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Late Night Karaoke

mishima — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

How Labor Day Became a Federal Holiday

goinsouth — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:33:14 GMT

Why is today a federal holiday?

It all goes back to a financial collapse, a ConservaDem, a labor leader and blood on the streets of Chicago.

On one side of the virtual civil war that would erupt was Grover Cleveland, the first Democrat to serve as President after the Civil War. He was no FDR:

Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who opposed high tariffs, free silver, inflation, imperialism and subsidies to business, farmers or veterans. His battles for political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives.

He was also anti-labor.

On the other side was Eugene V. Debs, a railroad union organizer. Debs came from a middle class family in Indiana, but he had quit school to go to work in the railroad yards at fourteen. Before long, he became a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman, and rose through the ranks to become Grand Secretary of the union by the time he was twenty-five.

In 1893, the United States was hit by a terrible financial collapse. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad went bankrupt, and that put some banks at risk. Concern spread, bank runs began and a number of banks failed. That was followed by the failure of more railroads, including some of the biggest in the country: the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. At the time, these were the largest enterprises in the nation. Unemployment shot up to an estimated 17-19% and millions of heretofore "middle class" Americans were unable to meet debt payments as foreclosures skyrocketed.

There was no social safety net: no food stamps, no unemployment, no Social Security, no Medicare. When the economy collapsed, those without savings or family backup simply lived on the streets until they starved. Howard Zinn describes in A People's History what it was like:

In New York City, in Union Square, Emma Goldman addressed a huge meeting of the unemployed and urged those whose children needed food to go into the stores and take it. She was arrested for "inciting to riot" and sentenced to two years in prison. In Chicago, it was estimated that 200,000 people were without work, the floors and stairways of City Hall and the police stations packed every night with homeless men trying to sleep.

In the midst of this depression, Debs and some fellow railroad workers formed a new union based on the industrial model later followed by the CIO. The American Railway Union aimed to organize all railway workers into one union to increase their solidarity and therefore power when confronting the Capitalists.

More accurately, Debs wanted to organize ALL railroad workers, but was he was opposed in his efforts to organize African Americans. In the union's 1894 convention, delegates voted 112 to 100 to exclude black workers over Debs' objection. Debs later noted that the move not only morally wrong but also significantly weakened the union in its later battles.

In June of 1894, workers went on a "wildcat" strike against the Pullman Place Car Company, headquartered in a company town, Pullman, Illinois, on the outskirts of Southside Chicago. They appealed to Debs' ARU for support:

Mr. President and Brothers of the American Railway Union. We struck at Pullman because we were without hope. We joined the American Railway Union because it gave us a glimmer of hope.

The note went on to describe how the company had cut wages and dismissed union members. It also detailed how Pullman profited extravagantly by overcharging his employees/residents of his company town for gas and water. When a committee presented Mr. Pullman with these grievances, the best he could do was call them all his "children."

The ARU backed the Pullman workers. It asked its members around the nation to refuse to handle Pullman cars, and since most passenger trains had Pullman cars, this brought passenger rail traffic, then the nation's main mode of inter-city transportation, to a halt around the country's main railroad hub, Chicago.

The railroads responded in the usual fashion, hiring private security thugs to break the strike, but the workers became only more militant. Trains were derailed. Strike breaking engineers were pulled off trains.

President Cleveland's Attorney General, a former railroad lawyer, got an injunction against the strike, but the workers ignored the injunction.

Cleveland called in federal troops to break the strike. The state militia joined them. The troops used bayonets in a charge against the strikers. The union men responded with rocks against the soldiers. Then the soldiers fired into the crowd.

Thirteen were killed, fifty-three seriously wounded and seven hundred arrested, including Debs.

The forces of Capital applauded Cleveland, but labor and even Illinois Democrats did not. Cleveland needed to mend fences, and declaring a "Labor Day" was a cheap way to do it. Obviously, the traditional Labor Day celebrated on May 1 was too "Red" for a Bourbon Democrat like Cleveland, so the first Monday in September was chosen, a day that had been used for labor parades in New York City for years.

Even though he was represented at trial by Clarence Darrow, Debs was convicted of violating the injunction against the strike and served two years in prison. He used the time to study socialism and later became the Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, winning nearly a million votes (around 6%) in both 1912 and 1920.

Cleveland did not even manage to win the Democratic nomination for President in 1896. He was replaced by William Jennings Bryan who lost to McKinley.

The struggle for labor rights continued. Below are a few of the "battles" worth remembering today.

Haymarket: The AFL called a national general strike for May 1 to support the eight-hour day. Police fired into a crowd of strikers in Chicago on May 3, and workers gathered on May 4 in Haymarket Square to protest. Police approached to shut down the protest, and a bomb exploded in their midst, killing seven policemen. The police fired into the crowd, killing several and wounding two hundred.

Eight anarchists were arrested and put on trial:

The trial has been characterized as one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in United States history.[42] Most working people believed Pinkerton agents had provoked the incident.[31] On June 26, 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld signed pardons for Fielden, Neebe, and Schwab after having concluded all eight defendants were innocent. The governor said the reason for the bombing was the city of Chicago's failure to hold Pinkerton guards responsible for shooting workers.[43] The pardons ended his political career.
The police commander who ordered the dispersal was later convicted of corruption. The bomb thrower was never identified.

May Day is a remembrance of these events.

Ludlow Massacre:

The United Mine Workers went on strike against coal companies in Colorado owned by the Rockefellers. The union demanded a wage increase, adherence to the eight-hour day and the right to buy goods at stores other than those owned by the Rockefellers.

The company immediately evicted the workers and their families from the company town where they lived, so the union set up a tent city nearby. Scabs were brought in, and the union set up picket lines to prevent the strike breakers from entering the mines. The company responded by bringing in private security that shown searchlights into the workers' camp and fired random bullets into the tents night after night, occasionally killing a worker or family member.

Still the workers would not give up. The governor called in the state militia, and things escalated even further.

The militia set up machine gun emplacements and began to fire into the camp. The workers responded with some gunfire, but most simply tried to flee with their families. The militia set fire to the camp, and four women and eleven children, hiding in a hole beneath one of the tents, were killed. Leaders of the strike who were captured by the militia and the private security thugs who accompanied them, were murdered without trial on the spot.

The Bonus Army:

In 1932, an "army" of World War I veterans and their families, numbering nearly 50,000, came to Washington, D.C. in the midst of the Great Depression to demand payment of their long-promised WW I bonuses. They erected a camp of tents and shacks in Anacostia in southwest D. C. not far from the Capitol.

While they were there, the House passed a bill to pay the bonus, but the Senate refused to act.

Hoover's Attorney General ordered them out, but the marchers refused. When D. C. police tried to remove them, they resisted, so Hoover called in the Army.

Led by Douglas MacArthur and his aide, Dwight Eisenhower, with tanks and cavalry commanded by George Patton, the marchers were driven out at bayonet point with the aid of an arsenical gas. Two of the veterans and an eleven week-old baby were killed.

