This Voice is Mine

The dumbing down of our language

2006-01-15T10:39:00.000-05:00

I was just reading this new york times article on why democrats are basically resigning themselves to the fact that Samuel Alito will make it onto the Supreme COurt because they (the Democrats) are outnumbered. The article also quotes some law experts on other smaller but still significant issues on why their is not much public opposition to Alito's viewpoints. It is clear he is conservative and opposes abortion but he is a whiz at evading questions. This from the ny times:

"It may be a mistake to think that their failure demonstrates that they necessarily did something wrong," said Richard H. Fallon, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School. Referring to one of the major Democratic complaints about Judge Alito's testimony, Mr. Fallon said: "As long as most of the public will settle for evasive or uninformative answers, maybe there was nothing that they could have done to get Alito to make a major error."

So it seems that, according to Fallon, the public is willing to eat up answers that are not really answers but just soundbites. It is the dumbing down of our language as we know it and we, the American people, are allowing it to happen by not objecting to the pathetic answers this man has given the Senate Democrats.

Also another brilliant PR move on the part of Republicans -- to have Alito's wife begin crying during the questioning. Apparently, the network cameras moved over to her instead of the more important issue at hand -- the hearing.

"Had she not cried, we would have won that day," said one Senate strategist involved in the hearings, who did not want to be quoted by name discussing the Democrats' problems. "It got front-page attention. It was on every local news show."

Refresh Tears come in handy for times like these. I picture her looking around to make sure no one's watching before splashing some in her eyes, much like Owen Wilson's character in Wedding Crashers. (I think he used Visine but Refresh Tears work just as well for this sort of attention grabbing stunt.)

I taught

2005-12-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today, I taught for the first time in my life.
Kids responded.
They listened, but more importantly, they talked.
We read "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut and explored equality and sameness.
I never thought of myself as a science fiction reader, but it's coming back to me that the first book I really connected with in high school was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenhiet 451. The subject matter blew me away. This couldn't really happen could it? (I still have my book, coverless and all). In "Harrison Bergeron" you think the same thing, and it makes you realize that perhaps it's better that humanity is so varied. But you hope that the television really isn't making people as dumb as Vonnegut made his characters.
Thanks for reading. I feel closer to being a teacher now that I've actually taught and hopefully made a difference in a student's life. One more week of graduate school, and then it's on to student teaching....

After test

2005-12-10T18:33:00.000-05:00

Today I took my final state test to become certified to teach english in new york. A few little mishaps: forgot the test ticket at home and had to drive 25 minutes to get the ticket and come back. Result: Still made it there on time. Word to the wise: State tests never start on time. Then, before the test began I had to relinquish my cell phone and place it in a state issuesd ziplock bag, upon which I wrote my name and home phone number.

They kept my phone downstairs with the many others while I took my test. When I was done 3 hours and 10 minutes later I went to pick up my cell phone from "the cell phone holder" or so he called himself when he called my father an hour earlier to tell him I left my cell phone there! Apparently he had been given the misinformation that I finished my test before I actually did and left my cell phone. So, said cell phone holder turned my phone on and instead of calling the number on the bag (which would be the logical thing to do) called "Dad Cell" to let my father, who didn't know I was taking a test, to tell him I left my cell phone. Of course the man wouldn't tell my dad who he was and only referred to himself as the "cell phone holder" but, my father, not knowing what the heck this was about, naturally demanded more information. Total silliness. If anything, it gave me a chance to call my dad, catch up, and find out what he wanted for Christmas. Result: Silliness, but not a big deal.

Finally, as I was getting into my car after the test and was on the phone with K., I stopped to look at the sky. It was probably the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen. Hundreds of small clouds dotted the sky from one end of the horizon to the other. The colors were so warm and inviting. For a few moments I forgot about the debacle and the cold and just watched. Soon after, I was inspired to write this poem:

"After test" by: BJS

The deep blues and warm melons
fading into the horizon.
A long row of low clouds
first mistaken as such
then seen for their true form -
the mountains standing clear and resolute
against the warm hues
of the evening sky.

This is:
Winter sunset
after test,
when words like
phonology and morphology
become meaningless
in the face
of the majestic beauty
of Mother Nature.

After test:
I am too moved
and too warmed
to feel any chill.

FYI

2005-11-20T15:50:00.000-05:00

P-Town Bay
This is where we got engaged.

Pollitt on Dowd

2005-11-17T19:31:00.000-05:00

i found this great column by katha politt on the state of affairs of women, according to maureen dowd, times columnist who just published a book called "are men necessary?" pollitt's column has a funny beginning ("Maureen Dowd doesn't read my column"), which draws you right in. I realized that dowd is not a feminist, far from it actually. From Pollitt's column:

It's annoying to read pronouncements about feminism based mostly on chats with her friends in the media about men, clothes, TV shows and Botox. Why not call up some people who actually do feminist work?

Dowd, for example, thinks feminism may be a "cruel hoax" because it keeps women single--men are scared of spunky, successful women.
I really don't understand how people can't see the value in feminism. It just doesn't
make any sense. You ask, what is feminism anyway? There are so many definitions... but one of mine is that women should be sexually, socially, economically and intellectually equal to men. For instance, I've worked at a company where men younger and with less experience were consistently paid more than me. Where is the fairness or equality in that? Why should they make more money just because they are a different sex than me?

I am upset that a woman as famous and smart as maureen dowd would not embrace a principle that only has the best interests of women in mind. What are women like her so afraid of after all?

Back again, where the heck was I?

2005-11-15T17:55:00.000-05:00

Don't you love how I don't blog for two months and then suddenly there are three posts? I guess that's what happens when you start writing a paper about blogs. I've got other things to do, but this is the most interesting of them all right now. Also, I realized that if I am going to argue for using blogs as a teaching tool for writing, I should probably start posting again. Practice what I preach, if ya know what I mean.

So where have I been all this time? Studying for a test upon which my entire graduate career was riding, doing homework, reading, preparing to be a student teacher, and planning my wedding. These are all wonderful things, but they leave no time for pleasure reading, let alone blogging.

I will attempt to make short posts every few days. Most of those posts will probably be news related. I'm still as big a news junkie as I ever was. I literally have to pry myself from the times and the nation when I know I should be writing my paper. My previous posts are evidence that it didn't really work. I mean, how does one "pry" oneself anyway? Although I don't read the news in the morning like I used to, it was actually causing too much stress in my life, I do scan/read the news (mostly during my procrastination phase) when writing papers.

OK. Must. finish. paper.

Decoding the Rhetoric

2005-11-15T17:50:00.000-05:00

I love how the New York Times keeps pounding away at Bush and his lies. It gives my goosebumps. This is the number one emailed story. I read it when it was number five and i didn't even email it to anyone. A little while later I checked it again and there it was, at the top. I don't even think Republican voters buy Bush's rhetoric anymore. It's sad, that it took this long for them to figure that out. But oh well, better late than never. I love how JOhn Kerry keeps plugging away at Bush and the Republicans. Just a hunch, but I think he'll run again in '08.

The Boss and Blogs

2005-11-15T15:52:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has this cool article about Bruce Springsteen's new DVD. After you read the article you can view clips from the DVD and watch an awesome 30-year-old performance of Bruce singing "She's the One" plus an interview with Bruce's manager/producer.

By the by, I'm in the middle of writing a research paper about blogging and how it can be used in schools! I am a big proponent of this. When I become a teacher I plan to use blogging as a tool to teach writing. The biggest barrier I will face is going to be access to computers and high speed internet. In my research I have found that a New Jersey teacher used blogging to teach The Secret Life of Bees, one of my favorite contemporary novels. The kids even had the opportunity to talk to the author online.

Richardson recently posted on his own blog about how high school blogs are more restricted. That is probably the biggest debate. Should teenagers writing in school be exposed to the big bad world and be completely responsible for their own writing? Or should educators create ways to protect them and the school?

Crude Oil

2005-09-08T09:36:00.000-04:00

From The Nation:" Spurred by the Bush Administration's energy plan, which calls for massive investment in deep-water fields, the big oil firms have poured billions of dollars into new offshore drilling facilities in the Gulf. Before Katrina, these facilities were expected to supply more than 12 percent of America's Lower 48 petroleum output by the end of 2005, and a much larger share in the years thereafter."

---And then mother nature swooped down with 150 mph+ winds and said, "oh no you don't."

When your town is your world

2005-05-25T10:04:00.000-04:00

I just covered a really small town meeting last night. It was one of those workshop type meetings that small towns have because they aren't so small anymore; they are growing and expanding and their landscape is changing and people are afraid. But you know it's still small enough that everyone knows each other and can immediately recognize the would-be reporter. These same people are apprehensive about the growth because house prices are going up, taxes increase, traffic gets worse in an already congested area...you get the picture. So they have these meetings to decide "what the hell are we going to do about this?"
I had a great time at this meeting. I was covering it for the superlocal paper. By superlocal I mean that it comes out every two weeks and only covers a few towns around here. It's very different from the venue formerly known as my job. Reason I had a great time? They welcomed me with open arms. Thanked me for coming. Would this ever happen at any other newspaper? Not a chance. They'd scorn me, chide me for coming, wondering why i would even care about their rinky dinky town. They'd have a toilet paper list of things that my newspaper did to them during the past 20 years that has caused their blind hatred. Glad that's not me anymore. With smaller papers like this you get to cover something more in depth without having to regionalize it. Sure you can look at the bigger picture, but you don't need to make the bigger picture your focus. Why? Because the people reading it are not looking for the bigger picture they are looking at how this news affects them right here, right now.

So for this reason, I truly enjoy covering small town issues because it is in itself the bigger picture for people. Their town is their world.

Speaking of media. I don't think I've ever mentioned it in here but I subscribe to the Columbia Journalism Review. This is by far the best media criticism magazine around. In fact, it is one of the very few. I used to, years ago, subscribe to Brill's Content. This was run by the guy who owns COurt TV, Steven Brill, and if you've ever seen the magazine Wired, it looked exactly like that. It was a great critique of modern media but for some reason it went defunct. I've been subcribing to CJR for years. It is filled with amazing stuff. The most recent issue for example has an essay by an editor from Rolling Stone who used to work directly with Hunter S. Thompson. He demonstrates and crazy and funny Thompson could be as a reporter. Apparently, he was horrible at making deadlines. Anyway, their most interesting section is called The Lower Case where they post horribly funny headlines that newspapers from around the country send in.
For example (my favorite).
"Woman found dead in trunk kept to herself, neighbors say." (NYT)

****
PS>>>>I got a 4.0 again this semester! This is the best I have ever done in school and two semesters in a row. I actually had a great semester and learned so much. One of my teachers wants me to publish a paper I did on a Nazi propaganda film in the graduate publication. This Holocaust class inspired me to write a poem about my grandfather, but I am not publishing it here. It is extremely personal. If anybody cares to see it you can email me.

