Food Safety

how to avoid genetically engineered food at the mothers for natural law site. good stuff. eat well. be well.

Social Action - Monsanto's Terminator Technology Page

oh this is insane. auto-botanical-abortion? we really are going to destroy the planet, aren't we? read this.

thanks to WWR and the J-Walk blog.

toilet humour

on the lighter side of things.......

i have a terrible affection for toilet humour. and the word poo is one of my favorites, as some of you may already be aware. therefore i thougt the following letter to the village voice "savage love" column and subsequent response was ridiculously funny. i should not have read it at work. got lots of strange looks when i burst out into those funny squeaks of laughter you'll erupt into when your trying to hold it in but just can't......

Savage Love
by Dan Savage
January 28 - February 3, 2004

You and your readers have been talking about poo-eating for a long time now. I would like to offer up an alternative that I think is kind of neat. Take a standard condom, fill it with peanut butter, twist the bottom, and insert into your ass (making sure to not let go). When the moment is right, untwist the bottom, release, bear down, and POO! Well, OK, not quite, but it certainly provides an alternative that might satisfy both the poo eater and also his bacterially minded sex partner. Let me know what you think. —I Can't Believe It's Not Poo

Gee, ICBINP, I don't recall discussing poo eaters recently, nor have I printed any questions from people looking to fake their way through a big poo-eating orgy. I also think your premise is faulty, freako. Those of us who aren't interested in the erotic possibilities of crap aren't going to leap at the chance to fake shit-play. I once gave a recipe for faux poo for the bacterially minded—mashed potatoes mixed with a drop or two of butyric acid—but it didn't prompt a run on potato futures. For most people, if it looks like poo and smells like poo, it's going to be revolting to handle even if it isn't poo. Likewise, if it drops out of someone's ass, looks like poo, has the consistency of poo, and is one of the colors poo comes in, most right-thinking people will be revolted, even if it's peanut butter. But thanks for sharing.

more weirdness at wal-mart

and this is a little scary.......

i think i'm going to step up my efforts at self-sufficiency. looks like i have to start making my own clothes too, along with my beer and mead, and photographic emulsions, and vegetables........

action alerts for the day

take a look at these petitions i feel are important:

1. Pledge Not to Buy a Ford until Ford Builds Climate Friendly Vehicles
http://www.care2.com/go/z/10915/1064

Ford vehicles create more global warming pollution than virtually any company in the world. In fact, "Some Ford vehicles create more daily global warming pollution than an entire family's home energy use" (Bluewater Network). We need your help to turn the tide.

Instead of improving to protect the planet, Bill Ford Jr. is breaking his promises. He reneged on his pledge to boost SUV mileage by 25%, and personally lobbied Congress against improving the nation's fuel mileage standards. And despite promises to lead the industry towards sustainability, his company's vehicles are some of the least efficient in the nation. The 2003 Ford Excursion gets as little as 10 mpg!

Send Bill Ford Jr. a pledge - tell him you won't buy a Ford vehicle (including Volvo, Mazda, Jaguar, and Land/Range Rover) until his company builds climate-friendly vehicles and convinces Congress to double the nation's fuel mileage standards.

Sign this petition:
http://www.care2.com/go/z/10915/1064

2. New Sonar Threat to Whales
http://www.care2.com/go/z/10904/1035

Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar in the oceans is proven to injure whales and dolphins. LFA noise is millions of times more intense than is considered safe for human divers and billions of times more intense than levels known to disturb large whales.

In March, 2000, during a Mid- range frequency (weaker than the Low Frequency bandwidth of LFAS) test in the Bahamas, four different species of whales and dolphins beached themselves suffering from hemorrhaging/bleeding in the ears. A National Marine Fisheries Service and Navy investigation determined the deaths were almost certainly caused by the LFA test. A follow-on study in February 2001, determined that at least one of those whale species no longer existed in the area.

But now there is a new sonar threat. A federal judge ruled that marine biologists could keep testing a sonar system for detecting deep-sea whales, despite environmentalists' fears that the noise will harm marine wildlife and interfere with the annual winter migration of gray whales.

Environmental groups contended that the high-frequency sound could distress and disorient whales, drive them from their habitat and separate calves from their mothers.

Sign this petition and support a ban on this dangerous sonar testing, both for the Navy and marine biologists:
http://www.care2.com/go/z/10904/1035

Tales from the Weird Alert

article about a girl who has x-ray eyes. or rather, is psychic and can sense where injuries are located on your body.

"I Love Kucinich But He Can't Win"

top ten responses to this oft-heard quotehere. YAY! I voted in the primary today. guess who i cast my vote for?

What They Left Behind

a creepy article by Jennifer Gonnerman from the Village Voice. i am very intrigued by the history of the mental health institution. i echo the comments of the women quoted here - in a different time i could have been locked up interminably. scary.

if you needed a reason to avoid wal-mart........

from Judy Seigel, reputable member of the Alternative Photography E-Mail List and publisher of Post-Factory - The World Journal Of Alternative Photography.

"...., even if we had a Walmart in NYC (I don't think I've been in
one), speaking of moral dilemmas, I'd have trouble shopping there. They
mistreat and exploit their employees brutally, as has been well documented
in the press lately -- and as I know from a private account. AND folks,
this has indeed something to do with alternative photography, so if you
own Walmart stock -- too bad.

This was probably about 6 years ago, or maybe a bit longer, because my
daughter had been a reporter in LA and might have been some use, but she'd
left a while previously.

I got a call from a rep at Photo Warehouse. He knew that I'd used the
direct reversal film, because I'd bought a bunch of it (for students and
self) and probably talked to them about it.

He had a customer, he said, who was trying to use it, but failing, could
only get a very faint image, and he wondered if I could advise. My
thought was, good grief, it was a couple of years already, maybe I
couldn't remember. I tried to explain as much as possible, but I think he
wasn't a photographer. In any event, he finally asked could he have the
customer call me. I said sure, I'd try.