Labor Day Is a Memorial Day

Labor Day is properly a Memorial Day. Its martyrs were more likely to wear tattered rags than soldiers' uniforms (those who wore the uniforms were likely doing the killing) and their names are rarely remembered if they are even known. If you want to honor those who died for the freedoms and rights we enjoy today, you could find no better than those who died at Haymarket, in the Pullman strike, at Ludlow and at Anacostia.

Firefly Independent Monday September 6

mishima — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Monday's Headlines:

Pakistan's flooded farms unable to be sown

Tales of the unexpected: The dark side of bedtime stories

USA

Congressional Charities Are Pulling In Corporate Cash

Obama to call for $100 billion business tax credit

Europe

Basque separatist group Eta calls off 50-year campaign of violence

French immigration minister forced to change date of wedding after Facebook campaign

Middle East

Israeli police accused of targeting Jerusalem's Arab residents

Asia

Vedanta investors look into human rights issues in India

Fit for a miniature Indian highway

Latin America

Child mortality in Bolivia: a partial success

Pakistan's flooded farms unable to be sown
Aid workers fear the crisis will be prolonged amid uncertainty over next season's crop
By RAVI NESSMAN
SHAH JAMAL, Pakistan - Abid Hussein fears the deep floodwaters that destroyed his cotton crop, rotted his wheat seeds and swept away his farming tools are not done ravaging his life.
Just weeks before the wheat planting season is to start, his 1.5-acre (0.6-hectare) farm still lies under 3 feet (0.9 meter) of water, and he is certain it will not drain in time.
"I will not be able to plant," the 35-year-old father of four said in despair.

Tales of the unexpected: The dark side of bedtime stories
A new biography of Roald Dahl throws light on the private life of one of our best-loved writers. But why are so many children's authors such damaged human beings?
By John Walsh Monday, 6 September 2010
"A terrible wrathful man, with a slow fuse burning in one end of his belly and a stick of dynamite in the other." That was how Roald Dahl described his long-term American publisher Alfred Knopf in the New York Times in 1983 - but it could easily have applied to himself.
The much-loved, best-selling children's author, one of the UK's most popular post-war writers, was a man of considerable fury and contempt for people who crossed him, or whom he considered beneath him. The creator of Willy Wonka, the Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox was often less than fantastic as a human being.

USA

Congressional Charities Are Pulling In Corporate Cash

By ERIC LIPTON
Published: September 5, 2010
WASHINGTON - Representative Joe Baca has achieved near celebrity status in his suburban Los Angeles district, as much for his record of giveaways - Thanksgiving turkeys, college scholarships, spare boots for firefighters - as for anything he has done in Congress.
That generosity is made possible by the Joe Baca Foundation, a charity his family set up three years ago to aid local organizations. It provides another benefit, too: helping the Democratic congressman run something akin to a permanent political campaign.

Obama to call for $100 billion business tax credit

By Anne E. Kornblut and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 5, 2010; 9:01 PM
Under mounting pressure to intensify his focus on the economy ahead of the midterm elections, President Obama will call for a $100 billion business tax credit this week, using a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday to launch what administration officials said was a new policy push.
The business proposal - what one aide called a key part of a limited economic package - would increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, rewarding companies that develop new technologies domestically and preserve American jobs.

Europe

Basque separatist group Eta calls off 50-year campaign of violence
But lack of clarity brings only muted response from Spanish political figures
By Alasdair Fotheringham in Madrid Monday, 6 September 2010
Three hooded figures flanked by flags, filmed for a grainy video released to the BBC, announced yesterday that the Basque separatist group Eta was calling off the armed campaign it has waged for more than half a century.
Their statement defended Eta's actions but suggested that the group might now be ready to turn to the political process to pursue its aim of an independent Basque state. "Eta confirms its commitment to finding a democratic solution to the conflict," one of the hooded figures, a woman, said.

French immigration minister forced to change date of wedding after Facebook campaign
France's immigration minister has changed the date of his wedding after Facebook users pledged to disrupt the ceremony in response to immigration policies.
Published: 12:20AM BST 06 Sep 2010
The minister, former Socialist Eric Besson, 52, has attracted criticism for his role in the government's tightening of immigration policies.
France's government has come under fire at home and abroad over security measures including the expulsion of thousands of Roma and the revocation of French nationality for immigrants found guilty of attacking police officers.
On Saturday tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across France to denounce the security measures.
By Sunday evening over 940 users of the social networking site Facebook had signed up to a group planning to "create havoc" at Mr Besson's wedding to 24-year-old art student Yasmine Tordjman, which had been due to take place on Sept 16 in Paris.

Middle East

Israeli police accused of targeting Jerusalem's Arab residents Monday, 6 September 2010

By Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem
A leading civil-rights group has accused Israeli police of systematic discrimination against the Arab residents of East Jerusalem as growing numbers of hardline religious Jews take up residence in Palestinian areas.
A report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) found that violent confrontations between Jewish residents and their Palestinian neighbours had risen rapidly, but that Israeli police have largely ignored Palestinian complaints.

Asia

Vedanta investors look into human rights issues in India
Mining company's operations in India under scrutiny by shareholders following pressure from Amnesty and celebrities
Elena Moya
The Guardian, Monday 6 September 2010
Shareholders of Vedanta Resources are taking action to clarify issues about the mining company's operations in India over concerns about alleged breaches of human rights and environmental laws.
Institutional investors have formed a coalition to investigate some of the issues that have dogged the company recently.
Independently, shareholders including Aviva Investors are considering going to Vedanta's mining sites in India to assess the situation for themselves. They are also considering commissioning a report from an external consultancy.

Fit for a miniature Indian highway
For 17 years, a former furniture maker has been selling his handmade wooden tiny trucks and tractors on a roadside in Punjab, the real versions rumbling by a few feet away.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
September 6, 2010
Reporting from Dhanaula, India - He's watched the cheap Chinese toys come in, a flimsy, mass-produced onslaught. That's of little concern. He's doing something more meaningful, something that will last.
Balwinder Singh slowly works the sandpaper around the cargo bay of the miniature wooden truck, one of dozens in his roadside store. Horse carts are the most difficult, he says, with their rounded staves. Then there are the John Deere tractors, the combines, the gasoline trucks, reflecting the rich agricultural land that is Punjab, India's breadbasket.

Latin America

Child mortality in Bolivia: a partial success
Twice as many newborn babies survive as did 20 years ago, but more still die here than in almost any country outside sub-Saharan Africa
Andres Schipani in La Paz
The Guardian, Monday 6 September 2010
At the entrance of La Paz's maternity hospital, a banner reads: "A hospital that is a friend of the child and the mother." Inside the maternity ward, Jimena Chambi has just given birth to a healthy baby, who is breastfeeding. "I am so happy he is healthy. I was so worried," she says.
Jimena's case seems to be an increasing reality in one of South America's poorest countries, where recent policies have shown that it is possible to make the health of poorest and marginalised children a priority.
Since the mid-1990s the government has been moving towards a policy of universal healthcare provision for mothers and children, prioritising maternal health and child survival.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Late Night Karaoke

mishima — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Solitude

jamess — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:13:23 GMT

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

~ Henry David Thoreau, 1854

Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude.