It has been so long

2005-05-20T07:52:00.000-04:00

Hi Folks. I'm sure I lost a lot of readers during my hiatus but I never had enough time to post on here. I just finished my first year of graduate school yesterday and I survived. It was awesome, but exhausting.
Anyway, story to tell.

Fun with Words
I got a cup of iced coffee the other day from DD in town. She said, "Creme and Sugar?" I said, "No just creme." Then I added, just in case she didn't hear me, "NO Sugar."
So a few minutes later I am at the traffic light sipping my $2 coffee and whattya know? There's two layers of sugar sitting at the bottom. I went back in because I just spent $2 on a coffee I didn't want. I tried to explain to the man and the woman behind the counter that I had told them "just creme, no sugar." and they start arguing with me, "don't say no sugar." and i'm like, what? YOu're saying I didn't say no sugar? or are you saying I'm not supposed to say sugar? (They had accents, I wasn't sure what they were trying to get across). Finally, I understand, I wasn't supposed to say sugar because that's all she would hear. Lesson learned.
Then I am sitting in my office drinking my coffee, researching a paper on grammar and trying to find a napkin for all of the sugar on my donut!!!!
damn, they must have thought i was a moron. i was like the people at mcdonalds (I worked there in high school) who insisted upon having their diet cokes with their big macs.
but sometimes, you want what you want, i guess.

So summer is officially here for me. I am taking a class in the second summer session called American Renaissance with Thoreau, Whitman, Emerson. I honestly can't wait because this is my favorite time in American literature (besides now of course) but these writers can pretty much rock my world.

I just finished my Holocaust literature and film class, which was very heavy but moving and very informative. I will be posting recommended books and movies on here in due time.

Times they are a changing

2005-02-08T23:23:00.000-05:00

So some Americans really are planning to move to Canada to escape the rightwing extremists that seem to have taken over American mainstream culture since re-election. I have to admit it, I briefly considered it, but home is where your family is and I couldn't bear to leave my family. So I'm stuck... bitching...for now.

On the lighter news front oprah winfrey has produced a tv movie version of zora neale hurston's beautifuly written story of a floridian woman who comes into her own after three marriages. Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in the 1920s i believe and is filled with beautifully rich southern black dialect. It's a powerful read. The movie is playing on ABC on March 6 at 9 p.m.
If you can, read the book first. if not then you will want to read it afterwards. as oprah says,

"My goal is to get as many people to see it as possible and to elevate Zora Neale Hurston," Winfrey says. "If two weeks after the film Zora Neale Hurston's name is on the best-seller list, we would have won."

A study that's scary

2005-02-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

I read this story a few days ago after my professor brought it up in class. It seems that when interviewed more high school students said they didn't know much about (if anything) the first amendment. Those who did know admitted they take those rights for granted. Teachers and principals were also interviewed for this study. The amazing thing: that more principals than students (99 percent compared to 83) thought we as Americans should have the right to express unpopular opinions. It's a very scary study but as bob herbert said in the new york times today...

But maybe we shouldn't be so hard on the youngsters. After all, they've been set a terrible example by a presidential administration that has left no doubt about its contempt for a number of our supposedly most cherished constitutional guarantees.

When you think most especially of the Patriot Act and the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay for no good reason, you realize how true this statement is.
The other day another professor was discussing the various types of rulers a country can have. He brought up Monarchy - which is defined as having a "divine right." And then k. told me about a clip he heard on our local radio station...where Bush is heard saying "I God Bless America" at one of those Town Hall type meetings he's having with people to convince them that it's okay to invest their life savings in risky stocks.
I God Bless America. It's like he's saying that on behalf of God he has been given the right to bless us - as if he is God, or personal friends with him.
I am very afraid for what this country, this world, will look like four years from now. With standardized tests sweeping the nation, our country's young people will be nothing more than drones who won't know they have the right to speak up for themselves.
Speaking of education, I also found an article in the new york times on tuesdayabout how the teaching of evolution has slowly "evolved" out of the curriculum in states across the US because school districts don't want to upset the fundamentalists who believe in Creationism only and think of evolution as a shaky theory - not a scientific fact! There are also some teachers who don't want to teach it because they might be creationists but overwhelmingly it's because teachers are afraid they'd get in trouble with their principals.
Sorry folks, I have no lighter note for you today. I am sincerely weighted down by all of these worries, to the point of having nightmares at night that the end of the world - or at least the end of our freedoms - and therefore our free lives - as we know them to be, is not far away.

"Not an end but a beginning"

2005-01-17T10:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the audio version of Martin Luther King Jr's 'I have a dream speech'
To listen to him speak, to listen to the people listening to him speak is truly an inspiring event. His words move me.

news junkie

2005-01-13T20:55:00.000-05:00

I am addicted to the new york times list of 25 most emailed articles. Why? Because many of the articles I read before even clicking on there wind up on that list.
I do email articles from time to time. When I don't I still find those articles I've read on that list so i I know that people emailing these articles are on the same page as me.
But recently I've noticed that I go there every day immediately after perusing the main page. This does not mean I don't read other stories. I am constantly reading stuff on the education pages, the books and movies pages, the media pages, etc. I read other newspapers too, don't get me wrong. I am a certified news junkie. I just wonder if I'm not the only one who loves knowing what other people find interesting enough to tell their friends. Any takers?

Odds and Ends

2005-01-11T11:36:00.000-05:00

I received a pamphlet from my bank yesterday entitled, "Your Privacy is Our Priority." The envelope it came in was half open. Go figure.

I recently took out a book from the library a professor once recommended entitled: Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in the High School. It says that students who are jocks and burnouts usually come from two opposing classes: middle and working class. I realized while reading the intro that students in my high school were mainly middle class but for some reason tried to be burnouts: they thought drinking too much and having blackouts was cool. A girl who was getting a tattoo was looked at with awe by other students (not me of course).

check out my new blog
if you haven't already.

Shoulda woulda coulda

2005-01-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

UPDATED
I became a reporter partly so I could gather material for the Great American novel I hoped to write. But I failed to chronicle my experiences in any concrete form. Sure, I wrote a journal or diary entry here and there but I did nothing to remember the details of my experiences: the smell of the state police barracks, the refridgerator of a mother who just lost her oldest son, the feeling i got doing real investigative reporting. These are things I don't want to forget and the farther I get away from them, the more liable i am to forget them. If I had known about blogging or blogger.com when i was a cub reporter i would have taken full advantage of the internet and used that as my own space to document the people i met and the experiences i had. But i've decided not to wallow in regret and take the bull by the horns. I created a new blog that will chronicle these experiences. They won't be in any particular order because some experiences stick out in my mind more than others.
I am writing in a genre Joyce Carol Oates calls "memoirist fiction." I will combine my memories with creative details from my imagination.
The Night Cops Shift

Jon Stewart made a difference!

2005-01-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

This has got to go down in the media history books as a monumental day for news reporting.
Because of Jon Stewart's Crossfire appearance months back
CNN is cancelling Crossfire and will begin reporting events and news instead of just bantering back and forth about it.

According to the New York Times (whose article I linked to at the beginning of this post):

Mr. Klein specifically cited the criticism that the comedian Jon Stewart leveled at "Crossfire" when he was a guest on the program during the presidential campaign. Mr. Stewart said that ranting partisan political shows on cable were "hurting America."

Mr. Klein said last night, "I agree wholeheartedly with Jon Stewart's overall premise." He said he believed that especially after the terror attacks on 9/11, viewers are interested in information, not opinion.

Mr. Klein is the new president of CNN. Now I don't have cable but I was able to watch that segment online and it was fantastic. Jon Stewart refused to be funny or tell jokes. He simply said what he thought. Sure he joked about it the next night on his show, but he sought to make a difference and he did! Thank you CNN for being the first news channel to recognize that talking about the news does nothing for true discourse in this country. We need to be able to see/hear/read/watch the news without hearing your opinion. If we wanted your opinion we'd either a) ask for it or b) read the opinion sections in our local and national newspapers.
***
I finished Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z and it turned out to have an awesome twist in the ending. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only was there a story to it but the author (a poet herself) included original poetry (both bad and good) and many allusions to Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson, two of my favorite poets.
I am now reading Animal Farm. I never read this in high school and am reading it now because I am attempting to study for two exams I have to take this coming semester on all english and american literature since chaucer. i must pass these exams (obviously) in order to receive my degree and certification.
Let the games begin...

The F-word

2005-01-04T07:40:00.000-05:00

I just read this in an AP story on newsday.com and had to post

U2 lead singer Bono used the F-word at last year's Golden Globe Awards, which was also broadcast live by NBC. The network has said it will put this year's broadcast on a 10-second delay.

This was from a story about a motley crue guy (vince neil) said happy fucking new year on jay leno's tonight show. because it was new year's the show was broadcast live.
Correct me if I'm wrong (but, really, I know I'm right) hasn't Bono been saying the F-word for years now? i distinctly remember watching a grammy awards 10 or so years ago with my dad and watching as the word "fuck" daintily slipped out of bono's mouth. Of course i can't remember what he said but it was a big to-do. It seems every year since he has said the f-word at any hollywood gathering. And only NOW they've decided to broadcast on a 10-second delay. helloooo people, where have you been??

Twenty Oh Five

2005-01-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

Hindsight is 20/20. So why do we not pronounce the new year the way we would pronounce a year in the 20th century?...
In 1999 (said: nineteen ninety nine, not one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine) the year 2000 was upon us. Everyone was worried about Why2k - I mean Y2K. Computers were going to shut down, airplanes were going to crash, newspapers would cease production. So it was the year TWO THOUSAND, so daunting a word. The media threw it at us endlessly from the beginning of the late 1990’s to the very last minute of 1999. So it’s no wonder we’re so used to saying it that way. I do declare that it is now Twenty O Five. K. and I have decided to say that in hopes of starting a trend and getting away from the common pronunciation of two thousand five, which makes no sense if you think of how we have said every year prior to and including those in the 20th century.
As I write this I realize how meaningless this all is compared to what else is going on in the world right now.
But I don’t care at the moment; because I am living a sort of aimless existence right now. I guess it’s what happens when the new year comes and you’ve made no resolution and have no hope for events in the world to get better. But as the the new york times says: if humans have one thing, it is hope.

“Most animals do not make resolutions, as far as we know. The dog isn't planning to do less dinner-table begging this year, nor is the cat going to try to take fewer catnaps. Things are as they are. But a human without hope, a human who has stopped trying to reform himself or excel herself, has a very hard time being fully human.”