So the customer called and one of the most hair raising stories I've heard
ensued, which I will try to condense here, though if you don't like the
tale so far, why not delete now? It seems the woman had been a computer
programmer or software developer, something along those lines, until the
boom in silicon valley bust and she was unemployed. She took an interim
job at Walmart -- and there had an accident that nearly killed her. It
seems employees were sent into the warehouse, without any training or
special safety measures, taking down merchandise from 20 foot ladders. She
was on the ladder when something swung out from somewhere and knocked her
down and out.

We've read about injured Walmart employees locked in the warehouse. This
was extreme brain damage, though she has no memory of how long she lay
there. She was ultimately hospitalized, and after a period of time (which
I forget) in a coma, returned to consciousness but not intelligence, able
to speak and eat on her own, but mentally enfeebled.

Walmart, however, stonewalled on workmen's compensation, and excuse the
expression, doctored the records so that they couldn't be sued. Since she
herself was incapable of managing her case, and there were no funds for
lawyers, and it seems almost none of the doctors in the system would stick
out his/her neck to challenge them, the settlement offered wasn't enough
to pay for her immediate care, and she was more or less consigned to
custodial care on welfare for life.

The conventional wisdom is that what in the brain hasn't come back in two
years, won't come back, but this woman continued recovering and after FOUR
years felt capable, at last, of managing her own case. But now she found
herself stymied at all points, not just by laws that said the period for
suing was past, but by a hospital establishment apparently in cahoots with
a corrupt system, with that hospital essentially run by workmen's
comp.

Among the other points of deception, and the one I was called about, they
were presenting as "evidence" brain scans which they said showed no brain
damage, but which the woman said she could see by looking at the film had
sections that had simply been put out of focus.

Somehow, the details of which got lost in this conversation of about two
hours, she had managed through a sympathetic worker access to a record
that showed the damage, and needed to copy it for evidence. She was not a
photographer, but had learned to use simple equipment and this reversal
film was recommended. Although the case had been timed out in the courts,
she had found a sympathetic judge, appalled by the history, who she
thought might be able & willing to re-open. She also understood that
publicity was important, and hoped to find some of that, though I don't
know if she did. (See results of NY Times reportage of several cases in
recent news.)

I don't know if my suggestion helped solve the immediate problem, though I
like to think maybe of some use... My experience with that film was that
exposure is EXTREMELY long, we sometimes exposed for 15 minutes. I
remember one student claiming she went out for coffee and came back to a
perfect negative. It did make very beautiful full tone reproductions. I
also at that time remembered the developer we used.

I never heard more about the case. I kept the woman's phone number for
several years, but.... but, but immediate east-coast hassles take more
energy than exists. I think the story would make a good movie, tho it may
NOT have had the "happy ending" of Erin Brokovitch. In any event, for me
shopping at Walmart is not really a moral dilemma.

Certainly not as long as I have other options. I might have thought it was
a local aberration, but recent reports show it's general practice."

i have never shopped at a Wal-Mart. Now, more than ever, I know I never will.

please read this long thing.

From http://www.actforjustice.com

This is the story of a MAJOR legal injustice, Please Read
Below:



The following is a story that is both shocking and
outrageous and should never happen in America. This
situation so infuriates us that we are doing
everything we can to change the outcome.

There is an 18 year old African American honor
student -- Marcus Dixon -- in Rome, Georgia who is
spending ten years in prison for having consensual sex with
a white classmate who was just three months shy of 16 yrs
old at the time they had sex. Although a jury acquitted
Marcus of rape and three other counts of violent acts, the
prosecutor also charged him with "aggravated child
molestation." Consensual sex with a virgin fits into the
technical reading of this Georgia statute. The statute has
never been applied to consensual sex between two
teenagers with less than three years age difference, until
now. I believe the result is a horrible injustice, especially
because Marcus overcame a troubled childhood to excel in
academics and athletics. What follows are the general
details.

In February 2003, Marcus Dixon, was a senior in
high school. Marcus is not your typical senior. He had a
3.96 grade point average, a 1200 on his SATs, and was all
state in football. He was offered scholarships to every
major school in the South but chose Vanderbilt University
because he felt they were the best academically. In essence,
this alone, made Marcus a star. Think about it, how many
all-State football players carry a 3.96 grade point average?
How many high school kids at all have a 3.96 and a 1200
on their SATs? Statistically speaking, not many. This alone
set Marcus apart from the other seniors in his class.
But there is more.

Marcus was born in Rome, Georgia a rural
town about 70 miles outside of Atlanta that still carries
much of the prejudices and complications of the deep
South. Marcus' biological mother is a drug addicted career
criminal who has been in and out of prison since Marcus
was a baby. His biological father never had anything to do
with him. Most kids born into this situation have little or no
chance of succeeding. Yet Marcus defied the odds. When
Marcus was ten years old, a local white family became his
legal guardians. Why is this relevant? In a town where many
still believe that blacks and whites should not mix, this
family took Marcus in and raised him as their own.







Again, most children born into Marcus' situation barely
survive. Marcus is the exception. Beyond all the odds and
probabilities he is a star. So what happened? How did this
star come crashing down?

It started in February 2003. Marcus had sex with a
girl just shy of sixteen. She was a virgin. She is also white.
Two days later, she accused Marcus of rape. Some
speculate she made the accusation because she was afraid
of her admittedly racist father. Regardless of the reasons, a
jury of nine white jurors and three African Americans took
only 15-20 minutes to determine, after hearing all the
evidence, that Marcus did nothing wrong. The jury decided
that the incident was no more than two teenagers having
consensual sex. Based on the girl's own testimony, it is
amazing they ever brought charges against Marcus. And
yet, in the rural town of Rome, Georgia, where there is still
some KKK rumblings, 9 white and 3 African American
jurors found her story to have absolutely no basis in fact.
So why is Marcus in prison? How is it possible that a high
school boy who had consensual sex with a classmate is in
prison for ten years?