~ Paul Tillich

Solitude ...

it's one of my prime motivators.

take a few moments to journey through some snapshots
from my own personal explorations,

in search of that elusive space,

otherwise known as Solitude ...

On the road, to the Great One, Denali, AK

Portage Glacier, AK -- creating its annual Ice Sculptures ... but for how much longer?

Wind Mountain, WA -- from the sunflower meadows of neighboring Dog Mt

Dawn breaks on the Vista Ridge trail head, Mt Hood, OR

on my quiet patrol, Snow Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA

Dawn fogs, Pistol River Beach, Meyers Creek, OR

The solitude amidst the low tides of resort-burbia, Cannon Beach, OR, ... can still be found ... if you're lucky, ... or just plain patient.

Solitude a truly endangered resource, indeed.

One not appreciated enough, most days, by most folks.

To sit in solitude, to think in solitude with only the music of the stream and the cedar to break the flow of silence, there lies the value of wilderness.

~ John Muir

Solitude shows us what should be; Society shows us what we are.

~ Robert Cecil

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

~ John Muir

Real Progress ... requires recharging those batteries.

Take time ... to ponder,

where you've been, and

where you're going;

... and the world we are all leaving to future generations ... if we continue on the road, we're on.

Take time ... to Hike On,

to find those better opportunities and vistas,

waiting somewhere ... along the many possible trails

and roads ahead.

Main St. and Fox Ave.

oldtomblood — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:11:01 GMT

Woe is me I just took a stroll down to the corner of Main Street and Fox Ave. and the quality of the people hanging out there is beyond belief, a rough crowd to say the least. They have blood in their eyes and book burning on their minds, some claim that this is the fourth book burning they have attended recently and they will not stop until every Koran has gone up in smoke.
Disheartening is way to mild a term for what these people bring out in me, republicans are so unbelievably something, I am a loss for words here. But backwards, vile, contemptible, heartless, vicious, ignorant and proud of it are a few words that will do until I regain my senses.

Once you start walking down Fox Ave. it only gets worse, when I stopped to ask directions from a man on the stoop I saw that he had been chewing on raw meat and blood had dripped on to his shirt and even his pants were soaked with it. He shouted at me while glowering through angry eyes asking if I were one of those commie Marxist Muslims he has heard so much about?

They're everywhere he assured me from the White House to the Hills of Hollywood and everywhere in between; not one square inch of America is pristine the way it was when Reagan was in office he spit at me, with drool siphoning from his mouth onto his shoes. Damn eco-terrorists have bombed another oil rig in the gulf he deftly related to me as he stroked what remaining hair he had on his palms.

I decided that I had better hot foot it back to the other side of town before things got ugly so I started to leave and can you believe it this guy said that he was going to hold me hostage until I could prove I was a genuine American citizen. He had what appeared to be a red, white and blue straitjacket and he said that it looked to be my size and wouldn't I like to try it on, I said no thanks and ran like blazes.

Americans are sure getting funny in the head, is there some sort of avian brain disease going around, make that alien brain disease because I don't think any bird on earth could be responsible for this much idiocy. Aliens have taken over at least half the country and now these pod people are adamantly claiming that America is theirs and they are going to take it back whether we like it or not.

My advise to any of you who have not yet been contaminated by this alien virus is to keep on your toes and not accept candy from anyone with a suspicious small indentation at the base of their skulls. I saw a movie when I was a kid that was exactly like this so I'm wise to these aliens and they're not gonna pull no wool over my eyes, they may say they are republicans but I know better, they are the children of the damned village, the walking, talking living dead. BEWARE BE VERY WARE!

Firefly Independent Sunday September 5

mishima — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Sunday's Headlines:

Democrats plan political triage to retain House

Efforts Afoot to Oust Assange as WikiLeaks Leader

USA

The post-9/11 life of an American charged with murder

Oil dispersant effects remain a mystery

Europe

Tough lessons: How teachers are seeking answers at Auschwitz

Mafia cash in on lucrative EU wind farm handouts - especially in Sicily

Middle East

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be lashed over newspaper photograph

Middle East peace process: High-level talks but with low expectations

Asia

'Millions' without aid in Pakistan

Resentment Simmers in Western Chinese Region

Latin America

Tortured Mexican kidnap victim says: 'I would sit there wondering how people could be that bad'

Democrats plan political triage to retain House
Party may divert its resources to save two dozen incumbents
By JEFF ZELENY and CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON - As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.
In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.
"We are going to have to win these races one by one," said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, conceding that the party would ultimately cut loose members who had not gained ground.

Efforts Afoot to Oust Assange as WikiLeaks Leader

Newsweek
As frontman for wikileaks.org, Julian Assange, the floppy-haired Australian computer hacker, has become an internationally celebrated advocate for would-be whistle-blowers. But now that Swedish prosecutors have reopened a rape investigation of Assange and continue an inquiry into allegations that he was involved in "sexual coercion and sexual molestation"--all of which he denies--some fellow WikiLeaks activists are considering asking him to step down from his role as the group's public face, or ousting him if he won't leave voluntarily.

USA

The post-9/11 life of an American charged with murder
PATHS TO JIHAD: FROM NEW JERSEY TO YEMEN
By Peter Finn
Saturday, September 4, 2010; 8:36 PM
On the morning of Jan. 26, Sharif Mobley stepped out of his apartment in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to buy some cereal for his sleeping 3-year-old daughter. The young American from New Jersey was quickly surrounded by eight black-clad, masked operatives from the country's secret police. Mobley turned to run, but he was shot in the leg and bundled into the back of a white van. When Mobley shouted "I'm an American," he was hit in the face. As the van sped away, Mobley later told his lawyers, one of his Yemeni captors made a call. The man said only one word, in English: "Easy."

Oil dispersant effects remain a mystery
BP sprayed chemicals massively in confronting the gulf spill, but scientists aren't sure how much good - or bad - they did.
By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
September 4, 2010|8:21 p.m.
In the wake of the BP oil spill, gaping questions remain about a key tool used during cleanup: the nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants sprayed over the water or onto the gushing wellhead on the seafloor. Do the chemicals help recovery, hinder it - or neither?
Just as dishwashing detergent breaks grease on dirty plates into bits, dispersants help turn a slick of oil into droplets a hair's breadth in size. In droplet form, oil is more easily pulled under by currents, away from birds, otters, seaweed and other marine life near the surface.

Europe

Tough lessons: How teachers are seeking answers at Auschwitz
As pupils across the country prepare to return to lessons, Paul Vallely joins a group of teachers on an educational trip to Auschwitz to ask: how do you bring the real horrors of history alive in the classroom?
Sunday, 5 September 2010
For me, it is the suitcases. The ancient brown leather is battered and crumpled. But the letters are clear enough. Each bears only the name and date of birth of its owner. Some belonged to adults. But many belonged to children. It is not hard to imagine how the child's mother selected the bare essentials to pack - the Nazis often provided lists, reminding mothers not to forget their child's favourite toys - while their father lettered the outside of the case in white paint - to make sure that things went as right as they could for their little one.