We must have the hope. I will try, I swear but as long as Bush is president that hope dwindles. I do have hope that I will become a teacher and a damn good one. I have hope that I will have my own family and one day write and publish a book. These are my dreams and I mean to achieve them, just not right now. All I feel like doing today is writing and reading and watching television shows that k. downloaded. Yes folks, even if you don’t have cable (which we don’t have) you can download television shows for free. (Not having cable here means you have no television reception whatsoever. It’s the disadvantage of living in a valley.) But this downloading thing is an amazing technology and we’ve already watched an episode of the Daily Show and an episode of Arrested Development which we’ve obviously never seen before. The quality was great and the shows were hilarious. Thank you mr. gore for helping to get the internet going. Sorry I didn’t vote for you. And thanks s. for telling us how to find this gold mine!
So to add to my last post, I have discovered that I have a label. I am a bibliophile: a person who collects or has a great love of books. it was k. who told me this. i did not believe him so i looked it up in the dictionary. you were right k.

I am reading a lot. I am reading several non-fiction and fiction books at the same time. When I’m bored with one, I move on to another. I finished Jane Eyre, which I got sucked into and had to cease reading everything else until I was finished with it.
Here’s a short list:
Fiction:
Intepreter of Maladies: a book of short stories about first and second generation Indians living in America. This book won the Pulitzer prize for fiction so I had to read it to see what constituted Pulitzer prize winning stories. I’ve read two stories so far and I can definitely see why.
Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z: a book about a poet who takes complete advantage of her personal assistant. it’s one of those books where you cannot at all identify with the main character because you keep thinking that you would never do what she’s doing.
For this reason, it is a great book but sometimes I have to put it down and wait until I’m in the mood.
Non Fiction:
Teaching to Transgress: a book about having more of a multicultural pedagogy.
Intellectual Character: a book about teachers who teach for intellect and critical thinking instead of simply preparing students for standardized tests.
****
For cinephiles...We just recently watched King Arthur. For those of you who are fans of Arthurian legend I highly recommend this movie. The themes and the dialogue alone make this a movie I plan to buy and watch numerous times.

"phile: a person or organism with a fondness for or tendency towards"
logophile: a word lover

knowing

2004-12-22T10:52:00.000-05:00

i have to brag. I got a 4.0 my first semester of grad school. How freaking cool is that?
Because I'm studying to become a teacher I've learned a lot about knowledge and knowing. I thought I'd leave the program or at least my first semester knowing almost everything there is to know about literature and teaching. Of course I didn't. I do know a lot more than I did in August about teaching, writing and poetry but it's a far cry from what I think I should know. All I know right now, is that graduate school is amazing. It's a whole different learning experience. I'm learning so much from my teachers and my peers; I'm loving it.

So I have a lot of reading to do over the next few weeks but I don't think I'll get to read everything I think I should, or everything I want. I have also come to the realization that I am a book collector, a person who is sort of addicted to buying books. I don't often finish them or even try to begin reading them. I buy them, used or new (often used) and put them on my bookshelf for possible use later on. For instance, I bought Jane Eyre in March. I am reading it now. It's an excellent book. Charlotte Bronte was such a gifted storyteller.
This book is only the tip of the iceberg though. I have a reading list so long I wouldn't even be able to finish it if I had four months (as opposed to four weeks).
Not to mention all of the writing I want to do! Oh, where to begin...where to begin.
This post is so disjointed. But it's one of those mornings where we have to get a whole bunch of things done before leaving our apartment for the inevitable three days of Christmas traveling. We're not at that age yet where family members come to us instead of us going to them.
This is perhaps why I am feeling so overwhelmed. So instead of going into detail I am just offering bits and pieces of what is going through my mind right now.

Oh and full disclosure here: i have said "Happy Holidays" since I've made my previous post and I am ashamed. So ashamed. But let me explain. Sometimes when I don't know who is Christian and who is not i play the safety card and take the easy way out. "Happy Holidays" is a cover-all / catch-all phrase. I don't say it to diminish Christmas but to encompass all that there is during this time of year. We are after all a giant salad bowl (the new term schools use instead of melting pot). I think the idea of Christmas- the images, the songs and the clothing - is still very much alive and with us but for some reason our society has transformed the language to be more inclusive so as not to offend anyone and still maintain political correctness.
The thing is I would not be offended if someone thought I was Jewish and wished me a Happy Hannakuh instead of a Merry Christmas so why would others be offended? I don't know. Food for thought I guess.

Merry Chri- I mean Happy Holidays

2004-12-18T10:54:00.000-05:00

Picture this:
Hundreds of people in festive clothes singing in front of a Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center singing Jingle Bells. They finish and scream "Happy Holidays!"
Why?
It's obvious they were referring to Christmas in their song, their attire, and the backdrop. Why can't they shout with glee, Merry Christmas!?
I have a friend who works in retail who said to me yesterday, "I'm sick and tired of saying Happy Holidays. I've now been saying 'Merry Christmas' unless they have a Jewish last name." Then she just doesn't say anything.
I found myself saying Happy Holidays to people at school if I wasn't sure of their religious affiliation. I had this deeprooted fear that I would offend them if I kept to the specific and said 'Merry Christmas.' The only time I said Merry Christmas was when a classmate and I had just gotten done relaying our Christmas plans to each other. We both seemeed relieved at having the chance to say "Merry Christmas!" It was a good feeling.
You know I'm not even that religious and I probably won't be going to church this year but it doesn't mean I don't believe. It doesn't mean I can't shout with glee, Merry Christmas!

I write this as I listen to Coldplay sing "It felt like Christmas time" on the radio...I mean, come on people. It's Christmas!

Santa needs some of that Christmas (not Holiday) spirit so the reindeer sleigh works!

Strange New York Happenings

2004-12-06T11:04:00.000-05:00

I just read this in the New York Times "Dear Diary" Section. I thought it was so funny I had to share...

Dear Diary,

On a recent Friday, I was on a crowded downtown 2 train headed home after a long day. I was reading the Nov. 8 issue of The New Yorker magazine, which had on its cover a picture of a man and woman, on separate subways, looking at each other through their train windows, and both reading the same book. I (a woman) looked up from my New Yorker and noticed, directly across from me, a man looking at me, reading the same New Yorker issue.

We smiled at each other, both acknowledging the humor, and a New York moment of connecting with a stranger over something shared.
##

Also while Christmas Shopping this past weekend, I thought of a list of threes:

The Three Most Annoying Things about Shopping for Christmas Gifts in December..
1) Parking Lots: Suddenly for a few weeks out of the year, nearly everyone has forgotten how to drive around a parking lot. it becomes a free for all. people driving around bends at 40 mph, or driving so slow near the entrance of the store looking for a spot you'd think there is only one spot left in the lot.
2) Lines: I hate these but they are such a given. I tend to be really indecisive when it comes to lines and I usually wind up on the longest line with the longest wait because once I'm on it I don't want to risk getting off and losing my spot, which is secure.. for now.
3)Service Roads Around Malls: Whoever invented these things needs to be shown a real road. They always seem to be narrow and short. So you can never get on it from the parking lot and when you finally do you wind up in the wrong lane because there are too many cars crammed in there.

If you have anymore please feel free to share.

Stand and Fight

2004-11-04T22:34:00.000-05:00

We must all stand and fight. -The Nation

"It's time. Celebrate our victories, throw off the frustration (yes and even the despair) and join us in the fight ahead." -Kim Gandy, NOW President

It's taken me a few days to understand how W. was re-elected. And the more I understand why and how (the religious right) the more I know it is not the time to become complacent and accept things as they are. I am so tired of hearing dee-jays from radio stations I consider progressive and editorial writers from newspapers I consider intelligent to tell me to "move on" or embrace the president and let the healing begin. What healing? This guy thinks he has a mandate from God. Maybe he even thinks he is God. The wound is real and it ain't going away until we do what we feel is necessary and that is becoming active and involved in fighting his religious push to change this country into a fundamentalist's heaven. I am not going to feel utterly helpless and hopeless like I did on Wednesday morning. Yes, the landscape looks bleak but it's possible to make change or fight the change he will no doubt impose.

"With women such as these consecrating their lives, failure is impossible." Susan B. Anthony's final public words

Jon Stewart puts aside his comedy act for real discourse

2004-10-21T10:26:00.000-04:00

If you haven't already heard of Jon Stewart's appearance on CrossFire read this article in the ny times. I was able to watch both his appearance and his show following the appearance on imdbfilm.com.

what's wrong with this country

2004-10-05T07:19:00.000-04:00

We have a defense secretary who says things like this (in response to a question posed at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday).

He replied: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two (Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda)."

And then when he realized the truth slipped out he went back to lying. That seems to be his chosen form of rhetoric.

He issued a statement on the internet hours later with: "A question I answered today at an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations regarding ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq regrettably was misunderstood," he said.

Who misunderstood? It seems pretty damn clear to me. He spoke the truth, he got a spanking from the boss and now he's trying to do a quick CYA job with euphemisms. What's wrong with this country is we have people like him running it.

##
I am studying, I swear. I just haaaad to blog this ridiculousness.

I'm not really here

2004-09-27T22:18:00.000-04:00

I really shouldn't be here right now. I should be reading. But I just wanted to tell you all I won't be here for a while, that's if anyone is actually here in my part of cuberspace with me. I have a ton of school work and not enough hours in the day to finish it all. So I won't be seein' ya for a while now, ya hear?
Feel free to email me and say hi. Email is my reward but blogging is a total vice I must not partake in until school dies down. December maybe? You'll just have to keep checking to see, now won't you.

Ciao babe. For now.

News to me

2004-09-18T23:49:00.000-04:00

Led Zeppelin's lyrics were influenced by literature. There are allusions (big literary word here) from Tolkien's LOTR. This, my friends, is: news to me. Surprised? Don't be. I just started reading the trilogy this summer and even though I saw the first movie three years ago I still never made the connection. I think words on paper really make all the difference.

example.. from the song "Ramble On"

And from the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair
but Gollum and the evil one
crept up and slipped away with her, her
her, yeah.

This is what is so great about reading. Watching something doesn't influence us as much as seeing it in the written form. I realized this connection while listening to the song as I was driving on the Southern State yesterday. I later googled it and found that others have, indeed, made the same connection. It makes complete sense. And it's funny because whenever I heard that song as a teenager I always wondered what the hell Mordor was. Come to think of it, I didn't even understand the word and just kind of made up my own word when I sang along. That is, by the way, one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs...if anyone can even have one favorite.

My best friend got engaged in May and today I went to her engagement party. It was awesome. I saw old friends who I hadn't seen in years. We took many trips down memory lane. Oh, to be in high school again and do the silly things we did. It's so hard to believe I'm old enough to look back at my high school days with a calm nostalgia. Honestly, I hated high school with a deep passion and that's most likely because my best friend and I went to two different high schools for 10th, 11th and 12th grades. It was the friendships I shared outside of school that meant the most to me and gave me the best memories. She and I have known each other more than half our lives and even though we don't talk as often as we'd like it's always as if no time as gone by when we do get together. We catch up where we left off.