Marcus was indicted under six different statutes
under Georgia law. Four of the statutes include use of
force. He was acquitted on all charges that included force.
The jury was very specific. It was not even close. It is not
that they had reasonable doubt...they had no doubt - the
sex was consensual. The girl was not there against her will.

The prosecutor, in what can only be perceived as
an act of complete disregard for the law, facts and justice
in general, included a charge of "aggravated child
molestation". Under Georgia law, if anyone (age of the
perpetrator is irrelevant - he could be 15) has sex with a
minor (under 16) that results in an "any injury", he is guilty
of "child molestation". The jury deliberated for hours on
this charge. In the end, technically, this situation fell under
the purview of the statute as written. Marcus, admittedly
had sex with the girl, she was under 16 (by three months),
and, again admittedly, she was a virgin. It was the fact that
she was a virgin that resulted in the Guilty verdict. You see,
she sustained an "injury" as a result of intercourse.
Technically, he is guilty.

The absurdity of charging a high school
boy with child molestation for consensual sex with a high
school girl is beyond description. In essence, every girl in
Georgia that loses her virginity before 16 can charge the
boy with aggravated child molestation. By definition, he is
guilty, even if he is younger than the girl. Taken to further
extremes, if a teenager gives another teen a hickey
(technically an "injury"), he or she is guilty of aggravated
child molestation the way this statute was drafted. Clearly,
this was not the legislative intent. In fact, no high school
boy or girl has EVER been charged with child molestation of
a classmate less than three years his or her junior, until
Marcus. Never. In the history of Georgia, Marcus is the only
one in prison for consensual sex with a girl less than three
years younger.

While the jury found him guilty, they had no idea of
the consequences. They assumed Marcus would be
released immediately. In the jurors own words, the look of
horror across their faces when the judge sentenced Marcus
to ten years minimum could be seen by everyone. They
never knew the consequences. They could not fathom that
a boy could go to jail for consensual sex, and certainly not
for 10 years with no possibility of parole. And yet he has.

Why the prosecutor charged him under a statute
that was clearly designed to apply to adult sexual predators
of minors is beyond understanding. How the judge could
allow the charge to stand is unconscionable. What their
motives or rationalizations, one can only speculate. This is
the kind of injustice that we Americans like to think is
reserved for third world countries.


So what can you do to help?


At a minimum,

1) Sign the petition.

2) Forward this website to everyone you know.

3) Go to the website Helpmarcus.com and read
more.

4) Write to Marcus so that he knows there are
people out there who care.




If inspired,

1) There is a fund set up for the family.
They are seriously in debt from the original legal costs of
Marcus defense and upkeep of the costs of Marcus'
incarceration. Click here for donation address.



Or Click the Paypal link Here:







2) Contact us directly if you are interested in
helping.


There are moments in life where the injustice is
just too great for people of conscience to sit idly by. We
believe this is one of those situations. We are committed.
We hope you join us.

actforjustice.com

choice, anyone?

got this in the mail today and thought i would post it as it is el importante.

Dear Christine,

Today, Thursday, January 22, marks the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman's right to decide the most private aspects of her life. But instead of celebrating another year of a woman's right to choose, we are working to ensure that 2004 is not the year that the rights of privacy and choice are extinguished.

Energized by President Bush, an organized anti-choice movement is successfully taking our choices away. In December President Bush signed the first-ever federal criminal ban on abortion procedures, and he continues to pack our nation's federal courts with anti-choice activist judges who have compared abortion to slavery, called Roe v. Wade abominable, and said that a wife should be subordinate to her husband. State governments are also intruding further than they have in years into women's private lives and decisions: in 2003 alone state legislatures considered 558 anti-choice measures, a 35.1% increase from 2002. NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation's annual State-by-State Report on the Status of Women's Reproductive Rights reports that these anti-choice gains reduced our nation's grade on women's access to abortion to a dismal D.

Despite these challenges, everyone here at NARAL Pro-Choice America is optimistic because we know that the future of personal privacy and a woman's right to choose relies on the vigilance and commitment of our supporters - you.

For this year's Roe v. Wade anniversary, find out how your state rates on our annual comprehensive report released today. Then visit our website to find out what else you can do to make sure this isn't the last year for Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose.

Warmly,

Kate Michelman
NARAL ProChoice America

crap

Nader and the Newmanites

oh, ralph, what are you doing?

Resistance to Patriot Act gaining ground

Boston.com

Yay for librarians!

Columbia Voyage Rescheduled

bummer. apparently due to lack of recruitment, the Columbia voyage has been rescheduled for June. i am still planning on going. more information below.

Ecology, Spirituality and War
A Delegation to Colombia
June 19-30, 2004

Colombia has endured almost four decades of brutal armed conflict
between the national army, leftist guerrilla movements, and right-wing
paramilitary forces. Overwhelmingly, the victims of this conflict have
been and continue to be civilians - primarily community leaders, human
rights workers, and local labor organizers. The environment has been
devastated by uncontroled fumigation and the Amazon rainforest, also known
as "The Lungs of the Earth" is facing extinction. To this the U.S.
government is contributing billions of dollars in mostly military aid
to Colombia.

Witness for Peace, New England invites you to Colombia to examine the
human, ecological, economic, and spiritual impacts of war and
repression and investigate the U.S. role in Colombia's civil war.

While on this delegation you will have the opportunity to:
•Meet with a wide range of experts to hear analysis of the impact of
U.S. policy in Colombia
• Learn about the economic roots of Colombia's conflict and why the
"war on drugs" is failing
• Hear personal testimonies about the affects US policy in Colombia
has on the environment and spiritual beliefs
• Travel outside Bogotá to see the impact of military assistance on
the Amazon, farmers and other civilians
• Share in solidarity with those seeking peace and justice in Colombia
• Gather tools and skills needed to educate and influence U.S.
policymakers

Cost: $1470 plus airfare. This includes all meals, accommodations,
facilitation, translation, and transportation in Colombia (including
in-country flights). Your fee also covers briefing materials and
extensive training. Advice on fundraising is available.

