From my sarnie label today:

“Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin

Wise words, Benjie.

In a few discussions lately, this has come up. I love having my website, but some days writing feels like homework. Good homework, but homework nonetheless. Yet it’s gotten to a point where I feel I have something of an obligation to keep it up, nearly daily. I have just enough people reading that I think it’s important to try to say witty or opinionated things on a pretty regular basis. And I enjoy the challenge. It keeps me informed and engaged in the world. And writing. I like writing.

But somedays I feel like I’m completely repeating myself. That I’ve said something on a forum, or here, or in my private online journal. Or people will get me in a conversation about something, and i find myself repeating phrases that I wrote, then wondering if they’ve already read it.

The biggest downside is that I find I’m not keeping my written journal. Which I really enjoyed, but once I’ve already got it out somewhere else, it’s silly to basically copy it into a diary.

Sigh. The secret downside to blogging that no one tells you about.

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quote

today is international women’s day.

International Women’s Day is the universal day that connects all women around the world and inspires them to achieve their full potential. IWD 2006 launches another year of working progressively for women’s equality worldwide. It is an important day around the world because the collective power of women is witnessed by milions, and the brave achievements of women past, present and future are respectfully honoured. International Women’s Day 2006 will
be celebrated globally on Wednesday 8 March. Join the action !!

how ironic, in the face of all the efforts to roll back women’s rights to their own bodies recently.

Aletta Jacobs, Margaret Sanger, Marie Stopes – they would all be rolling over in their graves right now. Instead of honouring their memories and building upon their legacy of fighting for women’s rights, we are denigrating their accomplishments.

We’ve fought so hard to control our own destinies and our own bodies, a luxury many women worldwide *still* do not have, and would die for. And we’re throwing it all away through negligence and apathy.

In honour of women everywhere who don’t have choices… donate to international planned parenthood.

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international women's day, planned parenthood, reproductive rights

The thing that really makes me despair lately, the thing which makes me want to run far, far away and never come back, is not the misogynistic ban on abortion in south dakota, and it’s not the sickening homophobic protest at the funerals of soldiers. It’s not the fact that guantanamo detainees who have been deprived of their rights are being deported back to countries where they’re likely to be tortured or executed. It’s not that teenagers think it’s fun to beat up or torch homeless people. it’s not that our sports heros flout the laws for fame and fortune.

It’s what’s reflected in all of these instances, but explicitly addressed in none of them. it is the ever-present, ever-growing naked hostility towards our fellow humans. it’s the undercurrent of a country which is quickly and constantly becoming more divisive and more embattled within its own borders. it’s the anger which runs through the headlines every day, and the fear which hides behind our locked doors. it’s the threat which is implicit in the lines we draw in the sand, and the myopia of our blinded world view. it’s the selfish narcissism and rampant cynicism that shine through our professed values. it’s in the bitter taste of all the politicians lies, and in the knee-jerk reflex of the pundits that pander to them. it’s more pervasive than violence, and more devastating than poverty or lack of education. it is more soul shattering than any one act committed against our country, or by our country.

it’s the slow, sure, torturous death of compassion and understanding. the arteries have hardened. the bell tolls. we’re becoming heartless. as hollow as the statue in new york harbour.

from an outsider’s perspective, it’s blindingly obvious. it’s staggering to sit back and observe from afar the amount of energy and hatred and money invested in shouting back and forth at each other across the issues. it’s mind-numbing to watch the drooling apathy of the public who tune out and turn off because they just can’t stomach any more bad news. it’s painful to watch the backbiting and posturing and blustering that’s broadcast to the world at large, in deliberate and willful ignorance of the impact it has. it is unbelievable to witness the regression of an entire country to imitating a time of cold war and oppression and fear-mongering and religious fervor and callow bravado. didn’t we already get enough of that? haven’t we learned our lessons?

how did we get to this place? how have we become so entrenched in our own sense of righteousness, both individually and collectively, that we cannot extend ourselves towards others? when did we lose our sense of expansiveness? when did our caring end at own front door? when did we become so *hard*?

i can’t identify anymore. i think many people feel lost, and there is anger underneath that sense of sadness. dreams have soured, and no one seems to know how to make it right. i think people are mad at losing the dream. but it’s only wild speculation on my part. i have no real theories, only observations. perhaps this is a transitory phase, much like the unrest of the sixties and seventies. maybe we need some national catharsis. maybe it’s in the swing of the pendulum. maybe we’ll come out better on the other side of it. i can only hope.

because it really can’t get much worse.