A souvenir from my town

2004-09-13T13:01:00.000-04:00

I really have to do homework but before I do I wanted to share a handwritten sign I found outside a newspaper box in my town. I first saw the sign in the newspaper box a few weeks ago (when it was empty). It was a warning but apparently was not heeded or at least disregarded because I found it thrown next to the box today. I had to take it as a souvenir.
It could almost be a poem, except for the glaring spelling errors.

WARNING
TO ANYONE CAUGHT
steeling papers we are now
watching this box due to so many papers
being stollen if caught you will be
prosicuted for the total amounts that
have been stollen in the past please
DO NOT steel from me I pay for
the papers the Freeman doesn't give them
to me for nothing.
Thanks
______

I'll leave the name out to protect the innocent. K and I saw this sign a few weeks ago and we did feel for the poor woman. Selling 50 cent newspapers in a box is not a lucrative business. However, we wondered, how on earth is she 'watching' this box? If she can't spell correctly or form correct sentences or put punctuation where it is needed, does she really have the mental capacity to figure out how to run surveillance on a newspaper box? I doubt it. I think she would need approval from the town and even then I can't see that happening without a public hearing first. It is possible she was upset enough to sit in her car and watch people 'buy' a newspaper or two. I think she was bluffing. What really put the icing on the cake for me is that the paper she used for the sign is a marketing poster for the newspaper she sells. It says "AMERICA FIGHTS BACK."
Cheers!

Praying = marketing

2004-09-13T09:09:00.000-04:00

Apparently marketing for an event in these parts means praying for people to come.
I found this in our local paper...

>>>The director of the Regional Chamber of Commerce, attributed Sunday's crowd to increased marketing for the event. The event drew people from as far as New Jersey and Connecticut. The good weather also helped attract people, she said.
''I prayed for 7,000 people to come and God gave it to me,'' she said. ''I prayed for good weather and God gave that to me too.'' <<<

I can't imagine the director of a chamber of commerce thinks praying is more effective than marketing. The reporter must not have thought it was necessary to expand upon the point of what kind of marketing she did and just ended with her bizarre quote in place of that.

What he really meant was..

2004-09-11T16:40:00.000-04:00

And this one is even better than the one decoding Gov. Arnold's speech. And why's that? Because it's George W. speaking and Howard Blume doing the decoding. Blume 'decoded' Bush's acceptance speech at the RNC. I didn't see or hear the speech but it's pure garbage, outright lies.

Take this for instance
"To everything we know there is a season, a time for sadness, a time for struggle, a time for rebuilding. And now we have reached a time for hope . . "

Are we living on the same planet as this man? I get afraid sometimes that he may actually be with Spirit and Opportunity roving the great red plains of Mars.
Here are some excerpts of the decoding. I picked the one's I thought were the funniest and the most true. These are also issues that are close to my heart.

Bush: As I’ve traveled the country, I’ve met many workers and small-business
owners who have told me they are worried they cannot afford health care . . .
What he added under his breathI wish them all the best of health.

Bush: The workers of our parents’ generation typically had one job, one
skill, one career . . .
What he's saying under his breath: My policies give you variety. No jobs at all for some. And two or three jobs for others who are trying to make ends meet.

Bush: Because a caring society will value its weakest members, we must make a place for the unborn child . . .
What he said afterwards when no one could hear:I know that sentence makes no sense, but
that’s my subtle cue to you pro-life folks. Read my lips: No new prophylactics.

Bush: I will continue to appoint federal judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law . . .
What he said under his breath:And I will choose the ones who favor personal opinion,
as long as they favor my personal opinion.

##

The way we handle stress

2004-09-10T08:41:00.000-04:00

I am definitely an example of a person who allows the stress to affect her health. So I read with joy this NY Times article about people who are able to handle stress and don't crack under pressure. I want to be like those people The article discusses such factors as coming from a family where change occurred constantly.
It also made a very important point:

"When you feel that you're accomplishing something, it's akin to a sense of
control," Dr. Morgan said. "When people start feeling that what they're doing is
not meaningful, then they take more sick days, begin looking for another job,
and complain of health problems."

I'd have to say that this is the reason why I left journalism, plain and simple. I hope that as a teacher the meaning and the rewards outweigh the stress I will face.

A Mythic Reality

2004-09-08T09:03:00.000-04:00

If I were a member of Kerry's campaign I'd read this Paul Krugman coloumn in the New York Times yesterday morning.

The article talks about the psychology of war and how once a nation goes to war the people feel they have to rally around their leader, even if that leader is not deserving of their support.

Here's an excerpt:

Last week's convention made it clear that Mr. Bush intends to use what's left of
his heroic image to win the election, and early polls suggest that the strategy
may be working. What can John Kerry do?

Campaigning exclusively on
domestic issues won't work. Mr. Bush must be held to account for his dismal
record on jobs, health care and the environment. But as Mr. Hedges writes, when
war psychology makes a public yearn to believe in its leaders, "there is little
that logic or fact or truth can do to alter the experience."

To win, the
Kerry campaign has to convince a significant number of voters that the
self-proclaimed "war president" isn't an effective war leader - he only plays
one on TV.

Arnold's speech Decoded

2004-09-02T21:18:00.000-04:00

I highly recommend this hilarious link to an LA Weekly column about Arnold Schwarzanegger's speech at the Republican National Convention. The writer takes bits and pieces and 'decodes' them by giving them the real meaning. It will make you laugh so hard you will pee your pants.

Celebrities Dog Tired

2004-08-28T09:29:00.000-04:00

I just had to share this New York Times article with you. It's about how celebrities wear themselves out by attending left wing political events. Because of the Republican Convention in NYC this coming week there are many anti-BUsh events. Some celebrities, like Al Franken, are just dog tired. Others aren't giving up. Here's what singer Moby had to say about why he does it day in and day out:

I don't want to wake up on Nov. 3 with George Bush still president and ask myself if there was anything more I could have done."

It's an interesting article. It's good that these celebrities are not lazy and are using their names to help a cause. Apparently though, this election has been bringing out celebrities in record breaking fashion.

2004-08-26T10:58:00.000-04:00

Woman acquitted of stabbing 'naked' man ... who was with her former female lover

This is an actual headline in one of our local papers. Many things can be said about it but three stick out for me. First of all, is there really a question that this man was naked? No. It states clearly in the story that the man was naked. So why is it even in quotations? Because this newspaper is obsessesed, I tell you, obsessed with attribution, even to the point of putting it in a headline. That is sad. Secondly, I was never a copy editor but I did go to journalism school and I did make my own headlines on occasion as a reporter. So how on earth did an ellipses (...) in a headline pass its way through to the printing press. I just don't know. I think this might be the first case of an ellipses in a headline in the history of modern journalism. If this is the mark this newspaper makes on history that is even sadder than the fact that the victim in this case had to have quotes around his apparent nakedness.
Finally, and most importantly, this story is clearly only in the paper because of its supposed shock value. The ellipses are there to represent a "drum roll please" effect in the headline. The editors, I fear, thought the fact that the lover's triangle which involved two women really deserved a punchline, hence their need for the ellipses.
Any thoughts? I'd love to hear from you.

What didn't happen and what should

2004-08-24T13:11:00.000-04:00

I don't have television (I have a television set but living in the valley prohibits me from just plugging it in and getting a television channel) so I haven't been privy to the smear campaign against Kerry's Vietnam war record. It seems the right wingers are trying to denounce what Kerry did and are implying that he made it up or exaggerated. Apparently the news media has been eating it up and the Washington Post even 'investigated' the incident at hand (something that happened in 1969 mind you) but this article from the American Prospect calls into question something so obvious- that Bush and Cheney never served their country in Vietnam and both avoided going. But the media, the writer contends, has not focused on that whatsoever.

Here's an excerpt:

You'd think a press corps that has now officially acknowledged that it was had by this administration on the pre-Iraq war propaganda would think twice before letting itself get used one more time. You'd think, for example, that if the editors of the Washington Post were planning 2,700-word takeouts, they might have given priority to an investigation into ties between the White House and the Swift Boat group. If the conventions of mainstream journalism prevent our media from letting readers, viewers, and listeners examine the full truth in its broadest context, then it's time to reexamine those conventions. Until that happens, people who are willing to say anything, and who have the money to back them up, will be setting the agenda, and the media -- once upon a time, a guardian of our democratic traditions -- will be following them.

It's one of those things that make you shake your head and think why oh why does the media buy this stuff?

Is the joke on us or them?

2004-08-22T14:39:00.000-04:00

I found this article about the state of the George W. Bush joke. The article is interesting because it talks about how the joke has evolved from depicting W. as a bumbling idiot to using humor as a way to attack his policies and his administration. What the article doesn't do is come to any sort of conclusion as the teaser says it might, which is whether or not Bush is as stupid as he acts or very calculating. But it does make this very important point:

Even without Republican commentary,Bush jokes can serve to confuse the
political issue.Is the president a simple-minded son of privilege who lucked this way into the White House? Then maybe he shouldn't be held responsible for the effects of his administration.And certainly he can't be a sinister mastermind of global domination.For some viewers,that was the problem with "Fahrenheit 9/11": if Mr. Bush is anywhere near as dumb as the film makes him out to be, how could he pull off the devious plot it attributes to him?

I just read the most intriguing profile in the New York Times magazine about a man named Reverend Billy who does a sort of theater activism in retail stores around the country. He founded the Church of Stop Shopping and deplores the homogeneous look of corporations like Starbucks and WalMart. So he goes into the stores and with members of his 'choir' stages arguments or preaches to customers. It's very interesting and I would love to be able to witness it.

For instance, according to the article

he led 40 disciples to a Los Angeles Wal-Mart for a bit of protest theater known as a Whirl. The participants enter separately, discreetly, as if they don't know one another; each grabs an empty shopping cart and simply circulates through the acres of aisles without stopping, falling in line behind other empty carts as he or she encounters them until a silent conga line of nonshoppers forms, snaking through the store in a hypnotic display of commercial disobedience. It gets
under the skin of the store managers in a spectacular way. A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, while recognizing Talen's name, wouldn't utter it herself, referring only -- and repeatedly -- to the corporation's general disregard for ''special-interest groups with specific agendas.''

Read it, it's worth it.

2004-08-19T12:28:00.000-04:00

One of the inlets at Corn Hill beach. The water was so still there and so warm you could see the reflection of the nearby marshes (this is not, however, shown in this picture.)

2004-08-19T12:26:00.000-04:00

The plaque at Corn Hill beach. We walked miles along the shore searching for it and discovered that it was in the parking lot. Lesson learned: never trust maps.

Save the inchworm!