Delegations can fill quickly.
For more information e-mail Sean Donahue at
karunaawakening@aol.com or call him at 978-975-4438.

An application is available on line at
https://www.witnessforpeace.org/travel/application.html .
A $150 deposit is due with application.

War in Iraq caused major earthquake in Bam

this is most interesting. doesn't fall too far from my beliefs, that we are all connected, that the earth is a living thing that gives and supports other life. sometimes i think we pretend to understand so much but really understand so little. who are we to say that things that cannot be seen or measured does not exist? who are we to say that becasue a tree does not have "eyes" or a "mouth", it does not see or communicate? all life is sacred. all the world is life.

it's all one big gentlemen's club, i tell ya.

this from a great site where you get to see how the candidates views align with your own:

" Dean is a physician who previously shared a medical practice with his wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg. He's the father of two nearly grown children. Dean was born into a wealthy New York family in 1948. The oldest of four brothers and the son of a wealthy, conservative stockbroker, he grew up in the Hamptons and the Upper-East side where he attended elite private schools. (His grandmother was a bridesmaid to President Bush's grandmother)."

Hmmmm.

new name for Hollywood

from the pravda forum.....

fwiw i totally agree.......

Vote By Issue Quiz

think you know who you are voting for? guess again. take this quiz and be sure you know who you are dealing with before you cast your vote.

The CRETIN Coalition

The CRETIN Coalition

great bush-is-a-dumbass bumper stickers for sale!

Spaulding!

Boston.com / News / Nation / N.Y. police mount search for missing actor-writer

Oh no! I love Spaulding Gray! All his monologues are fantastic. I saw him back in '95 or so on Martha's Vineyard. Instead of doing a regular monologue, he asked all attending to think of a question they wanted to ask him on the way in, write it down, and place it in a hat. He then chose ten questions to answer. All the questions chosen seemed to be utterly random, but he managed to weave them into his monologue in a seamless, flowing way. The guy that worked in the coffeeshop beneath me was a windsurfing nut. Every morning he determined whether or not he would attend his job by first checking the weather. This was the summer of some crazy hurricane off the New England coast, I dunno which one. Of course Colter did not go to work this day. One of the queries was "Who is your hero?" Spaulding's response was "Whoever the gentlemen was windsurfing out there today." :)

I hope he's okay.

"Dishonest Dubya" Lying Action Figure

"Dishonest Dubya" Lying Action Figure

this is ridiculously funny.....and interactive, too!

who has done the most for human rights?

Lloyd Grove's Lowdown: W & aides broadcast media hate

Che's Irish Roots.

From Irish America:

Che Guevara article

Bush in 30 Seconds Awards

Dear friend of Bush in 30 Seconds,

The winning ads in our Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest will be announced tonight, live from the awards show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The awards show is going to be hosted by Jeanine Garofalo and will feature performances and presentations by Margaret Cho, Chuck D, Al Franken, Moby, Michael Moore, John Sayles, Julia Stiles, and Rufus Wainwright. It should be a really fun night -- music, comedy, and lots of incredible 30-second ads.

If you'd like to tune in, the event will be webcast live, beginning at 8p EST/5p PST. We'll be announcing the winners around 10:45pm EST. To tune in to the webcast and view the winning ads after they're announced, just go to:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/

Already, the Bush in 30 Seconds contest has brought tens of thousands of new people into MoveOn, generated millions of dollars' worth of free publicity, and put us in touch with some tremendously talented people. Please join us for the grand finale tonight on the Bush in 30 Seconds website.

Sincerely,
--Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
  The MoveOn.org Team
  January 12th, 2003

P.S. In case you'd like to tune in, ABC's Good Morning America will also be doing a live interview with the winner and me, Eli Pariser, tomorrow morning between 7am and 9am.

P.P.S. Here are excerpts from two great articles on the contest -- one from the L.A. Times and one from the Associated Press -- that were published in the last few days:

TV AD CONTEST TARGETS PRESIDENT
By John M. Glionna, Times Staff Writer
www.moveon.org

"Fourteen in all, the TV spots aim to depict the anger and frustration many Democrats harbor toward the Bush administration. But they're not the work of any slick political ad firms — they're finalists in a nationwide contest sponsored by MoveOn.org, a popular Internet-based political action group. . .

The MoveOn.org contest spotlights the aggressive and uncharted role special interest groups not linked to either party are expected to play in the 2004 presidential campaign. Some say it also shows how such Internet-based groups could contribute to the spread of unfiltered messages in American politics."

(It's MoveOn.org Voter Fund, not MoveOn.org, by the way, which sponsored the contest -- we've asked the Times for a correction.)

MOVEON.ORG BECOMES ANTI-BUSH ONLINE POWERHOUSE
by Beth Fouhy, Associated Press
www.moveon.rog

"Chances are, Democratic Party consultants won't take credit for the hardest-hitting anti-Bush ad to air on network TV this month. That honor will likely go MoveOn.org, an online group that has become too potent for establishment politicians to ignore.

Years before Howard Dean's use of the Internet dazzled analysts and propelled him to the front of the 2004 Democratic presidential field, MoveOn paved the way, evolving in six short years from something of a cybergeek forum to arguably the largest and most forceful voice in digital-era politics.

MoveOn's latest campaign, which invited people to create their own anti-Bush ads, generated more than 1,500 entries. Hundreds of thousands of wired MoveOn members voted on the most effective, and the 15 most popular will be judged Monday night at a gala event in New York City by celebrities including Michael Moore, Janeane Garofalo and the rap group Public Enemy, and the winner will air the same week President Bush gives his State of the Union address."

civet cats in china

oh, this makes me so sad. those poor creatures. are we just to kill everything until there is nothing left? killing seems to be humanity's response to most stimuli, be it threat or entertainment. i like how they use the euphemism "cull" instead of "massacre" or "slaughter".