Mafia cash in on lucrative EU wind farm handouts - especially in Sicily
An ill wind is blowing over Italy's green revolution, as the Mafia seek to capitalise on generous grants for renewable energy.
By Nick Squires in Trapani, Sicily, and Nick Meo
Published: 7:30AM BST 05 Sep 2010
They rise up high above the sun-scorched countryside, looking out over hilltop villages, palm trees, neatly-tended vineyards and olive groves.
But for all their promises of a clean, green future, Italy's windfarms have now acquired a somewhat dirtier whiff - as the latest industry to be infiltrated by the country's mobsters.
Attracted by the prospect of generous grants designed to boost the use of alternative energies, the so-called "eco Mafia" has begun fraudulently creaming off millions of euros from both the Italian government and the European Union.

Middle East

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be lashed over newspaper photograph
Iranian woman facing death for adultery to be whipped despite Times apologising for using picture of another person
Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk
Iran has reportedly sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani - the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery - to 99 lashes in prison for "spreading corruption and indecency" after allowing an unveiled picture of herself to be published in a British newspaper.
The claim, which could not be confirmed, comes from her family and a lawyer representing Mohammadi Ashtiani, based on reports from those who have recently left the prison in Tabriz where she has been held for the last four years.

Middle East peace process: High-level talks but with low expectations
On the ground, there is little agreement over the way forward
By Donald Macintyre in Nablus Sunday, 5 September 2010
The two old friends were both middle-aged, both barbers, and both sons of Palestinian refugee parents who were forced to flee the same village outside Jaffa in the war of 1948. Each had an entirely different take yesterday on this week's high-profile start to the new round of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Saad Sholi, 45, the owner of the barber's shop, is a self-confessed political junkie who avidly watched the proceedings in Washington, switching between the al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera satellite TV channels. He was not wildly optimistic about the outcome.

Asia

'Millions' without aid in Pakistan
A month into the disaster, food fails to reach estimated three million people, with children particularly vulnerable.
Last Modified: 05 Sep 2010
The United Nations says that three million people affected by floods in Pakistan have yet to receive the food aid they desperately need.
Children are particularly in danger, according to Martin Mogwanja, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan.
For its part, the Pakistani government has acknowledged that nearly one million people have not received any help of any sort, a month into the disaster.
Some parts of the country are still being hit by fresh flooding. Southern Sindh province remains one of the hardest-hit areas.
More than 20 million people across the country have been affected by the floods, which have killed more than 1,500 people.
Supplies sold
Crime and the sale of donated aid supplies are undermining aid efforts.

Resentment Simmers in Western Chinese Region

By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: September 4, 2010
URUMQI, China - The five-star hotels are full, bulldozers are making quick work of dreary slums and billboards for "French-style villas" call out to the nouveau riche. In the year since rioting between the Han and Uighur ethnic groups killed nearly 200 people in this city in far western China, life appears to be returning to normal.
"Don't worry, everything is peaceful now," said the perky bellhop at a hotel in the city's predominantly Han Chinese quarter.
But before turning away, he had second thoughts. "You'd better not go to the Uighur part of town at night," he said.

Latin America

Tortured Mexican kidnap victim says: 'I would sit there wondering how people could be that bad'
A man held for ransom by one of Mexico's most brutal drugs gangs tells of beatings and constant killing of other captives
by Jo Tuckman in Reynosa, Mexico
The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010
F?lix survived his ordeal at the hands of the Zeta cartel, one of Mexico's most ruthless drugs gangs. But he knows of many fellow migrants who suffered the same grisly fate as the 72 who were shot at an isolated ranch 70 miles from the border city of Reynosa.
"There are lots more dead migrants, they just haven't found them," says the 20-year-old Honduran, speaking at a shelter for migrants run by nuns in Reynosa.
Unlike those at the ranch who were travelling in one large group and kidnapped by an armed commando, F?lix (whose name has been changed) was alone when he was picked up by a policeman. In an example of the official collusion that human rights activists have long claimed endangers migrants in Mexico, the officer took him to a Zeta safe house and left him there.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Late Night Karaoke

mishima — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Doctor; Your Diagnosis. My Death

Betsy L. Angert — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:44:44 GMT

copyright ? 2010 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

Dearest Doctor, I have come to my senses. Days ago, when you offered your diagnosis, I died. No, not literally. Had you done me in, I would not be here to write what I hope will help inform your bedside manner. Well, in my case only the way in which you approach a patient who merely sits in an examining room chair near you is the concern. You may recall our time together began so innocently. We sat down to review the results of annually scheduled blood-work. I had not felt sick all year or on that day. You had even expressed, it had been so long since we last saw each other. You scanned the pages, and proclaimed, that I must have returned to my bulimic ways. My spirit perished. I had done nothing of the sort! Yet, you said you were sure I had.
The pain you inflicted killed what could have been a relationship built on trust. Today, I realize your proclamation was but part of a pattern. Indeed, you reminded me that during our last consultation, a year ago, you also decided that I must be near death. In August 2009 you insisted that I arrange for an appointment, which you openly stated, would affirm your fears. I must be seriously ill. Yet, once that test was done, it affirmed that I was as I am better, than fine.

Upon further reflection, and after the telephone conversation I initiated hours after my appointment, I thankfully, feel more serene. No, you did not change your diagnosis nay your assertion that I must be vomiting. Still, the talk helped me, although it seemed to alienate you. I wonder if you now have a sense of how I felt and feel since you pronounced me dead and a liar, or do you merely believe of me, "The lady doth protest too much."

Might you ponder that my grievance is grounded. Oh, how little you know of bulimia, and me. In the two plus years we have had an acquaintance, I see you for maybe, ten minutes a visit. Since only once did I come to your office for other than a check up, what you observed this week is true. I rarely visit. When I do, you are booked. Patients arrive back-to-back. We chat for a bit, but not really. All is said and done rapidly. I wonder, might the speed of conversation and the shallow nature of a consultation affect your appraisal. After all, you too are human; although from what you said to me today, it seems at times such as this you define yourself as a trained medical professional, more perceptive than a mere mortal.

During my most recent appointment you admitted, you did not even recall what I had shared so often; I disdain exercise. I was never amongst the anorexic/bulimics who think they must work out endlessly. Only injuries incurred late in life took me to my current routine, a daily swim in the pool.

I know you recall that I swim, only because I often come dressed to swim. Even that concerns you, exposure to the sun. Do you remember that I switched to an indoor facility. Probably not. While the truth of the locale and my loathing exercise may not be memorable or visible in an office visit, what can be seen is a sign of bulimia. My teeth.