2004-08-19T12:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been out of commission for so long. Vacation happened and then I got sick. So sick that I couldn't bear to sit in front of the computer for more than 10 minutes - and that meant checking my emails, responding to a few and signing off. But I'm feeling a little bit better and have been surfing the web this morning and found several things to post about.

Marching on...
First off, there is another March for Women's Lives this year. This was news to me as I thought the April march was very successful. But I guess the feminists really want to drive home the point that we don't want our rights squandered. I think they also want to try to use this as a vehicle to get more voters and more young women involved (key votes here, people). So the march is being held in New York City on August 28 and women (hopefully from all over) will be crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in protest. Unfortunately I have a bridal shower to go to that day so I can't be there in solidarity, or else I really would. I really, really would. Do you get me? Really? Interested in marching? Click here

Bumper stickers - the joke is on me
I also wanted to write about something funny that happened. About a month ago, I found a link from another blog allowing me to sign up for a free Kerry/ Edwards bumper sticker. Weeks went by and I never got the bumper sticker, only annoying pleas for donations from the Democratic National Convention who obviously got my new mailing address from this online form I filled out. I really wanted that bumper sticker. I was pissed. So while on vacation I stopped at Womancraft in Provincetown, an amazing feminist bookstore that offers among many other things, an array of cheap bumper stickers that completely speak to my beliefs. There I found a Kerry Edwards bumper sticker. This one however, was kind of fake looking and was definitely not of the sort that I;d seen on other people's bumpers and car windows. I bought it anyway, it was only a $1.25. I also bought "Thelma and Louise Live" and "If you're not outraged you're not paying attention." (Cap'n Pete, that's YOU'RE for YOU ARE. If these are YOUR bumper stickers than they are YOURS so I won't take them from YOU:))
So then K. And I venture into a store called I used to be a tree. There I find for $2 a real Kerry Edwards bumper sticker, which I promptly purchase, since this is the real deal and I can't be fooling around with unauthorized bumper stickers. So I come home with these two bumper stickers but I don't put them on my car because the day we left the majestic Cape it rained a little bit. Not to mention our bicycles were completely blocking the bumper so no one would be able to see them and enjoy them anyway. The day after we get home we check the mail and lo and behold.... the bumper sticker has arrived from Kerry's campaign. I couldn't stop laughing at my luck. I now have three Kerry Edwards bumper stickers and one car.
That has to be a good sign for supporters of Kerry. When (yes I said 'when' folks not 'if') he gets elected, I can sell them on eBay!

Women in novels
So Virginia Woolf was right when she said that most novels about women consist of her relations with other people. I've also noticed that the novel I am reading, The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James consists nearly completely of other people's perceptions of the 'lady,' the main character, Isabel Archer. I am more than halfway through the book and rarely have I a glimpse into her mind but have been fed, over and over, other people's perceptions, opinions and judgments of her. And the most important decision in the book, her decision to marry someone after she has declared that she wants to live a life full of liberty is never explained! Perhaps I will come across it later in the book but I would expect when you spring a decision like that on readers as James did to his, I would expect a reason up front. The one she just gave to her cousin is bullshit and is just another example of what Woolf was saying in her book "A Room of One's Own." I want to be alone with this character and find out the reason. Instead, I am thrown from scene to scene where she tries to defend her decision to friends, relatives and past suitors. This book of course is narrated by some omniscient point of view, yet he/she doesn't seem to know everything because although we know why Mr. Osmond wants to marry Isabel (for the money, honey) we have no idea why she wants to marry him. I guess that's what will keep me reading. That and I really want to see the movie version which (released in 1996) casts Nicole Kidman as Isabel and Viggo Mortensen (of Lord of the Rings fame) as one of the suitors she turned down.

I didn't want to leave
So onto my vacation... Yes I am jumping from topic to topic because there's a lot I want to write about but I don't want to sit here all morning when I could be reading my book. I'm sort of doing a reading marathon now that school starts in one week. I'm trying to finish as many books as possible (I've read five books so far this summer and have began many more--- more on that later.)
So vacation was amazing. Camping is a lot of fun and Josh, you were right, the bathrooms weren't that bad. I also learned to hold it until the morning! (a big feat for a pee machine like me). Anyway... the sun was out every day and the temperature was perfect. We either rode our bikes to the beach or walked from a trail behind our campsite. One morning (this is the morning I'll never forget) we woke up at 5:15 (well I woke up and had to drag k. out of bed) and drove to the beach to watch the sunrise. If you do one thing in your life, it should be to watch the sun rise over the ocean. It is a beautiful and spiritual experience. The air was still misty, the gulls were squawking, but at just the right volume, and when the sun rose through a veil of clouds it was like a cherry red balloon. The colors were so rich and luminous. At one point we turned around (we were sitting very close to the water) and looked up at the parking lot and there were about five people just standing there staring. It was like watching a god waking up and disrobing, taking his time as he got up on his throne. K. took a lot of beautiful photos (I will try to publish one here) and then we got some breakfast at the Provincetown Diner. Then we went on to Corn Hill Beach and walked for a few miles, picking up shells and driftwood. It's such a relaxing experience to walk on the beach, your feet in the water, watching the day come alive. Corn Hill Beach is on the bay side, but it is a beautiful beach, with a little harbor at the end. In the parking lot is a plaque commemorating the 16 pilgrims who came upon the lands by the beach and found Indian Corn. I'll try to post that picture as well. (I still haven't figured out how to post photographs on a long text post).

So during our vacation I became fond of two insects - the inchworm and the daddy long legs spider. Nearly everywhere I turned I came across one of these critters. While the inchworm would be inching its way along the borders of a toilet paper roll, I would find three daddy long legs spiders hanging out in the cardboard tunnel part of the roll. When I'd lie in the tent for a rest I would watch as several inchworms tried to figure out how to get down from the top of the tent. The worms appeared to be blind and only went where they felt something. So you can imagine how long it takes them to get anywhere. I did save them numerous times from being killed. K. had a joy of a time teasing me, (Save the inchworm!) but I insisted that before we flick them or smush them, we simply lead them somewhere else in the campsite. Same with the daddy long legs. We would often find them scurrying out of the camping stove when we turned the propane on or sitting under the tent flap dropping on us at just the right moment. I am not as scared of spiders as I used to be and I have really learned how to spot an inchworm that I would otherwise take for a small stick.

Wrapping up
Allright, I am getting tired and must rest before I go to work today. Somehow I caught a nasty sinus infection and bronchitis the day after we got back and have been trying to get better all week.
Here is an interesting article I found on the Online Journalism Review website about how lots of internet savvy people are beginning to trust blogs more than the mainstream media.

Here are some interesting excerpts to chew on:

That view appears to be widely shared. A survey of 10,000 blog readers earlier this year conducted by Blogads found that 61 percent of respondents found blogs to be "more honest" than other media outlets.

Blogs are our persistent selves on the web; we are a big, sloppy community; readers form personal relationships with bloggers; many of us feel we are writing to and for our friends; we are honest about our partisanship; blogs are changing the line we draw between private and public; etc.

"The Web is not chiefly about a library or a news stand," Sifry says. "You have to start thinking about the Web as this humongous event stream. The Web is a set of ongoing conversations that weave together into this new kind of omnipresent social fabric."

This last excerpt really spoke to me. I never thought of the web in this way before but I think it is so perfectly true. And to think of it like that, brings me a lot of hope. The web is our own, the web is a place where anyone can publish something, where people can be free to say what they want and how they feel. They don't have to beg another person to publish their thought for them and they don't have to worry about being edited. Sure you can be criticized but that's the beauty about being part of a community of people who guide each other into other ways of thinking.

street festival

2004-08-08T10:27:00.000-04:00

this weekend is the first street festival in our town since 1999. we live on main street so all we have to do is leave our apartment and we are there. i already have more books than i will ever need but of course i was drawn to every possible used book sale on the street. In all I bought seven books, six pieces of fresh locally grown corn and some lunch. the most coincidental part about all of this is that i found a book by the writer i was talking about two posts ago. i never wrote his name here because i didn't think it was necessary but i found a book of short stories by him at the library's book sale and i had to buy it. i just kept thinking of my post where i said i'd have to read something by him to figure out how he structures things and how he ends them. here's my chance!
i've also never done so much people watching in my life. we've been sitting on the upstairs porch pointing at people and talking about what they are wearing or how cute or how weird they look and no one even notices we are there. it's a lot of fun. we also have seen a lot of people we know. josh if you are reading this your wedding picture is in the program for the street fest. seems the restaurant you had your reception at put the picture k. took of you too (the one on your blog) in their ad. i thought it was the neatest thing. i can mail you a copy if you want. it just goes to show you how small this world truly is.

We are leaving for cape cod tomorrow around 6 a.m. and we are going camping. i just realized this morning that for the next week i will have to use a public bathroom for all types of bathroom needs. oh joy.

Minimum wage in NY

2004-08-04T12:51:00.000-04:00

OK, so I am a few days late on the miniumum wage issue. I read this article in the local paper a few days ago but i just remembered that i wanted to blog on this, simply because the stupidity and ignorance of politicians and so-called businessmen really piss me off.
The lovely governor of our state vetoed any possibility of raising the minimum wage. It is currently $5.15 an hour, which is absurd considering the cost of living in this state. An average one bedroom apartment in the Hudson Valley alone costs between $750 and $1,000.
The governor's reasoning for vetoeing the bill that would ahve allowed the min. wage to be raised over the course of a few years to $7.15 an hour would....

He predicted an increase would "drive" jobs for working poor families across New York's borders into New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

This is because NJ and Penn. are not raising their minimum wages. I also would have benefited from this increase because it also meant a raise for people in the food service industry. Currently, I make the minimum wage for waiting tables, which is $3.30 an hour. the bill would have raised that to $4.60.
This is making me even angrier as I write this so unfortunately I am going to have to keep this short. The only thing our governor is doing is catering to the business elite, this man couldn't give a damn about poor families struggling to put food on the table every day.

Here's is the kicker to this lovely story. The people that Pataki is supporting when he vetoes this bill have this to say about people who work minimum wage jobs...

Robert Ward of the Business Council said most minimum-wage earners are not heads of households but teenagers working part-time jobs in the suburbs.

Someone please tell me if this man is living in teh same state and on the same planet as I am. What Ivory Tower has he been working in for the past 25 years? I have worked in many jobs since I got my working papers at age 14 and I know for fact that many minimum wage workers (ie. people who work at McDonald's) are single mothers. And I myself, am a minimum wage earner now. I am no teenager, I don't live in the suburbs. This is the most ignorant statement I have read in a long long time.

2004-08-02T16:58:00.000-04:00

I just read an interview on the Poets and Writers website with a writer whose name I've never heard. But what he says about writing caught my attention.

He says,

“I've written stories since I was a little kid. To me there's something
compelling about being a different person for a little while and trying out a
different kind of life.”