Yahoo! News - China Issues Deadline for SARS Civet Cat Cull

Bush vs. Hitler

ah, yeah, more on that hitler thing.......

Bush vs. Hitler - PRAVDA.Ru

Von Who?

ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: Cover: Von Who?

for those of you into flying eyeballs and ratfink, kustom kars and hot rods, there's a clothing line for you. or just something else to spit at.

~thoughts of crispin glover~

i love crispin glover!  he is such a bizarro entity - i don't know anyone who has a stranger thought process.  except maybe kevin p. o'brien! this essay is probably one of the more linear pieces i've read by him.  here's more info:

"In 1987 Glover published _Rat Catching_ (an antique Victorian child's book modified with cut-up text and new  drawings) on Volcanic Eruptions press, which is managed by his mother; he has also published _Oak Mot_ (1990) and _Concrete Inspection_ (1992). Glover's Los Angeles apartment houses an impressive collection of aging artifacts pertaining to gynecology and mummification. In 1995, he began directing his own obsessive film, _What Is It?_, starring an all-Down's Syndrome cast. The books and _What Is It?_  became the basis of a traveling one-man act "The Big Slide Show," which also includes music from Glover's two albums. "

if you haven't listened to his albums you're missing out on a bona fide freak-fest of sound and noise.  enjoy!

love,
~christine

WHAT IS IT?

(An essay concerning the subtext of the film by the same title)

by Crispin Hellion Glover

Is this culture content? Is it happy? Are the smiles broadcast by this culture’s media the smiles that reflect the collective mind? Does the self-professed compassion of the media for the unfortunate seem sincere?

Is this culture a Judeo-Christian culture? Is forgiveness a quality of Christian ethos? Didn’t Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of Columbine high school pose with a caption that stated, "Stay alive, stay different, stay crazy"? Didn’t they target Christians? Weren’t they accused of being "Nazis"? Wasn’t one of them Jewish? Wasn’t one of them an honor student? If these fellows were staying "crazy" and staying "different," and thinking on their own, were they perhaps manifesting a
counter-cultural ideal?

What else in this culture were the Columbine killers attacking? Aren’t "jocks," whom they killed, generally considered common "good guys" by our culture? Don’t jocks represent pro-cultural values? Do those who hold values that counter the culture see jocks as boorish, vapid, brute, conceited and condescending, who willfully insult and violate those who refuse to gang with the masses?

Were Harris and Klebold reacting to the media itself? Did they give their own lives and take others to make a point about the media at large? Can it be true that the media-at-large is so neurotic that it is unable to truthfully describe the Columbine event? Is it true that a videotape they produced just before the killings is now being withheld so the public can not determinte their own thoughts about Harris’s and Klebolds statements?

In Civilization and Its Discontents, did Sigmund Freud define a neurotic as an individual holding thoughts that clash with those held by the prevailing culture, an individual who subverts those clashing thoughts to the subconscious that later manifest in the form of anxiety and unnecesarry behavior? If this is so, what does one consider a culture whose prevailing ideas express hypocrisy, sham and double-standard? Does this somehow define a neurotic culture?

Does Steven Spielberg hold the same values I wish upon myself? Does the mind of this grinning, bespectaled, baseball-capped man entirely reflect this culture?

Is it true that in his waning years, Orson Welles asked Steven Spielberg for a small amount of money with which he could make a final film? Is it true Steven Spielberg refused? Is it true that Steven Spielberg bought a sled used in Citizen Kane for an extremely large sum of money?

Do Steven Spielberg’s passions burn? Do passions burn in the man now
imprisoned who wished to anally rape Steven Spielberg? Do our cultural
mouthpieces confidently inform us that the wish to anally rape Steven
Spielberg is a bad thought? Could anal rape of Steven Spielberg be simply the manifestation of a cultural mandate?

Do you believe Steven Spielberg is an ideal guide and influence for our
culture? Do Steven Spielberg’s films question our culture? What do
Steven Spielberg’s films question? Does Steven Spielberg focus much of his fantasy life on young people? Did he portray children wallowing in sewers filled with fecal matter in Schindler’s List? Did he use children to fingerpaint an adult in Hook? Does he collect the illustrations of Norman Rockwell, such as the one showing a young boy in his underwear examined by a doctor? Are the inclinations of Steven Spielberg above suspicion by the media-fed culture? Was Steven Spielberg very friendly with Michael Jackson? Wasn’t Michael Jackson>supposed to play Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg’s version of the story? Now that Michael Jackson is no onger held in favor by the mass media, does Spielberg associate with him? Do Michael Jackson and Steven Spielberg share similar opinions about the sexuality of young boys?

Did Joseph Goebbels popularize certain ideals to the mass culture? Does Steven Spielberg attempt to do the same thing? Is celebrity more special than actual truth in art?

When you join in a conversation with strangers, do you openly discuss
any idea whatsoever without fear of conflict? Or do you restrain yourself from discussing certain things for fear of offending people and then becoming an outcast? Are there laws that deem certain forms of thought as bad and wrong? Is what is now termed "hate" a form of thought?

Does our culture consider it acceptable to have a minstrel represent a black person on film? Does our culture consider it acceptable to have a person of average intelligence represent a retarded person on film? Why is one thing questionable, and one thing acceptable? Did Adolf Hitler entertain any good thoughts? Was Shirley Temple sexy as a young girl?

What if you wish to express these ideas? Can people sue you for expressing ideas, particularly if they’re blamed for inspiring behavior considered antithetical to cultural norms?

Would the cultural mainstream ever silence or suppress Steven Spielberg? Has the United States government given the immensley weathly Steven Spielberg millions of dollars to fund a media project that reflects his religious heritage, and his cultural beliefs? Does The Talmud speak of the superiority of the Jews and the inferiority of other cultures and beliefs? Does Steven Spielberg reflect this religious imperative? Is Steve Spielberg neurotic? Is this belief hidden and suppressed?

If one discovers that everything one has been taught to be good is actually false, what then? At what point is one neurotic?