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mark morford gets it right again:

S. Dakota Slaps Up Its Women
Another state you should never visit passes an appalling abortion ban, because they hate you

Here’s a fascinating aspect: Most women are stunned by this news. Most women not living in one of the few remaining prehistoric red states cannot believe their ears, eyes, souls. I’ve told a number of my youngish female friends of this hideous development and they all respond the same way: stunned silence, then “You can’t be serious,” then this ashen “Oh my God” feeling of utter horror, followed by, “Does anyone else know this? Why isn’t this making bigger headlines? Where the hell is Oprah?” Etc.

See, modern women under 40, they simply don’t accept it. They have no conception of a world in which they don’t have complete control over their flesh, their reproductive rights, their sexuality. For most women of this generation, reproductive choice is simply a fundamental, incontrovertible human right, obvious and ironclad and indisputable, and so to hear that it’s being deeply threatened in this back-ass BushCo world is so foreign, so surreal, it induces an immediate cringing recoil, like watching Tom Cruise stick his tongue in Katie Holmes’ face, like watching flies feed, like seeing Dick Cheney naked. It simply does not compute.

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south dakota, abortion rights, abortion ban

how exciting! After more than a year of trying to *not* spend money, we’re actually starting to *buy* stuff for the trip. internet shopping is delightful, as long as you know what you’re looking for – not only can you compare without all the legwork, but it’s usually heaps cheaper. what did we ever do before the interweb? (more to the point, how did anyone ever do round-the-world travel?!? boggles the mind.)

Here’s what I bought this past two weeks:

j’s mp3 player… the creative zen micro photo. (which i will be holding ransom until he quits smoking!) lovely and flashy and not cheap. he better appreciate this…

a fleece for me, and some light comfy sneaker-shoes from clarks

a bevy of accessories for ivanka the ipod, including a camera connector, travel charger, and case. also, new camera memory cards, and usb card reader.

some lovely stuff from lush, including travel savvy stuff like solid shampoos and conditioners

and finally, my pack – an osprey atmos. top of the line, light as air, and friggen expensive. but hey, i have to carry it around for 6 months, so it’s an investment, right?

somehow all the pre-trip shopping preparation makes it seem even more real…

…it’s really real, right?

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we don’t really get much in the way of oscar hype here in england, and though it’s somewhat refreshing, it’s also somewhat sad. i miss oscar parties, and the red-carpet bitchfest, and the betting pools. here, unless you have cable and stay up to the wee hours to watch it, you’re relegated to watching the heavily edited highlights show the following evening (where the commentators will invariably bemoan the slow death of the british film industry) after the results have already been revealed in the morning papers. which, if you ask me, kind of negates the whole point.

so, in honour of the oscars being held tomorrow night:

brokeback mountain is expected to run away with the race. having become infamous for being “the gay cowboy movie”, it’s also become nearly as infamous for the spinoff spoofs it has spawned. If you haven’t already checked them out, get a look at what everyone’s talking about here.

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: we love jon stewart. as master of ceremonies this year, jon stewart should bring down the house. most everyone in america knows him well as the host of the political satire “the daily show”, a programme which has been gaining in popularity of late with it’s particularly pointed lampooning of the current administration. in keeping with the “gay oscars” theme this year, here’s his take on recent civil rights progress around the world.

If you haven’t hear about timothy treadwell, and the movie “grizzly man” (which was tipped for the oscars, but didn’t quite make it), watch the earnest trailer below about this poor deluded man who tragically fancied himself a “bear whisperer” of sorts…

then watch this pants-pissingly hilarious spoof… (if the video is slow to load, you can watch it here as well)

not a fan of the oscars? go check out their “award archnemesis” the razzies. Nominees for worst picture include “the dukes of hazzard” (which I slept through on dvd, even) and the classy “deuce bigalow: european gigolo”, and there’s an epic showdown in the worst actress category between the esteemed tara reid and jenny mccarthy. winners announced 7:30 pst tonight!

happy oscars!

