Witness teachings by opting out of the recitation of the pledge. It had not yet been amended to include the words “under God” — that occurred in 1954 at the height of the McCarthy era, when many Americans were keen to distinguish themselves from “godless Communists” — but Gobitis’ religious motivation for objection was perceived as unpatriotic by her fellow students, who subjected her to verbal harassment and physical attacks. School officials were equally intolerant of her perspective; they expelled her for “insubordination.” Lillian challenged her expulsion but ultimately lost before the Supreme Court, which was swayed by the politics of the impending war. The court’s 1940 ruling led to waves of persecution against Jehovah’s Witnesses at the hands of those emboldened by the decision’s affirmation of anti-minority sentiments.

But the high court got it wrong in the Gobitis case, and it did so for all the wrong reasons. If the federal courts cannot be counted on to rest their rulings on principle — rather than politics — they add nothing to our constitutional order that is not already provided by the representative branches of government. Even more important, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Gobitis case betrayed the very purpose of the Bill of Rights, which is to protect religious and other minorities from the political predilections of the majority.

In recognition of its error, the Supreme Court corrected itself three years later. In West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette, the court upheld the right of Jehovah’s Witness students to abstain from reciting the pledge, eloquently explaining that “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion.” In overruling its previous decision, the court recognized that the “case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure but because the flag involved is our own.”

Yet again, history repeats itself. But this time, let’s get it right — the first time. In so doing, we would be recognizing a new patriotism, one that allows all Americans to fully express their love for this great country.

~ Ayesha N. Khan is legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington.

Oregon county bans all marriages.

Good for them. Keep it equal– and perhaps it will give some people some perspective on the issue.

~ Mel.

I’m in disgusted awe at how much gooey crud the human body can produce. It’s absolutely disgusting. Bleh. I’m convinced there’s some cosmic black hole inside my sinuses from which mucus comes forth. There’s simply no other explanation for the volume of snot that seems to be packed in there.

bleh bleh and double bleh.

In all seriousness, I’m definitely doing better. I haven’t woken up coughing the last couple nights. In fact, last night I slept through the night– which is a rarity in itself on my most healthy days. I’m still cruddy and coughing, but so far today they’re not the wracking, rattling dry coughs from the bottom of my lungs. I’m counting my blessings since my diaphram hurts like hell from this past weekend’s bouts.

One of these days I’ll be better… honest. In, oh… May or so.

*sigh*

~~~

Today is “Super Tuesday” in the political world, and Massachusetts is one of the ten states holding its primaries/caucuses.

I was a good citizen this morning and went to the local high school to vote in the primaries. It was dead quiet, as expected. It should come as no surprise that I chose to vote in the Democratic primary. Since Dean is out (even though he’s still on the ballot), I voted for Kerry.

It amuses me every time I’ve gone to vote there– they figured out the foolproof way to vote. No chads, no expensive touch-pads on computer screens. They give you a legal-sized piece of pink cardstock paper that has all of the options printed on it, and you use a black marker to fill in the ovals next to your choices.

Simple, straightforward. If someone can’t figure this out, there’s some comprehension problems on the part of the voter that (with all seriousness and compassion) should be addressed.

It kinda goes along with the “sometimes simple is the best way” example that Ethne gave the other day.

I’m a bit mixed on my opinion about Kerry– I agree with the majority of his policies, but not all. I don’t agree with his stance on the gay marriage issue, but I can tolerate someone open to civil union concepts (which leaves the door open to improvement) a bit better than I can tolerate anyone who supports federally legalized segregation & second class citizenship through a new amendment to the Constitution.

My words stumble on the issue because it makes me so angry. So rather than fumble around for what I really want to say, I’ll refer you to Wil Wheaton and more personally, Minarae (who has written a rather powerful letter that I feel anyone should read).

Regardless, I voted for Kerry because I do feel he’s the Democrat that has the best chance of winning and is someone who I feel comfortable supporting in the national elections. I maintain my liberal, yet unproclaimed party status, but I realize that in the current political climate, the Democratic party best reflects my ideals and hopes for our nation.

As long as King George IV is dethroned in November, I’ll be happy.

~ Mel.