Did Vincent Van Gogh, Diane Arbus and Rainer Werner Fassbinder die for the sings of their culture? Did Joseph Goebbels?

Are we fed massive cultural propaganda? Are we infused with the belief that we act as we wish and do what we want? Are we not simply believing what cultural propaganda suggests us to think?

Do you like MTV? Do you like Steven Spielberg? Do you like post-punk
rock? Do you like trip hop? Do you like rap? Do you define yourself according to the music you listen to? Do you consider yourself a true lover of music because you are in a rock band, or because your boyfriend is in a rock band? Do you like tattoos? Do you like body piercing? Do you believe that love, kindness, compassion, recycling and equality will save this culture from all its woes? Do you? Do you?

Is it considered "career suicide" to question Steven Spielberg if one is involved in the entertainment business? If one is not involved in the entertainment business is it considered a social suicide to question Steven Spielberg? If these things are so, what does that point to? Does this mean freedom of _expression is actually curtailed in our culture by certain social pressures? Is calling someone a "fascist" in American culture today the counterpart to saying someone was a "communist" during the Joseph McCarthy era of the 1950s?

Dose our culture congratulate itself for taking interest in the lack of original ideas personified by the name of Steven Spielberg? Do his films take chances or take risks in order to amplify, change or challenge the cultural though process? Dose Steven Spielberg take risks, or does he simulate the idea of taking risks?
What risk was involved in making Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List, or adopting a black child? Was there any risk at all? Would Steven Spielberg have adopted that same child in the deep South of the 1950s where there would have been risk of being called a "nigger lover"? Were the adoption of a black child and the subject matter of his movies actually business decisions for which he knew he would be congratulated?

When Steven Spielberg clutched his Academy Award for Schindler’s List,
saying it’s for the "six million," was he speaking of a quantity of people killed, or the quantity of dollars poured into his bank account?

Did Steven Spielberg truly help the culture understand Stanley Kubrick’s ideas at an Academy Awards eulogy? Or did he accuse Kurbrick’s films of being "hopeful" to make them seem as if they sell the same ideas as Steven Spielberg’s movies? Was A Clockwork Orange about hope? Was Barry Lyndon about hope? Was Dr. Strangelove about hope? Was Lolita about hope? Was Full Metal Jacket about hope? Was The Killing about hope?

Was Steven Spielberg’s company sued by an African-American woman who claimed that Amistad was based on her writing? Was this African-American woman suddenly happy with Steven Spielberg after he deposited a lot of money into her bank account?

Dose the amount of money taken in by people determine happiness in this
culture? Is the earth an unlimited resource, or is there a definitive quantity for people to exploit for gross amounts of money? When a capitalist invokes the word "hope," does he speak about the continued escalation of his earning power, without being stopped? Could this hope be an illusion?

Are the ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctic melting and shearing off? Could negative population growth possibly help solve this problem? Isn’t one child per two people negative population growth? Would Steven Spielberg ever support the idea of negative population growth within the medium? Have the goals of Freemasonry, as encapsulated by the back half of the dollar bill, succeeded? Has a megastate of greed been created?

Did DreamWorks, the megacorporate entity co-owned by Steven Spielberg, consider paving over the last remaining wetland in Southern California to create a studio? Does Steven Spielberg feel comfortable emasculating the natural? Is climbing the Alps, or is riding the Matterhorn rollercoaster in Disneyland, more attractive to Steven Spielberg? Is the theme park mentality of our culture, which is made to feel "right" and "moral" by the propagandizing movies of Steven Spielberg, helping to destroy individual thought processes and emasculate what remains of the earth?

Is it possible that the Columbine shootings would have not occurred if Steven Spielberg had never wafted his putrid stench upon our culture, a culture he helped homogenize and propagandize?

Would the culture benefit from Steven Spielberg’s murder, or would it be lessened by making him a martyr? Or would people then begin to realize their lives had become less banal and more interesting due to his departure?

Because I think it is possible a beautiful piece of non-lingual music
could well be written by an angry victim once Steven Spielberg becomes a corpse. It could be that this angry victim of banal and ruinous propaganda will have written an anthem signaling a new era, a new thought process, a new music, and a new culture that is desperately needed in the coming days, and forevermore.

The one question lingering before this new utopian culture may very
well be:

What is it?

:::self evident:::

You can download this song from Ani DiFranco's website. It is amazing and one of the most moving pieces I have heard in a long time.

self evident

These are the lyrics:

yes,
us people are just poems
we're 90% metaphor
with a leanness of meaning
approaching hyper-distillation
and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity
fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there
yes, it's part of a pair
there on the bow of noah's ark
the most prestigious couple
just kickin back parked
against a perfectly blue sky
on a morning beatific
in its indian summer breeze
on the day that america
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please

and the shock was subsonic
and the smoke was deafening
between the setup and the punch line
cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky

and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
looked more like war than anything i've seen so far
so far
so far
so fierce and ingenious
a poetic specter so far gone
that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling
over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on
and i'll tell you what, while we're at it
you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that's been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution
even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
is still hanging in the air
and there's ash on our shoes
and there's ash in our hair
and there's a fine silt on every mantle
from hell's kitchen to brooklyn
and the streets are full of stories
sudden twists and near misses
and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
with tales of narrowly averted disasters
and the whiskey is flowin
like never before
as all over the country
folks just shake their heads
and pour

so here's a toast to all the folks who live in palestine
afghanistan
iraq
el salvador
here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore
here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors
who daily provide women with a choice
who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city
just to listen to a young woman's voice
here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now
awaiting the executioner's guillotine
who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads
to find peace in the form of a dream

cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation
under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
who stole the oval office and that phony election
i mean
it don't take a weatherman
to look around and see the weather
jeb said he'd deliver florida, folks
and boy did he ever

and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i've got no room for a lie so verbose
i'm looking out over my whole human family
and i'm raising my glass in a toast