Doctor, did you notice what my Dentist and Dental Hygienist have? My once translucent boney choppers are now denser. The color has returned to white. For so long, even when you and I first met, the hue was dark gray. Other dental conditions were already on the mend when I first entered your sphere. Deep groves, once etched into the enamel, gone. With my tongue, or a look, I can tell, the surface is smooth once more. As I said in our phone conversation, less than twelve hours after you declared me dead, Charlene stated with delight, "Your teeth finally look alive."

Funny. Charlene, my dental hygienist, detects a difference in my body and being since I left bulimia behind. Yet, you are intent on my being ill. Charlene sees and speaks of how my life without food benders and bile has helped me be healthier. Yet, you dear Doctor, only see standards, the stats that you think are real, more real than me.

You do not see, hear, or open your mind to who I might be. I marvel as recall the day Charlene had expressed a doubt. She offered, in Dental School professors taught the conventional wisdom. Teeth do not substantially re-mineralize. Enamel and density loss are permanent. However, Charlene wonders aloud. She has come to accept that what she learned may not be valid. Months earlier she mused, "Well" after much assessment, "I have witnessed the metamorphosis." There is a change.

Transformation from bulimia to health has occurred for Charlene, for me. Then there is you, dear Doctor. Apparently, what was, will always be in your mind. Oh, Doctor, if only you had truly engaged me in the past two years . Had you looked and listened or even spent more than a scant few minutes with me in any of our sessions, just maybe you would have learned that supposed facts and figures may not mean whatever it is medical professionals teach.

Might you think to speak to me rather than seek the "expertise" of more and more specialists [sic] before you declare me to be on my deathbed? I know not what to say.

I tried to talk to you, to share my reality, my family history, and myself. My words fell on deaf ears. You so sweetly fight me at every turn. When I worked to offer an analogous story, you scoffed. Might I assume that you see me as less knowledgeable, credible, or just crazed. Perchance, I might try to tell the tale again? Perhaps, the read will help you to authentically relate.

As I said, the day after you delivered your diagnosis I traveled to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned. By the way, dental visits last for well over an hour and I go every few months. Charlene and I talk the entire time. This week, since I had just seen you and was so devastated, my exam and your evaluation were the topics of discussion.

Charlene smiled and stated she is all too familiar with Doctors such as you. While she has had her own experiences her Mom's was most worrisome to her. While under the care of her Doctor, Charlene's mother's organs were forever damaged. The Doctor thought it wise to bring this adult female's blood levels to "normal." However, with age her heredity set in. What had been usual for the patient was no longer as it was.

Yes Doctor, I acknowledge that you listened to this story, for seconds, and then, abruptly interjected your disregard of my attempt to share personal accounts, or the details of my family history. Doctor, you preferred the argument, "Charlene is not a Physician." Might you trust the words of others Physicians, those who have misdiagnosed me or correctly assessed my well-being?

Please indulge me. Allow me to present a nonfictional narrative. Eight years ago, after a serious automobile accident, an Orthopedic Surgeon told me I would not be able to walk for at least a half a year, probably more. He assured me that one leg would be shorter than the other for the rest of my life. I needed full bed rest for at least six months, maybe seven. The specialist said he could not speak to the pain I had in my chest and ribs. He saw nothing in the X-Rays. Weeks later, another bone MD whom I thought it wise to consult, was shocked to discover my broken sternum and four fractured ribs.

That Surgeon, I will call Doctor Thom, was more than a second opinion; he saved my leg, heel, my life. Dr Thom told me that I needed to begin an exercise regime immediately! He then showed me exactly what he wanted me to do as soon as possible. While he concurred, I could not walk or bear even the slightest weight on my heel, I could get around on my hands and knees. My father, relieved went to the store and purchased the best fluffy-filled cotton kneepads money could buy.

Dr Thom helped me realize that the pain in my chest was very real. He helped me to feel safe, secure in the knowledge of what I could to. Dr Thom spoke of a means for stability, and provided time frames. Most importantly he attended to my needs, not as just another "patient," but as me, Betsy!

Thankful that this physician asked of my history, and accepted that two past injuries necessitated a regular daily swim, I was able to feel comforted by his care. Indeed, months before I was authorized to walk, with a promise from me that I would not place my leg on the ground, not even in water, Dr Thom prescribed a return to the pool. Yes Doctor, he wanted me to swim unlike you who said, stop the swim or at least cut the time in the water done to near nil. Fifteen minutes or less a day? Doctor, have you read the research and recommendations for minimal daily exercise? Perhaps you have no desire to do other than prove yourself right.

For me, what is right is a healthy relationship with one's body and other beings. If only we had genuine caring, sharing exchanges. I believe we do not. In each of our talks, your trepidation for what you feel is my impending death, is inescapable. It seems to shade your every diagnosis..

Doctor, I know you are not G-d. You do not have the power to give me life. However, a professional such as you, can cause my demise. The innumerable reports that document a patient's passing at the hands of his or her physician cannot be ignored.

Certainly, I may have over-reacted or reacted as any healthy person would to your decree; I lie or I die, possibly both. Imagine my surprise, I entered your office the picture of health, and was pronounced a perishable commodity. You said, were you to review my chart in a hospital, you would order a full body transfusion. Until you were certain why results of the blood tests were so dire, you wanted me to see four specialists and a therapist. A therapist?

That statement alone spoke volumes; however it was a hush in comparison to the stated accusation. You were concerned that I had returned to the world of bulimia. Oh had you, or most any Doctor who diagnoses, what professionals call an eating disorder, experienced the thrill of leaving that past behind, you might understand how wonderful it is to have my life back.

For years now, days, weeks, months, decades, devoted to food do not consume me. Close to a decade has passed since I spent more time bingeing and purging than you do sleeping or working. Can you imagine? What might you feel if you were finally free of all that constrained your very being?

Oh Doctor, I know you cannot conjure up such a connection. Were you able to relate to my reality you would not have said and done as you did.

You dismissed my words, my truth, all that I had learned, felt, and experienced in the twenty-five years and three months that I battled with the bulimia. More significantly, you concluded that the many years since I last vomited were null and void. In your infinite wisdom, you decided that a Doctor knows much more about an individual than the person, his or her self, does.

With few visits in our past, and little conversation, you know what is real for me? You think practitioners who have never met me before will assess my health more accurately. Based on what, more standards of "normal."

Your counsel crushed any sense of a connection. Your stated distrust of me is as a surgical knife; it cuts to the core. When a Doctor doubts a patient, the effect is profound. At least it has been in my experience. However, it seems you are not truly interested in my experience or that of others. Oh, how I wanted to explain my truth when we spoke on the telephone today. Your response, "He, she, or I am not a trained medical Physician." may have cured me of that desire.

However, happily I was able to sneak in one thought whilst we chatted. A Doctor I am acquainted with has often expressed, medical school is like a technical college. Practitioners and Surgeons are analogous to Mechanics. For each, diagnosis is the greatest challenge. An educated guess, or "evaluation" only captures what is typical. You offered no thought on what another Physician pronounced his truth. Perchance, you are still of the mind that you know what you know.