I have to say I agree there. I've been writing stories since I was a little kid too and it seemed to start out as a way to escape from the life I was leading, or the place I was in. For instance, when I was a child my father couldn't pick me up from school because he had to work to keep a roof over our heads. So he had a woman from Maspeth pick me up every day. She took me to her house and I played with her kids and the kids in the neighborhood. But they weren't very nice people all of the time. They were fat and I was skinny. That quickly led to jeering directed at me. I wrote stories in my notebook to mentally take myself away from there. I wanted to be someone else - anyone. I think reading other stories did that for me up to a point; but in order to create my own fantasy I turned to writing.

However, the hard part with writing a story is figuring out when to end or how to end or even why to end. I have piles of stories that have forced endings or no endings at all. I've gotten critiques from other writers who say, 'don't end it there' or 'that's your ending right there' pointing to what I had ended at for the time being.

This writer continues,
“Well, writing a short story is a little like walking into a dark room, finding a light and turning it on. The light is the end of the story. I thought I could write a novel somewhat like that, but I found the space is so much bigger. It's like walking into a darkened gymnasium or field. It's harder to find the walls and in many cases, with novels, there are no walls. You could just go on and on in one direction and never find the end. So to find a structure for the novel I had to recalibrate my mind. The easiest way for me was to create an artificial structure. I hate to say this because it sounds very low brow. I actually broke it up into episodes like a TV series. I was obsessing over the HBO shows "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under" and noticed they have 13 episodes each season. I thought, 'I'll do that.' So I have three parts with 12 chapters each. That's the way I conceived of controlling this broad canvas of ideas.”

So he seems to be saying that chapters are like tv episodes I’m not sure if I’m buying that. Does that mean I have to watch tv in order to learn to be a better writer. I just can’t fathom that. Besides, I’m not a fan of quick episodes where you’re in and then you’re out. I like movies where everything is drawn out. I like to be in a fantasy land as long as I possibly can (which probably explains why I love the three hour Lord of the Rings). And how does he end his chapters? Maybe I should read his book to find out.

Or maybe I should just try and write the damn story that’s been sitting in my head for a week. But therein lays the problem. I really want to write a novel and I never know if my idea warrants something longer than a short story or if a short story is ever enough. Maybe I’m just copping out so I don’t write at all and then the idea just disappears and I am left wondering why I can’t come up with a good plot line.

Lousy weather, nice people

2004-07-28T09:54:00.000-04:00

The weather lately just plain sucks. It didn't help that while driving 35 miles away from home yesterday in the rain a few lights on my dashboard decided to do the flashdance. After interviewing somebody for a story I am writing I went to a transmission shop to get my car checked out. Talk about nice people. He ran a diagnostic test on my car and filled it with some coolant and didn't charge me a dime. He also gave me some free advice on how to quell my anxiety. Breathe in through your stomach, he said to me. I found it very funny that i was getting meditation tips from a mechanic in the rain but listened to him nonetheless. That's the second person who doesn't even know me and who has given me helpful hints on how not to get so stressed and anxious. Is it that obvious?
Anyway, I want to send him a thank you card for his kindness but I never got his name. Oh well. I will do a favor for someone else - much like the idea behind the movie Pay it Forward.
Those of you who have come here for my opinion on the news, you won't get much of it. Lately I just don't have the stomach for it, especially for the convention. It's all so scripted I can't even bother to read about it. I know who I'm voting for. I don't need any convincing.

Glass Thieves

2004-07-23T13:07:00.000-04:00

It's actually steaming outside. What happened to July?

I wrote a poem yesterday:

"Waiting"
5:15
What's it mean?
5:30
And all the glasses are clean
yet they are disappearing
at a faster rate than possible
at a restaurant with no customers.
Phantom glass thieves
come down in their black and white dress
piling glasses on their palms
like a deck of cards on a table.
Ten water, five wine.
Yet, one slip and all is gone.
The glasses, like loose change, fall to the floor.
Thoughts of money glint across their eyes.

2004-07-21T11:26:00.001-04:00

This property protected by attack cat. Don't come too close.

photos galore

2004-07-21T11:26:00.000-04:00

I just downloaded Picasa and Hello and so I got a little carried away with the photos. I have a ton of them on my computer and I've been wanting to post them forever. Cap'n Pete, you inspired me once again.
I was trying to put the seal-roaring photo (at least I think it's a seal) on my 'sexism in the courts' post below but obviously that didn't work.
I do love Picasa though, it's such a great little program for simple people like me. I can now view my photos in an album setting. Pretty neat.
Things to do today:

shave my head - just kidding but I am getting half of my hair cut off
try to relax and enjoy my last day off until next Tuesday
really put a dent into A Room of One's Own. I've read half but I want to get closer to the end
Do some research for the upcoming magazine articles I'm working on. Yes folks, I am going to be published in a magazine! It's local but it's still a magazine.

Okay. Two hours from now I will be a whole new me.

Do I shower before the hair appointment? I have always been befuddled by this. You want to go there with clean hair but they clean your hair for you anyway. Why have your hair washed twice in one day?

Sigh. Some questions can never be answered.

UPDATE: I tried to do bullets with that list and they apparently don't work. I must be bullet deficient or something. Anyway, #2 on my list is going to have to wait until next Tuesday. I got called in to work today. Got my hair cut and, amazingly, it looks great! Coolest haircut I've had in years.

2004-07-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

A photo I took at the March for Women's Lives in DC in April. These women had just gotten off a bus and were on their way to the Metro.

2004-07-21T11:19:00.000-04:00

I am mad, here my roar.

White suited man

2004-07-21T10:34:00.000-04:00

Laundromat Conversion

Prying
trying
to sell me something.
Suit and briefcase, bulky with bible,
he whips out the pamphlets and I groan to myself.
I should have seen this coming.
Talk of God and what the good book says -
it's all mumbo jumbo to me.
I'm putting quarters in the silver slots to make my clothes clean can't you see?
I have no time for talk of numbers of people converted.
I've no time for changing religions.
Stop knocking at my washing machine door.
No one is home.

And who let you in anyway?

I turn my head. I will not give in.
I will not listen to the white suited man
trying to sell me religion
on the laundromat floor
at my washing machine door.

They try to catch you off guard
mid sentence,
mid thought,
mid dream,
that precise moment
of placing quarter into machine
vainly hoping your life
will get clean.

sexism in the courts

2004-07-21T09:20:00.000-04:00

This shouldn't come as a surprise to me but it angered me nonetheless. A local woman was killed last year when she was run over by a truck whose driver and passenger were cousins. She, being a prostitute, had been solicited for oral sex. but when time came to pay they refused. They drove off (with her purse in their car) and she ran after them, soon getting caught underneath the truck.

Needless to say, the driver's trial starts today. And I suspect the only reason this guy is on trial is because of the victim's occupation. The story in today's paper says that the jury consists of ten women and two men. The defense lawyer is taking a chance because, "Women tend to be harder on other women."
Since when is she on trial? She's dead. She cannot speak up for herself. How disgusting that the defense lawyer would imply that the jurors will judge her merely because of her occupation. If this was a mother of three who worked at Wal-Mart, the defense lawyer would have surely advised his client to take whatever plea bargain was on the table.

But because she was a sex worker, the lawyer thinks he has a good defense: use a dead woman's reputation as a way to attack her and defend his client thereby conning the jury into judge her for what she did for a living and not who she was or how horribly she died.

new stuff

2004-07-19T23:34:00.000-04:00

I have a new monitor (an Apple monitor with a PC how weird!) and more flexibility with blogger where I can have different colors and fonts. i'm just testing it out here.

We finally planned a vacation! We're going camping in Cape Cod. We're pretty poor lately and we love Cape Cod (been there for two summers in a row) and so we figured what better way to get it than pay 75 percent less and still get the same great scenery? yay for camping. I haven't camped in many, many years so this should be interesting. I'm cutting most of my hair off again on saturday so i won't need much in that department. we have no camping equipment save two small coolers and two really old sleeping bags but we plan to borrow most of what we need.
I am really looking forward to it, since this coming semester is going to be hard -- 14 credits for a new graduate student (a professor recommended a max of 12 credits with no job) on top of working a few jobs. If I can do that, I can do anything.

I am also reading The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (having just finished the Hobbit) and Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own."

Dune filled beach and tons of sun....here we come!

Married and Young in Africa: more likely to get HIV

2004-07-16T00:06:00.000-04:00

an astounding story about HIV and AIDS in Africa and Asia. I did not know this at all....

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Treatment holds new promise in war on HIV

Finally, the real truth...

2004-07-12T16:36:00.000-04:00

Bob Herbert, a NY times columnist, couldn't have said it better with his column today titled: The Real Enemy Staring Us in the Face. I recommend reading it...

Here are a few excerpts..

"Nearly 900 G.I.'s and more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians have already perished, and there is no end to the war in sight. The situation is both sorrowful and disorienting. The colossal intelligence failures and the willful madness of the administration, which presented war as the first and only policy option, can leave you with the terrible feeling that you're standing at the graveside of common sense and reasonable behavior."

"If we know that bin Laden and his top leadership are somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and that they're plotting an attack against the United States, why are we not zeroing in on them with overwhelming force? Why is there not a sense of emergency in the land, with the entire country pulling together to stop another Sept. 11 from occurring?

Why are we not more serious about this?"

This is a very interesting question that I didn't even think about. But maybe the answer is staring us in the face. Maybe it's not as real a threat as they say it is, especially since they haven't raised that useless 'terror alert level.' Maybe it's just another reason to perpetuate fear and make it possible for them to postpone the elections (see today's previous post) somehow or cancel them altogether. Who knows? With Dubya in office, anything is possible.

Postponing elections

2004-07-12T11:52:00.000-04:00

See??
This is even worse than I had predicted.
Now the government is trying to come up with a plan to 'postpone' federa; elections should there be a terrorist attack. this is scary. what's going to happen next? pre-emptive postponing? maybe they'll try to postpone elections just because they fear an attack may happen.
the elections commissioner says they can't do it and need the congress to pass a law that says they can. let's all get our pens and paper out, our keyboards ready and write immediately to our congressmen and women. let's not forget the sept. 11 attacks when it was rudy guiliani's time to go, he 'offered' to stay on another three months...

Read on...

USATODAY.com - Counterterrorism officials look to postpone elections
USATODAY.com - Counterterrorism officials look to postpone elections

now this is a movie i want to own

2004-07-11T01:12:00.000-04:00

the following is a link to a review about the upcoming movie/documentary about fox called "Outfoxed". fox, as you all know, is the most right wing of all networks and is owned by rupert murdoch. murdoch also owns the new york post which made a major mistake monday when they published their 'exclusive' on page 1 that john kerry picked dick gephardt as his candidate for VP. the ny times had an article two days later that quoted an anonymous post employee who revealed that murdoch was the 'source' for the story.