here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
let us vow to get off of this sauce
shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
and find that train ticket we lost
cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
and peeked into all the backyards
and the laundry was waving
the graffiti was teasing us
from brick walls and bridges
we were rolling over ridges
through valleys
under stars
i dream of touring like duke ellington
in my own railroad car
i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
in a grand station aglow with grace
and then standing out on the platform
and feeling the air on my face

give back the night its distant whistle
give the darkness back its soul
give the big oil companies the finger finally
and relearn how to rock-n-roll
yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there
so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
and clear the air
get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand
of someone else's desert
put it back in its pants
and quit the hypocritical chants of
freedom forever

cuz when one lone phone rang
in two thousand and one
at ten after nine
on nine one one
which is the number we all called
when that lone phone rang right off the wall
right off our desk and down the long hall
down the long stairs
in a building so tall
that the whole world turned
just to watch it fall

and while we're at it
remember the first time around?
the bomb?
the ryder truck?
the parking garage?
the princess that didn't even feel the pea?
remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?
can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design
following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!
it was a joke, of course
it was a joke
at the time
and that was just a few years ago
so let the record show
that the FBI was all over that case
that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face
and scoping that scene
religiously
the CIA
or is it KGB?
committing countless crimes against humanity
with this kind of eventuality
as its excuse
for abuse after expensive abuse
and it didn't have a clue
look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some asshole's passion play
so now it's your job
and it's my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn't die in vain
sshhhhhh....
baby listen
hear the train?
words and music by ani difranco © 2002 righteous babe music / BM

Ad blusters

Salon.com | Ad blusters

About that Hitler thing........

Nazis inthe US

Take Back The Media! Our Sponsors

this is not America

Yahoo! News - High Court May Broaden Terror War Review

this is not Freedom. this is a country bordering on a police state affirmed by the people who have been whipped into a Salem Witch Hunt-like fervor by the fear-mongering corporate media. be very afraid.

Love in the midst of Chaos

Yahoo! News - Iranian Couple Weds Amid Ruins of Bam

Poems for Today

Two poems from the late Denise Levertov my friend sent me that speak to
so much of what we face.


Life At War

The disasters numb within us
caught in the chest, rolling
in the brain like pebbles. The feeling
resembles lumps of raw dough

weighing down a child's stomach on baking day.
Or Rilke said it, 'My heart...
Could I say of it, it overflows
with bitterness..but no, as though

its contents were simply balled into
formless lumps, thus
do I carry it about.'
The same war

continues.
We have breathed the grits of it in, all our lives,
our lungs are pocked with it,
the mucous membrane of our dreams
coated with it, the imagination
filmed over with the gray filth of it:

the knowledge that humankind,

delicate Man, whose flesh
responds to a caress, whose eyes
are flowers that perceive the stars,

whose music excels the music of birds,
whose laughter matches the laughter of dogs,
whose understanding manifests designs
fairer than the spider's most intricate web,

still turns without surprise, with mere regret
to the scheduled breaking open of breasts whose milk
runs out over the entrails of still-alive babies,
transformation of witnessing eyes to pulp-fragments,
implosion of skinned penises into carcass-gulleys.

We are the humans, men who can make;
whose language imagines mercy,
lovingkindness; we have believed one another
mirrored forms of a God we felt as good-

who do these acts, who convince ourselves
it is necessary; these acts are done
to our own flesh; burned human flesh
is smelling in Viet Nam as I write.

Yes, this is the knowledge that jostles for space
in our bodies along with all we
go on knowing of joy, of love;

our nerve filaments twitch with its presence day and night,
nothing we say has not the husky phlegm of it in the saying,
nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness,
the deep intelligence living at peace would have.



What Were They Like?

1) Did the people of Viet Nam
    use lanterns of stone?
2) Did they hold ceremonies
    to reverence the opening of buds?
3) Were they inclined to quiet laughter?
4) Did they use bone and ivory,
    jade and silver, for ornament?
5) Had they an epic poem?
6) Did they distinguish between speech and singing?

1) Sir, their light hearts turned to stone.
    It is not remembered whether in gardens
    stone lanterns illumined pleasant ways.
2) Perhaps they gatherered once to delight in blossom,
    but after the children were killed
    there were no more buds.
3) Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.
4) A dream ago, perhaps. Ornament is for joy.
    All the bones were charred.
5) It is not remembered. Remember,
    most were peasants; their life
    was in rice and bamboo.
    When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddies
    and the water buffalo stepped surely along terraces,
    maybe fathers told their sons old tales.
    When bombs smashed those mirrors
    there was time only to scream.
6) There is an echo yet
    of their speech which was like a song.
    It was reported their singing resembled
    the flight of moths in moonlight.
    Who can say? It is silent now.

(DV) Camejo: The Avocado Declaration

(DV) Camejo: The Avocado Declaration

a well-written article that describes in detail the causes and ramifications of america's two-party system. vote green whenever possible.

A Letter From Columbia

My friend Sean sent this to me today. I am going to Columbia for two weeks in March to volunteer my services with the Witness For Peace Group.  This voyage will cost me approximately $1500 out of my pocket.  If anyone feels behooved to make a donation to this cause, please contact me.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Love,
~Christine

Dear friends,

I received this letter today from a friend who works
with the Christian Peacemaker Teams providing
nonviolent protection to people living under death
threat in the Opon River Valley of Colombia.  

There are no words for the grief and horror I felt in
reading her account.

Colombia desperately needs more people to come and
witness to these atrocities, and our U.S. citizenship
gives us a degree of protection there.  Please help me
recruit more people to travel to Colombia with me in
March.

peace and light in dark times,
sean



7th Letter to Friends: “Upon the Palms of my Hands”

January 2, 2004



“Upon the palms of my hands I have written your name”
Isaiah 49:16


I. What was in the river.

“In the beginning was the word and the word was with
God and God was the word” John 1:1

I stayed without words for several weeks during the
time when we started finding bodies in the river. Even
now the words are coming slowly. I begin this letter
hesitantly, unsure of what it will say, where it will
go or why I am writing it.