As an Educator and an observer of humanity, I share what I believe. Knowledge is not power! Empathy empowers. If only you chose to be empathetic, to consider what is beyond book knowledge. Perhaps, then, people, patients, might be real to you rather than fall into one or two categories. Terminal or test-proven fit as a fiddle.

Dear reader, you may wish to peruse Chapters One through Seven. Please do. These reflective diaries discuss my life as an anorexic, bulimic, a person.
The Beginning. Bulimia and Becoming [Chapter One]

Bulimia. A Bit Becomes a Binge [Chapter Two]

Binges Build A Being, Separate From Self [Chapter Three]

Hiding the Food. Hiding The Feelings, Hiding Me [Chapter Four]

The Satiated Stomach. The Study Of Food [Chapter Five]

Bulimia. Wait! It is Not My Weight [Chapter Six]

Bulimia. "Control," Not the Means Nor the Mission [Chapter Seven]

Or Similar Discussions . . .

New Years Resolve; Binge or Be

How Did I Let This Happen?

Bulimia; Science of the Holiday Season and Food

I Am An Anorexic, Bulimic, A Person!

When Will I Be Right? Is It Ever Okay To Be Me?

Weight. Balancing Fat with Feelings, Habits With Health.

Bulimia Builds Bitterness and Bridges

Reference for review and reflection . . .

Bulimia & Your Teeth, By Brian McKay, DDS. Reprinted from Eating Disorders Recovery Today. Spring 2007 Volume 5, Number 2
The benefits of: Swimming. By Brigid Delaney. Cable News Network. May 24, 2007
High Water Marks, By Judy Foreman. Boston Globe. Page 2 June 14, 2010
How much physical activity do adults need? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
America's Health Care System is the 3rd Cause of Death Barbara Starfield, M.D. Journal of the American Medical Association, 284(4), 483-485 2000

Saturday Art

mishima — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:30:00 GMT

Firefly Independent Saturday September 4

mishima — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Saturday's Headlines:

Blackwater won contracts with web of companies

Fleet of robots designed to clean up oil

USA

U.S. to temper stance on Afghan corruption

Wachovia, Bank of America add fees that 'certainly won't be popular'

Europe

Archbishop of York criticises government inaction on sex trafficking

EU austerity policies risk civil war in Greece, warns top German economist Dr Sinn

Middle East

Whisper it, but Netanyahu may just be the man to make history

Hamas condemns 'direct talks'

Asia

Afghan withdrawal date 'emboldens' Taliban, US general says

Married to the mob

Africa

Too chicken to change? Satirists taunt Mugabe

Mobile Phone Banking Comes to South Africa. Will It Work?

Blackwater won contracts with web of companies
Network let it obscure involvement from contracting officials and public
By James Risen and Mark Mazzetti
WASHINGTON - Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.
While it is not clear how many of those businesses won contracts, at least three had deals with the United States military or the Central Intelligence Agency, according to former government and company officials. Since 2001, the intelligence agency has awarded up to $600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates, according to a United States government official.

Fleet of robots designed to clean up oil
Scientists at MIT have created Seaswarm, which uses super- absorbent 'nanofabric' to suck up slick on the surface of the ocean. It's too late for the gulf spill, but it offers promise for cleaning up future slicks.
By Lori Kozlowski, Los Angeles Times
September 4, 2010
Want to clean up an oil spill? There's a robot for that. A team of scientists at MIT have developed a fleet of oil-absorbing robots - Seaswarm - that clean the ocean by collecting oil with a super-absorbent "nanofabric."
First tested in the Charles River in Boston in August, the box-shaped robots are able to stay in water for long periods without making repeated trips back to shore because they function independently, communicating with one another through global positioning systems and wireless communications.

USA

U.S. to temper stance on Afghan corruption

By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 3, 2010; 8:31 PM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan are developing a strategy that would tolerate some corruption in the country but target the most corrosive abuses by more tightly regulating U.S. contracting procedures, according to senior defense officials.American officials here have not spoken publicly about countenancing potentially corrupt local power brokers. Such a stance would run somewhat against the grain of a counterinsurgency doctrine that preaches the importance of building competent governance.

Wachovia, Bank of America add fees that 'certainly won't be popular'
Action comes as U.S. banks adjust to new regulations and try to recoup lost revenue.
By Rick Rothacker | Charlotte Observer
No more waived fees for using another bank's ATM. Higher monthly account charges. Fees for paper statements with images of canceled checks.
These are some of the changes coming to customers of Bank of America and Wachovia, Charlotte's dominant banks.
Bank of America will start telling customers next week that it's adjusting fees as part of an effort to standardize its practices nationwide. Wachovia has been making its own changes, the latest wrinkle from the Wells Fargo merger.

Europe

Archbishop of York criticises government inaction on sex trafficking
Dr John Sentamu describes the government decision to opt out of new EU directive on sex trafficking as 'stunning'
Martin Wainwright
The Guardian, Saturday 4 September 2010
The Archbishop of York has joined critics of the government's opt-out from the EU's new directive on sex trafficking, describing the decision as "stunning".
Dr John Sentamu accused ministers of "sitting on the sidelines" while other countries try to tackle a cross-border problem which is thought to be growing but has seen fewer traffickers jailed this year than at any time since 2005.
The archbishop said that the "evil trade which is nothing less than modern-day slavery" required joint international action with Britain playing a full part. Estimates suggest that some 2,500 foreign women have been pimped into prostitution by gangs.

EU austerity policies risk civil war in Greece, warns top German economist Dr Sinn
Greece's austerity measures cannot prevent default and will lead to a breakdown of the political order if continued for long, a leading German economist has warned.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Cernobbio, Italy
"This tragedy does not have a solution," said Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the prestigious IFO Institute in Munich.
"The policy of forced 'internal devaluation', deflation, and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of a civil war. It is impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots," he said, speaking at the elite European House Ambrosetti forum at Lake Como.
"Greece would have been bankrupt without the rescue measures. All the alternatives are terrible but the least terrible is for the country to get out of the eurozone, even if this kills the Greek banks," he said.

Middle East

Whisper it, but Netanyahu may just be the man to make history
Hardliner will have to abandon his political base for peace, says Donald Macintyre
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Whatever else two days of high-octane schmoozing in Washington may have achieved, it has failed, at least as far as the outside world is concerned, to answer one of the great diplomatic riddles of the times.
Which is, what did Benjamin Netanyahu tell Barack Obama in July that convinced the US President that it was worth, first applying fierce pressure on the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to enter direct negotiations with Israel, with a view to achieving a peace deal within a year, and then launching the talks this week in Washington amid such fanfare. The White House has repeatedly made it clear to those who need to know that something was said - but not what it was.

Hamas condemns 'direct talks'
Gazan supporters of Hamas rally to mark Al Quds day and to condemn new Palestinian-Israeli talks launched in Washington.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters have rallied in the Gaza Strip to mark Al Quds day and to condemn the direct talks launched in Washington between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Friday's rally comes a day after armed groups said that they had joined forces to step up attacks against Israel, possibly including suicide bombings.
Al Quds day is an annual event on the last Friday of Ramadan, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposing Zionism.
"The negotiations that the Palestinian people have tried for over two decades are pointless negotiations, the Palestinian people never gained anything from them except the loss of their cause and their rights," Ismail Rudwan, a Hamas official, told a large cheering crowd.