AlterNet: "OutFoxed:" How Rupert Murdoch is Destroying American Journalism

oh look george bush has a daughter again

2004-07-09T15:13:00.000-04:00

george bush is campaigning in pennsylvania, a key "battleground" state. so he has a convenient photo op with the daughter we've all since forgotten about. this is the one who got arrested a few years back drinking underage at a texas bar. while that's fine and dandy, now that it's campaign season, our prez decides to parade her around and show what a great daddy he is.

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/07/09/national/09cnd-bush.184.jpg

Alice in Wonderland

2004-07-09T13:49:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who sees the parallels here? The media seems to be overly concerned with the fact that homeland security chief tom ridge did not raise the terror level while warning americans there is a likely chance we will be an attack between now and the November elections.
This from the houston chronicle:

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said today he saw no contradiction in the government's renewed public warning of likely terrorist act and its unwillingness to raise the official alert status.

Appearing today on morning network news shows, Ridge denied that the Bush administration was talking publicly of a threat -- without increasing the official alert status -- to insulate itself from criticism in the event an attack happens.

houston chronicle article

Okay. So I've read numerous publications and reporters and their sources have come to several conclusions:
*That the administration is crying wolf just to cover its ass.
*That the administration is trying to take the media spotlight away from the fact that enron chief ken lay was just indicted and that bush is buddies with him.
*That the administration is connecting terror attacks with elections (like with what happened in madrid) and trying to imply that a vote for Kerry is a vote for Osama.

This from NY Newsday columnist, ellis henican:

With each new pointless warning, with each new breathless plea, those around George W. Bush are trying to link the terrorists with the Democrats.

Al-Qaida wants to "influence the American election," we are told. The terrorists hope to "pull another Spain," where the ruling party was voted out after the Madrid subway was bombed.

The implication isn't accidental, and it gets real ugly real fast: A vote for John Kerry, we are supposed to conclude, is a vote for Osama bin Laden.

newsday column

While I don't disagree with these assumptions or conclusions I see them as beside the point. I think the real issue here is the influence that the government is trying to have over fearful Americans who may not go out and vote after hearing this. I doubt Mr. Ridge cares about the "democratic process." He only seems to care about the bottom line: put the fear of God into people and keep the "bewildered herd" (as Noam Chomsky says) in line.
One can only assume that the government has not raised the terror level because there really is no new information. Or they want to confuse people. And while they are issuing these alerts and warning people that they may be attacked, they are underhandedly trying to write discrimination into the Constitution. I just got an email from NOW that said the Senate is said to begin debating the new Federal Marriage Amendment that would ban gay marriage.

Here's the info:

The Federal Marriage Amendment, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), would amend the U.S. Constitution to read "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."

And here's a funny quote from a Democratic congresswoman regarding the weird timing of these alerts and the ban. (it was from www.sfgate.com

"Here we are taking up things like class action reform and gay marriage when we are being called up to a secret meeting room to be told we need to be on guard about what might happen to our country," she said. "Sometimes you think you are in Alice in Wonderland."

--------------By the way I just heard Lila Lipscomb on the O'Franken Factor (on Air America Radio) talk about Michael Moore and Paul Wolfowitz. For those of you who may not know who she is, Lipscomb is a mother of a soldier who died in Iraq. She was featured in Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. Her story was harrowing. To hear her made me want to cry all over again. An interesting thing she said that was not in the movie though, is that there was slightly more to the scene in which she goes to D.C. and is distraught and talking to a person opposing the war. Some woman comes up to her and says this is all staged. Well Lipscomb said that after that the woman later apologized and hugged her. ---------------

terrorist target or political maneuver

2004-07-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

here's an excerpt from the link below

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge today warned Americans that al Qaeda is planning to attack somewhere in the United States between now and the national presidential election.

Ridge told reporters that al Qaeda is now "moving ahead with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process."

In the coming months, Ridge noted, America will host several "high-profile" events, including the Democratic National Convention, slated for July 26-29 in Boston, and the Republican National Convention scheduled for Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 in New York City. The U.S. presidential election is slated for November. The secretary said these events all pose plausible targets.

*******
Oh no! We shouldn't go out and vote! We may be a terrorist target!
Do you think that's Mr. Ridge's real motive? Hmmmmm..... I wonder...

DefenseLINK News: Ridge: Political Conventions Likely Terrorist Targets

it's the question, stupid

2004-07-07T18:39:00.000-04:00

the following is a link to a great article that talks about michael moore's movie and what it is doing to the national political landscape, in terms of bringing up questions that might never have been brought up by kerry.

AlterNet: MediaCulture: Fahrenheit 9/11: Firing Up the Choir

new veep

2004-07-07T12:19:00.000-04:00

john kerry picked john edwards as his running mate. yay! the
first thing in politics that i've been excited about for a while. we got an umbrella for our new patio table. it was only $20 compared to the other umbrellas that cost $99! the table itself was also $20. and the chairs were free! not bad for an outdoor patio set.
something i heard from a counselor the other day: the phrase "catch dead."
Usage:
I don't want anyone to catch dead (like getting HIV from unprotected sex.)

hot july

2004-07-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

So i just read a story in the ny times about how aboveground pools are booming in urban neighborhoods like brooklyn and the bronx. they are the cheaper alternative to in-ground pools and for people who don't have easy access to beaches or don't like public pools. there was an extremely funny quote that i had to share with you. it's from a pool store owner. here's the excerpt from the story:

Prices for aboveground pools start at about $1,500, he said, delivered and installed.

"It's something a struggling young family in the city can afford," he said. "Compare it to trucking the kids to the beach. You got gas, tolls and food. Take a family of five to Disneyland, and guess what the little mouse is going to rip out of your pocket? About $6,000. You know what kind of pool you could get for that?"

I start a new job tomorrow at a shelter for homeless kids. i'm still doing the waitressing thing to and the writing. what a diverse resume!

this darn thing won't post!

Their George and Ours

2004-07-04T10:41:00.000-04:00

Barbara Ehrenreich arrives! She replaces Thomas Friedman as a columnist for the next 3 months in the NY Times. Here is her 4th of july column.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Their George and Ours

to tip or not to tip

2004-07-03T23:09:00.000-04:00

Bad tippers come in all shapes and sizes. they can be snobby pretentious people who drop names of famous actors while talking about acting and insisting you take off their twist off cap of their bottled soda. they can be anyone else too. the bad thing is there is just no way to tell.
there's nothing i hate more when people spend over a hundred dollars eating and drinking and you've just run up and down stairs and stood in the blazing sun wearing all black and they can only muster up $2 each.
that was my day.
and then of course fahrenheit 9/11 is playing here and the movie theater is close by and because there are three shows per night i come home to cars galore and no where to park.
my day was better than my evening.

Paul Krugman column

2004-07-03T11:22:00.000-04:00

So true....
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Moore's Public Service

What can I say?

2004-07-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

I wrote this sonnet the day after the pro-choice march in Washington D.C. in April. On his website, Cap'n Pete wrote a haiku about Bush (there was some internet contest somewhere) so I thought I'd post this. It's in iambic pentameter for the most part and is in the format of 8/6 (problem/resolution). I finally saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and I've written a lot about it in my journal but it's too aggravating to write much here right now besides this sonnet.

An example of a Petrarchan Sonnet

“He had it coming”
© by binacabreath

One by one he chips away at our rights,
And with each crash we scream in disbelief.
One more term and his aim will be complete:
to take away our choice and down 30 flights.
He turned his back on a powerful mass:
By forcing us to live in his ‘culture of life’
he bows to his god and ignores our strife;
he’s blind to women; he only sees cash.
It’s from this erosion that we emerged;
At 3 a.m. we left our loved ones, it still dark.
At dawn the ten buses were about to converge
Upon the largest and most awesome march
where we raised our voices and joined the third;
that new wave of women who must win this war.

**********************
What's interesting is that this was not even discussed in the movie but it's what pisses me off most about Bush more than any foreign war he has started. I'll never forget the picture I found in Ms. magazine of Laura Bush holding up a sign that read "W is for Women." Understandably Ms. and its readers thought it was the most ludicrous thing we'd ever seen.
*****************
When I think about how embarassed I am to be an American right now I try to reassure myself that what has been done to Iraq and Afghanistan was done by a president we did not elect. He does not represent us. He does not represent me, nor does he represent you. And when November comes, if you don't vote (him out), then like Elizabeth says on her news you can use blog, you have nothing to complain about.
Cap'n Pete, that's what you can tell your children, that you voted in November and that was the end of Bush.

Laundry and scary stinging bugs: not a good mix

2004-06-29T10:57:00.000-04:00

I went to the laundromat yesterday because I wanted to do my laundry. I wish I had my camera with me. But then again it is right across the street. I could go back. Anyway, there was a sign posted on the door on half a piece of looseleaf:

"The laundry is closed, Really."

Now the laundry just wasn't closed, it was really closed. Don't you forget it missy. So I told K about it and he thought that maybe it meant the laundry was really closed, for good. It wouldn't be that sad, considering the last time we went to go do our laundry at this
oh-so-convenient laundromat it was closed then too. But at that time there was a sign that said it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. How convenient for us, people who work Saturdays and Sundays and have off on Mondays and Tuesdays. So I took our four bags of laundry and went to good ole trustworthy New Paltz where I knew there would be an open laundromat with no ridiculous sign that says, "Bubbles closed. At the bar. Really."
That's really not the name of it, I was just having fun. I actually am not even sure of the name of the laundromat I go to in New Paltz. Is that sad or does it even matter?

So there is something new and kind of scary going on outside my back door as I write this. K has known about it for some time but I was never actually able to see it. Or maybe I didn't want to. Maybe I was too scared. It's a hornet or wasps nest. I can't tell because they are huge buggers. Anyway, they are nesting inside the awning above our back door where the outside light is. The light doesn't actually work and now I know why. You can see them crawling all over their nest and flying in and out of the awning. It's cool but at the same time very scary. Obviously I don't want to get stung. Who is to say they aren't threatened everytime I pass their home to go in and out of our apartment? K suggested spraying them at night with a poison. But of course I feel bad. I was thinking more along the lines of evicting them. Asking them to politely move. How about a sign that says, "Wasps or whatever stinging kind of bug you are, you must vacate the premises immediately. Please move to the barn or further. Really." or "Calling all stinging bugs: Beautiful creek views behind barn. Rent free. (Really!)"