I want to go deep inside myself and stay there for
awhile. Because the river has swallowed me too and
there are no words.



But words, that name, that claim, that hurt also have
the power to heal.



Just after we found the first body we went to a nearby
house so we could find a signal to call the team in
the city and report it. While my teammate and the
adults went to the shore to look as the man floated
silently by with the current, I held the kids –two
little girls—back with me at the house a little ways
from the riverbank. I had the strange idea that little
kids --even little kids who live in a war zone--
shouldn’t have to see something like that.  



But even if you’re a good actor, kids can always tell
something’s up and I’m not a good actor. The three
year old started crying and wanting to go with her
mom. I picked her up and tried to distract her. She
quieted but every now and then would start up again.
She was restless. The older one looked both scared and
curious. She held onto my hand, looked up at me and
asked what was in the river.



I looked at her and realized that this little girl in
all of her eight years on this planet has seen more
ugliness and brutality in this world than I certainly
have in my twenty-eight. Armed men walk past her house
on a regular basis. She hears whispered conversations
about the assassination or disappearance of a member
of her community. She might walk past a group of armed
men on her way to school in the morning. Certainly she
knows other children whose parents have been killed or
disappeared in the war. She may know older boys and
girls, may even have family members, who have joined
one armed group or another. And certainly this eight
year old has seen dead people floating in the river
before. This is immensely unfair but it is her reality
and I decide not to pretend it doesn’t exist.



“Teresa,” 1I say gently, taking both of her hands in
mine. “Es un muerto que esta en el río” Un muerto. A
deadman. I explain that my teammate and her parents
are there and she and her sister and I can wait here.
Just for a moment. We don’t need to go look at him. It
is enough just to know.  



She looks at me and we both sit down on the porch and
I know she knows. And what will this knowledge do to
her? What does the knowledge that there are bodies in
the river do to a eight year old?



There are no words.



II. Compost.

“and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and
the spirit returns to God who gave it” Ecclesiastes
12:7



The man in the river that day was only the first. We
would find three more bodies in the river in the
coming weeks, four all total. By the end of the month,
there were six people dead and one disappeared. Two
lived in the communities we accompany on the Opon
river. The others just died there. I got used to
scanning the river for chulos (vultures) and corpses.




As an appropriate metaphor for the many unidentified
corpses in this country, the first man lacked a face.
The chulos had eaten it. We thought, at first, that he
was a community member who had disappeared not long
before. His family came out to try to identify him but
were unable to recognize him. It’s awful what floating
in water for several days does to a human body. Later
tests in the city proved the corpse was not him. A
teammate told me they never found out who he was and
have buried him in the public cemetary.



I want to visit his grave. I want to tell him I’m
sorry for what happened to him, for the way he died2.
I hope he didn’t suffer too much. I have read that
human beings, fortunately, like other animals, have a
mechanism that kicks in during trauma and shuts down
the part of your brain that registers pain. You don’t
feel anything when that happens and neither do you
remember it. I hope that happened to him in the
moments before he died. I hope he didn’t feel it too
much.



I want him to know that I didn’t think the smell was
too terrible, although I will never forget it and it
haunts me still. I want to tell him that the way his
body floated on the current was graceful and gentle
and that I wasn’t horrified or repulsed by him. He was
feeding the birds. He was earth and water. I want to
tell him that it is true, he reminded me of compost.





III. Snapshots.
There are times in my life when I have been aware that
my brain was taking pictures. Snapshots for the
memory. Perhaps it is this that one sees when your
life flashes before your eyes. Faces frozen in time
and space.  



What fear looks like.  



What anger looks like.  



When the family of the disappeared man came out to
look at the body we had found in the river I saw what
pure, unmediated grief looks like.



And I thought, as I held his sister, weeping in my
arms, I thought, “how ironic, that a God who made us
human beings to share so many things, made us unable
to share what we perhaps most need to: the
inexpressable pain of losing a loved one”. No matter
how much I wanted to help, no matter how much I hurt
for her, I could not lessen her grief. She would have
to carry that burden all alone. And my brain took a
snapshot of her face.





IV. Claimed by God.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters I will be with you;

And when you pass through the rivers,

They will not sweep over you.” Isaiah 43: 1-2



We lit seven candles for the six dead and one
disappeared man on the day we found the last body. I
made name cards for the lost men: Javier, Gabriel,
Elvis, Calixto, Antonio, Alonzo and on the one for the
man without a face I wrote, hombre desconocido.
Unknown man.



He floated in the river and now is buried in the earth
and none of us ever knew his name. But he is not lost.
Not forgotten. His eyes were once wide and bright on
the day he was born. Someone once held his hand as he
learned to walk. Someone picked him up and held him
when he fell. He grew into adulthood and someone
kissed him. Someone loved him. And right now, someone
is missing him. He is not anonymous.  



And even when his body is bloated and waterlogged,
when his skin is gray or just gone and his bones
shattered, I see the Christ stepping into the water
with him, wrapping his arms around what’s left of his
broken body and saying “This one is mine”. He is
claimed by God, his name etched on the palms of Her
hands.






1 Not her real name.




2 While we are not experts at such things and can’t be
sure, it appeared that the man may well have been
tortured before he was killed. His pants were down
below his knees, and there was a hole in stomach and
another where his right nipple should have been. See
CPTNet release of December 27, 2003.


=====
------------------------------------------------------------
"Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world"  -- The Grateful Dead

"Sometimes there's nothing left to do but make love to the fear." -- Astrid Mannque, ASFAADES (Association of the Families of the Disappeared), Popayan, Colombia

Sean Donahue
Reiki Master Teacher •
Project Director, Corporations and Militarism Project, Massachusetts Anti-Corporate Clearinghouse
http://www.stopcorporatecontrol.org

Mary Oliver Poem

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don't wait another minute.

~ Mary Oliver ~