Asia

Afghan withdrawal date 'emboldens' Taliban, US general says
An influential American general has endorsed a report that criticises President Barack Obama and the Prime Minister's decision to set a withdrawal date for Afghanistan that "emboldens" the Taliban to fight on.
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Gen Jack Keane, who was one of the prime movers behind the Iraq surge of 2007, has backed a foreign policy think tank paper that warns talk of Western retreat from the country only "emboldens Afghan insurgents".
The report attacked the political rhetoric of timelines for withdrawal which played into the hands of the Taliban and undermined the Nato military effort.
"It emboldens insurgents to continue fighting, as they are presented with a survival target to reach," wrote the report's author George Grant, a counter-terrorism expert.

Married to the mob

By Pepe Escobar
Ten years ago, Taliban Afghanistan - Talibanistan - was under a social, cultural, political and economic nightmare. Ten years ago, New York-based photographer Jason Florio and myself slowly crossed Talibanistan. Those were the days. Bill Clinton was in the White House. Osama bin Laden was a discreet guest of Mullah Omar, and there was no hint of 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, or the "war on terror", or the rebranding of the AfPak war.
We experienced Talibanistan in action, in close detail. This is both a glimpse of a long-lost world, and a window to a possible future in Afghanistan. Arguably, not much has changed. Or has it?
If schizophrenia defined the Taliban in power, US schizophrenia still rules.

Africa

Too chicken to change? Satirists taunt Mugabe

By Paul Peachey Saturday, 4 September 2010
He has sparked fury among Muslim theologians, been sued by a furious President Jacob Zuma and dared to poke fun at the father of the nation, Nelson Mandela.
Now South Africa's foremost political cartoonist, Zapiro, has taken on the leader across the border, and turned Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe into a latex chicken.
Zapiro's puppet of Rupert Mugabe is the star turn of a satirical music video released this week by the African band Freshlyground that lampoons the 86-year-old President and challenges him to step down after 30 years in power.

Mobile Phone Banking Comes to South Africa. Will It Work?
Vodacom's M-Pesa mobile phone banking service is all the rage in Kenya, where in 3 years it jumped to 10 million customers in a country of 37 million. But as M-Pesa launches in South Africa, it will find a market full of similar services, from cash-transfer windows at grocery stores to Western Union.
By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer / September 3, 2010
Johannesburg, South Africa
About half of South Africa's citizens don't have bank accounts. Nearly 40% are either unemployed or work informal jobs paid in cash. So how do they pay their bills? How do they send cash to relatives during an emergency?
Until recently, South Africa's poor simply didn't have any good banking choices. There are plenty of good banks here, but their charges are so high, and their regulations are so strict - such as proof of regular income - that many poor people simply stowed their cash in the mattress.
Now, thanks to mobile phone giant Vodacom, and its money transfer service M-Pesa, poorer South Africans may finally be able to set aside money, pay bills, and send cash. M-Pesa launched in Kenya in 2007, and quickly overtook traditional banks there by gaining 10 million users in a country of 37 million citizens. Now, thankfully for South Africa's poor, it has come here as well.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Late Night Karaoke

mishima — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Hey, its Boehner v Pelosi, Obama aint on the Ballot

BruceMcF — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:37:37 GMT

Burning the Midnight Oil for Progressive Populism

Really, not as intense a tragedy as Kent State, but if he gets the Speaker's Gavel in a wave election, another tragedy from my home state, Boehner of Orange.

Versus Nancy Pelosi.

People, its the midterms. I understand that many had their hopes stoked by the Presidential campaign, and many had their hopes satisfied, at least somewhat, and many had their hopes dashed, at least somewhat ... but this aint Presidential Primary season. Its the General Election Midterms.

Where are the YouTubes telling young Hispanic first time 2008 voters in Spanish "Poder para el Pueblo / Nadie Silente! Vota!" ... where's the Green fightback against Republican scorched earth ... is it all lost in naval gazing in the middle of General Election season?
We don't vote in the Midterms to celebrate the choice in front of us.

We vote to shout back, to make the SOB's in DC and their corporate paymasters unhappy with the fact that we are voting.

We don't vote in the Midterms to place a bet on which team will win.

We vote to be in the game.

Its only one weapon in our armory. But if we don't exercise it, it blunts the edge of all the others.

ITS SEPTEMBER PEOPLE. SET THE PRO-ANTI-PRO-ANTI OBAMA ASIDE FOR TWO FREAKING MONTHS.

Its Pelosi versus Boehner. That's the contest.

It aint lofty fine inspiring speeches time, its the midterms.

Its political trench warfare. And we let the other side dig the trenches ... so, yeah, we are going to take some political casualties.

But even though its the other bastards who lit the oilfield, its our dirty job to put them out.

Gotta get down to it. Should have been done long ago.

Aint no guarantees in the fight for freedom, except:

Find the cost of Freedom. Buried in the Ground.
Mother Earth will swallow you. Lay your body down.

Thursday's Thoughts--Weighing In:

mplo — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:04:16 GMT

I have many things on my mind, and one has just been added, as a start: The fact that my original Thursday Thoughts essay disappeared after working so hard on it, and before it was even finished! I admit to being ticked off, and it's hard to shrug it off as "oh, s**t happens" when one has written so much, only to have it vanish! Oh, boy oh boy!! I wrote a long, long Thursday's Thoughts letter, which disappeared...dammit! I wish this site could be fixed so that won't happen again! It took me soooo long to write it...and poof.,...it's gone, f**king gone! I have many things on my mind..and it's blown to smithereens by a stupid glitch that I wish didn't exist!

This is something that I find hard to accept; something that I've worked long and hard on getting screwed up for whatever reason. I've had disasters happen to pieces that I've come close to finishing, I've had other essays disappear that I've come close to concluding. It's funny how these things happen when one's just about at the end and about to finish! Oh, well.

Okay--back to business; I've got many things on my mind, and having made my righteous rant, I will now go on to other stuff. Here goes:
Aziza was given a clean bill of health at a veterinarian re-check yesterday. She's happy as a clam, although right now, I don't know if she's beginning to moult, or if she's started to pick her feathers out. I certainly hope it's not the latter, as African Greys can look uglier than McGee did when he had his feather-plucking problem. Nonetheless, I will love Aziza forever and ever, regardless what happens. Having a pet means loyalty and committment to them, no matter what goes on. Who knows, however? She might not develop the problem. She loves coming out of her cage, and she cleverly resists going back into her cage, dodging, stalling, preening and running around her cagetop when the time comes to put her back in the cage, whether it be her bedtime, when I need to leave the house for whatever reasons, or when I have other stuff to do. Like a mischievous, naughty child, she can be funny as hell, but she also needs to be shown who's boss from time to time. The various ruses, such as luring her back in with a toy or a food treat are ruses that Aziza is thoroughly familiar with, and which she knows how to artfully dodge. Allowing her to mount her favorite roost on her cage play-top, slowly lowering her down, getting her to step onto my finger, and then lowering her to the bottom of her cage that way generally works, but not always. She's forever testing me, and she will continue to do so. But...oh the love and the fun! She's smart and sleek and loveable, and something tells me that she'll be talking at some point in time, given the fact that she's been doing a good deal of laughing and whistling. African Greys, like all birds and other animals, and people, are social animals.