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oscars, razzies, satire, grizzly man, brokeback mountain spoofs, jon stewart

it’s been a long hard slog this week, and we’ve just got a new vending machine on our floor at the office – much to the chagrin of many, and the delight of… well, just me. so to lift my flagging spirits late on a friday afternoon, i did something I never do: bought chocolate. (now those of you who know me in real life, and know of my sugar addiction, are gaping slackjawed in disbelief right about now, but it’s true. I do have *some* rules. and one of those rules is that i generally don’t buy chocolate.) standing in front of the bright shiny new machine, i was looking for something comforting and familiar. and then i saw the m&m’s winking at me. so i deposited my money, made my selection, tilted my chair back, dipped into the bag, and popped a few in my mouth.

ewwww.

i don’t know exactly how or why they were so… different. and bad. completely not what my mouth was expecting – upon closer inspection of the bag looked as if they had been imported from greece. they were overly crispy. they were gritty and grainy, and felt funny betweeen my teeth. there was too much shell. they were not chocolatey, and at first i thought they were the peanut butter m&ms. (if anything i would have expected them to be more british chocolatey, with it’s strong sensation of eating solidified cream, than american chocolatey, with it’s cloying sweetness. they were not chocolatey.) They were like no m&ms i’d ever had before. nor will i ever have them again.

i have no idea how it is that in nearly 3 years in england i have never eaten m&ms here. like I said, i don’t generally buy chocolate. but trust me, i’d remember it if I had.

i tell you – it takes a lot, to make me say ewwww when it comes to candy of any type. i take pride in my commitment to trying strange sweets of every possible variety – if it’s made of sugar, i’ll try it. i particularly enjoy discovering new and interesting international candies, and the highlight for me of any trip, is discovering what treats they sell abroad. my friend diana once took it upon herself, *on her honeymoon* to bring back for me the strangest confectionery creations she could find in all of greece and spain (countries where, it should be noted, nose-bleed menthol is considered a perfectly acceptable candy flavour and textures run the gamut from break-your-tooth-off *hard* to oozingly runny). she must have brought back nearly a dozen foreign delights and the only thing which i did not and could not willingly eat was a brittle variation on liquorice which tasted like crunchy soap.

even being featured on bad-candy, is not enough to dissuade me – i love circus peanuts, and if i could get my hands on some indy dedos i’d try them in a heartbeat.

but these m&ms…. ewww. next time i’m going for a snickers.

still… i ate ‘em. (what?? they’re sugar!!!)

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m&ms, candy, bad candy

This is how bad it is. This video just confirms everything I’ve always known. Which is that Bush has blood on his hands. Because whether you intended to kill people or not, the fact remains that if you knowingly and negligently fail to act and people die, that’s manslaughter.

I refer you to Merriam Webster’s definition:

Main Entry: involuntary manslaughter
Function: noun
: manslaughter resulting from the failure to perform a legal duty expressly required to safeguard human life, from the commission of an unlawful act not constituting a felony, or from the commission of a lawful act in a negligent or improper manner

I wish I still had the righteous anger and indignation to be enraged, but instead, I am just brutally sickened. That’s bad.

There are those who say that the failure was not just Bush’s alone. and that’s certainly true enough.

Information was available early. Over years, cuts in funding were made which should not have been, given the probability of serious and life-threatening problems. *LOTS* of people dropped the ball in handling the early warnings, because no one knew what to do. Protocol got in the way, and utter ineptitude by people who were supposed to have a handle and have a *PLAN*.

Once the storm hit, the complete lack of adequate preparation at multiple levels meant that the meagre plans went out the window, and desperation set in. Up until this point, I can share the blame around.

But this is where things started to get bad. And here is where I blame Bush. Because at this moment in time, when things started to look really bleak, when catastrophe was everywhere and chaos all around, when all the world was watching horror unfold, when people were drowning on live television and dying like dogs in the street…he could have single-handedly saved people’s lives. *He alone* had the power to do away with all the red tape, all the bureaucracy when it mattered most. And at the very end that’s what he did. He came swooping in with a mighty show of force, mustering all the resources available to the national government… lo and behold, the great messianic saviour. and because he deliberately, willfully failed to do that sooner, in his cloud of obstinant bullheaded denial at the nightmare on the evening news, in his feigned deafness to the plaintive cries for help… because he wanted to maintain his cultivated veil of ignorance, americans died.

There’s plenty of blame to go around. But I will never forgive him for that.

manslaughter. that’s how bad it is.

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I *looooovvvveee* peeps. I am addicted to peeps.

I have discovered that peeps are sold at asda. I hate asda. Asda is Wal-Mart. I hate Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is evil. Asda is evil.

There can be only one explanation. This is a test from god.

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