Last evening, after learning through an email from management that there was a rat loose on the 4th floor of our building (which I reside on), I quickly began vacuuming the whole house, and I laundered Aziza's cage cover, her towels, and the cover for her carrier. At first, I thought that the rat must've come into the building as a result of somebody's having been dumb enough to keep the front door of the building open, but I later learned that the rat had swum and climbed up through the sewer line, up through someone's toilet, defecated on their toilet seat, and then ran around that person's 4th-floor loft for a bit. A little close for comfort, especially when having a bird or any other pet around the house. Worried that the rat might go after and possibly kill, maim or (gasp..heaven forbid) eat Aziza alive, I frantically vacuumed the whole house, including around Aziza's cage, laundered Aziza's cage cover, as well as her towels and the cover for her carrier, and then put three of my heaviest books over the toilet lid, in the hopes of preventing any interested rat(s) from coming through. Not that the rat could get into Aziza's cage, but, since Aziza does lots of climbing around in her cage, as African Greys in the wild are prone to do, the rat could reach in with a claw or whatever and possibly kill or maim Aziza for life, or get into the food. Not something I'd want!

Messages of songs don't always come clear to me right away, and they've sometimes taken years to do so, either through figuring it out, or doing research on a particular song or songs. It wasn't until quite recently that I became aware of the messages of songs like "Poor Moon" by the Canned Heat, "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, and "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkle, all of which conveyed messages about the destruction of our environment, taking of people's land by eminent domain, and opposition to never-ending war that is conveyed by Sounds of Silence, although it could be a message about the silence about what's going on generally, and the persistant refusal to speak out.

With some songs, such as "Give a Damn" by the now-defunct group Spanky and Our Gang", the message was clear to me right away; giving a damn about our fellow man. Here is a link to a youtube video to that song that I found, which is, imho, quite powerful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

If you can open the link and view the video, and listen to the song, you'll find that it's also quite relevant, even for today.

Even certain movies convey a message of some sort or other. Unlike The Outsiders, or, to a certain extent, Rebel Without a Cause, which seem to sort of glorify gang violence, West Side Story tends to point out the senselessness of gang violence, as well as the destructive consequences of hatred, racism and poverty. Unfortunately, the message that West Side Story conveys all too often goes unheeded here in the USA and throughout the world, generally. I've begun to think more and more that, while racism and poverty may never end, people might eventually start talking more to each other, but who knows if or when that will ever even happen? Our society, and the world, in general, are far too unpredictable for that, particularly nowadays. Everything raises a question: Could this really be the final throes of desperation before automation sets in? Who knows?

I must admit that I probably don't do enough cross-examining of myself for many, if not most people's liking, but I guess there's only so far one can go. One might say that, by continuing to hold onto things such as reading True Crime books, and my intense love for West Side Story, and my wanting to drive every year to the midwest instead of flying or whatever, or, occasionally making road trips to neighboring states to see the film West Side Story, never hitching up with anybody, and not sticking my neck out to risk getting arrested or jailed for a cause, or the fact that I consider supplanting oneself in front of a huge, heavy 60-100 ton piece of moving metal machinery, such as a train or a bulldozer to prove my point and risking limb and/or life not such a smart idea might very well be, to many other people, a sign of not caring what goes on around oneself, or the fact that I persist and insist on having my very-curly hair long because I like it, as a refusal to adjust to other people's liking, which is considered abnormal, all of this is who and what I am.

As a woman who grew up in the 1950's and 1960's, I'm also aware of the fact that there were many things wrong with those times that an awful lot of people who grew up during those times are unwilling to face. Yet, at the same time, I've been discovering more and more that the only way to survive is to stand by what I believe in, regardless of whether I'm a lone voice in the wilderness or not. The more I think of it, the more I decide that deciding to go solo throughout my life and not have roommates or even a partner was probably best for me. Fortunately, I have a cadre of family and friends who love and accept me for who and what I am, despite the fact that we may not always agree on things.

Flower Gardening 101

Youffraita — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT

(heh: if there are any: most of y'all seem to know your way around a garden really well)
there was this story in the Thursday NYT Home section:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09...

During most of the summer - my first in the garden - the heat rose in the morning and hovered unpleasantly past sunset. It hardly ever rained, and more than once the well ran dry from watering. As if in response to the sun-bleached days, the plants with white flowers (the Datura Belle Blanche, Casa Blanca lilies, Nicotiana alata, Little Lamb hydrangea and Phlox paniculata) bloomed spectacularly, while those with pink or red blossoms (the Monarda didyma, roses rhododendrons) seemed to struggle.

Well, she needs a better breed of roses & I don't much like rhododendrons (azaleas are, to me, much more beautiful) but I can tell her about Monarda didyma.(aka-bee balm) It's native to this continent and it needs a lot of good watering or it will get powdery mildew. It's a tough plant that you can cut to the ground & it will come back: but it's better to give it plenty of water thereby preventing the powdery mildew in the first place, and allowing it to produce all the blooms which will attract all the butterflies and -- if you're lucky -- some ruby-throated hummingbirds.

(all pictures can be clicked on to see larger ~ed.)

My Monarda didyma was in large pots on Dad's deck. The first year, yes, they got powdery mildew. But they made it through the winter quite well, even in pots, every year. Highly rec'd as a native species that is also quite pretty & (except for the watering) easy to deal with.

If you happen to have a spot in your yard that gets a lot of sun, grow milkweed for the Monarch butterflies. They require it. And it has a beautiful orange flower. My attempt at milkweed failed...but I'm not sorry I tried. There are two types of milkweed, one likes its feet moist and one is less particular.

For example, I was out at a nature preserve & saw these bright orange flowers in the middle of a meadow, very far away.

I didn't want to walk out for a closer look: there were no paths, and chiggers love me. Those of you who have ever been afflicted by chiggers will understand: even mosquitoes and fleas are better to get sucked by.

But when I went back to the greenhouse the following Monday, I asked my manager, K., what those bright orange flowers could have been, and her reply was very quick: "Probably milkweed."

I like this, too:

"Is it too early to plant for spring?

This is a great time of year to plant, because the top growth of the plants will not be as stressed by heat and sun, and the root will be able to grow in the warm soil. Most perennials can be fall planted. Even the exceptions - gaillardia, sunflower - can be successful if the site is right and if they are planted early enough. Great choices for this time of year are daylilies, hosta, ferns, hydrangeas, iris, peonies and poppies. If you purchase plants in flower, be sure to cut off the flower so the plant puts its energy into rooting."