So here we are. I haven't even read the news yet. My friend emailed me and said she likes my posts that don't have to do with news. So I am trying something new since K said the same thing. I figured they must have a point here. Maybe my posts about news are boring? I'd (really) like to know. Well here's why I write them.... Each time I read a news story that I find amusing, infuriating or uplifting I feel as though I must tell a hundred people. Unforunately there is only one other person living here with me and he doesn't want to hear every bit of news that crosses my computer screen. He is way too busy looking for lenses on eBay:) So here I am telling all of you. But, if I must, I will try to switch it up. Perhaps every other post will be about some news item or two. And then the posts in between will be slightly personal or maybe just a place for my freewriting. The thing is, lately I have been avoiding writing. I think I may have written that in a previous post. I haven't been writing much in my journal or much in my other notebook where I jot down future story or book ideas. I have so many new ideas all the time but they pass through my head like a ballet dancer glides across the stage. In view and then out of view. I also have them while I am at work, which is not conducive to much creativity.

I did force myself to write in my journal yesterday and that was interesting. I am going to try and do that every morning. There is a book by Julia Cameron called The Artist's Way. I have it but I haven't read the whole thing. In it though, she suggests writing three pages every morning after you wake up and then you will be able to really write more cohesively and creatively when you actually sit down to write The Real Stuff, such as a book or a short story. Those are my definitions of The Real Stuff.
Journalism is just a way to pass the time and get paid to see your name in print. It's a skill, I believe, and yes sometimes it requires talent. But I think if you take enough time to write a story and not just a measly hour then mostly anyone can write something very eloquent. It's awfully hard to write anything beautiful when you're on deadline, ten people are calling you from every direction, the scanner is bleeping every five minutes and the television is on CNN.
Sounds like a lot? Well that's just a small taste of what the newsroom of a daily newspaper is like. There are also people all around you talking to their sources and their editors. And no one lowers their voices unless you stand up and wave wildly that you are either a) on a very important phone call b) TRYING to write a story.
And of course the phone call is always given priority over the story. After all, you are in a newsroom and should be able to write with all the distractions of the world. And it should come out beautifully. Front page material. No excuses, missy.

Okay, enough of my ranting and raving. I can't wait to teach high school kids what it's like. I think when you're in high school newspaper reporting seems like such a sexy job. Even people my age who felt they were doing something completely unsexy would say to me, "You're a reporter? Wow. That must be fun." Yeah, if you like doubting yourself for a living and begging for recognition, sure it's a great job. I do have to say though that there were some fun aspects to it. I liked meeting all of the cool people who were in my stories. Those were the people who truly inspired me. Those were the people who appreciated me. I am not saying I expect every employer to give me recognition all the time, I just shouldn't have to write my resignation letter in order to get a simple "Thank you. You did a good job." Because, really, that's all I want.

Some snippets of news: good and bad, enlightening and infuriating

2004-06-28T22:26:00.000-04:00

This is from the New York Times metro section. People write in the wonderful or not so wonderful things that happen to them in new york. Mostly, they are uplifting. Like this one:

DEAR DIARY:
Why I Love New York Department: On a recent evening I waited for a dear friend at the Grand Central Terminal information booth, and when we saw each other, about three feet apart, we stretched out our arms to hug. At the same time a man started to come between us as he made his way out of the station. Very politely, he stopped so we could complete the hug. When we saw him, we stopped to let him pass between us. As we all looked at each other to see who would go first, suddenly he gave a big smile, reached out his arms, and the three of us had a great strong hug. He went on his way, and my friend and I spent the rest of the evening smiling about it. I hope he did, too. Incidentally, this was all without a word being spoken. Deborah Yaffe

In this column by Frank Rich, the clever absurdities of John Ashcroft are put on display:

In this fierce propaganda battle over the war on terrorism, the administration has been battling longer and harder than Michael Moore. And in John Ashcroft it has an even bigger camera hog in the starring role no mean feat. While his on-screen persona needs work he tries to come off like Robert Stack in "The Untouchables" but more often conjures up W. C. Fields in "The Bank Dick" the attorney general's resources as a showman are considerable. He has a bigger budget than most filmmakers and can command far more free TV time for promoting his wares. His press conferences, whether to showcase his latest, implicitly single-handed victory in the war on terror or to predict the apocalypse he wants to make certain we won't blame him for, are now as ubiquitous as spinoffs of "C.S.I." and "Law & Order." While F.D.R. once told Americans that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, Mr. Ashcroft is delighted to play the part of Fear Itself, an assignment in which he lets his imagination run riot.

what is fear? Fear is your anxiety turned on high, wondering what people think of you as you walk into a room or what lurks out in the dark as you walk alone from your car at midnight. Who is out there waiting, preying? That's what we as Americans think, thanks to this clown/fearmonger called the attorney general. I don't ever remember the attorney general in any previous presidency calling all of this attention to him or herself (has there ever been a woman AG??)
if you read anything this week please make it a frank rich column. If you don't like him try Maureen Dowd. They look at politics from completely different lenses. He compares politics to pop culture, things like TV shows, movies and talks about political events that involve celebrity scandals, like the infamous Nipplegate (remember Janet Jackson, the silver nipple... the SUPERBOWL??? Really, who can forget?) Can you believe news outlets have actually named it that?

While we're on the subject of Nipplegate (in lieu of the VP with the truck driver mouth) here is a little snippet from Maureen Dowd's column

After disastrously dividing the world into the strong (Bush hawks) and the weak (everyone else), Vice turned his coarseness into another macho, tough-guy moment against a Democrat considered a pill by many Republicans. "I think a lot of my colleagues felt that what I had said badly needed to be said, that it was long overdue," he preened.
The conservatives defending Mr. Cheney are largely the same crowd that went off the deep end because of a glimpse of breast on the Super Bowl, demanding everything from fines to new regulations to protect red states from blue language.

She sees things differently. She thinks Cheney is ruining the world and corrupting the president (as well as the world). But I see them as partners in crime. Either way, they are SO out of the white house come November. Like cap'n pete likes to say, "Kerry is inevitable."

A truck driver's mouth

2004-06-28T11:24:00.000-04:00

I tend to curse a lot. Working as a reporter, you tend to inherit that from your co-workers and all of the fustrations you get from the job. It could also be a genetic thing. People in my family curse as well. But I was surprised to read this in the Newsday.

'Go bleep yourself," Vice President Dick Cheney told Sen. Patrick Leahy last week, after what was supposed to be a friendly gathering on the Senate floor.

The men had exchanged words because Cheney was still bristling over the Vermont Democrat's charge that the vice president's old firm, Halliburton, was profiteering from the war in Iraq, while Leahy was miffed at Cheney's accusation that his refusal to confirm a judicial nominee was "anti-Catholic

It was part of a column about the attitude that the Bush administration has towards anyone who dissents or critizes them. For our VP to tell a senator to go fuck himself is pretty hardcore. He must be an angry man. No doubt, he has to take orders from the cowboy himself so why wouldn't he be angry. Most guilty people tend to get very defensive and I can see why he was so defensive here.

Okay so there really is no point to this post. I just wanted to share that. I feel as though I have a lot to say yet I don't know where exactly to start, since it has nothing to do with the subject of this post. So I think I'll just keep it to myself for now.

No budget means questions unanswered

2004-06-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

From a NYT editorial Saturday morning...

The New York State legislators packed their bags this week and went home empty-handed. Nothing significant was done in Albany, not even a budget. Since January, the scorecard reads zero. And as a Quinnipiac University poll showed last week, Gov. George Pataki is getting the largest share of the blame by voters for the petrification of New York's state government. This is particularly inconvenient for Mr. Pataki, just as his fellow Republicans are coming to New York City for a presidential convention. So the governor whirled into action. He gave speeches and urgent press conferences to persuade everybody to understand the importance of realizing that the real problem was—— somebody else.

Because of this blame and irresponsibility I won't know until August whether my tuition is increasing or not. The good news is I got my bill and the increase is $100 per semester if it happens which is not horrible. But getting my bills brings me closer to August, which brings me closer to school, which brings me back to the whole reason why I am even here writing this on a Sunday morning. If I was still a reporter I wouldn't be allowed to have an opinion.

**********************

Polls I love: (from recordonline.com)

Do you feel that sending troops to Iraq was a mistake?
Yes 55.5% (568)
No 38.7% (396)
Not sure 5.9% (60)
Total votes: 1024

And these answers come from a predominantly Republican readership (at least in Orange County, NY).

On the Michael Moore movie front, I still have not seen it. However, I did tell some customers (one of whom was a self proclaimed Republican) where to go to see it. I still have not seen it. ((Wait I just said that before. Sorry folks, it's too early in the morning to really give you a coherent post.))
I do plan to see the movie sometime this week so please... if you've seen it, don't tell me the ending.

Irish Journalist vs. Bush

2004-06-25T22:58:00.000-04:00

So Bush went to Ireland yesterday to head off talks of the US-EU Summit or something like that. But that's not why I'm writing here. I'm writing because he gave an interview to an Irish Journalist who nailed him on some hard hitting questions. Bush, of course, never actually answered these questions but talked in circles. She continually pressed him only to be met with, "Let me finish, let me finish," as he held up his hands, paused every five seconds and fished around his big empty brain searching for the answer that would most suit his agenda.
It's perfect material for a Michael Moore movie.

The interview is available to watch on Real Player on their website.
Here is the direct link to the real player file:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0624/primetime/primetime56_1c.smil

If you don't have broadband internet or Real Player and prefer to just read the text or the gist of the interview then go on the www.rte.ie website and search for the news for June 24.

Good luck.
And please don't forget to comment on your favorite question or answer or Bushism.

Monogomous sources

2004-06-24T11:33:00.000-04:00

In my former life as a newspaper reporter there is a story that goes like this:
A man calls up the breaking news line and says he's got a great news tip.
But he doesn't want anyone to know who he is, he wants to be monogomous.

..................................................................

OK. So anonymous sources are used A LOT in the mainstream media. The New York Times public editor recently admitted that reporters use anonymous sources or really vague sources on a regular basis: i.e. "senior administration officials said", "intelligence sources said" or my favorite, "authorities said."

This leads us to the Anonymous CIA officer who was interviewed who just published a book on why and how the US screwed up royally in the Middle East. To his credit, he also spoke to the 9/11 commission and he identifies his position with the CIA pretty clearly. But his face is hidden by the black fuzz and we do not know his name. This is probably for security reasons, CIA people operate in secret, unlike the Secret Service. Everyone knows who those guys are. I am sure the Bush administration knows who this guy is, so I don't think he's afraid of them. If he was, he never would have spoken to the commission.

I just read his extensive interview with NBC.
In it he says everything he would have said to the president if he had the chance. he said that most CIA people just tell the administration the politically correct version of things: basically what they want to hear.
And we all know where that led us. Anyway, I recommend the interview. As a reporter I rarely used anonymous sources out of principle and only if it was a sensitive topic like school violence or something like that. And only if it was Okayed by the editors. This guys sounds like he knows what he is talking about. And even though he is criticizing the administration for taking the war to Iraq and basically making a breeding ground for terrorists he still thinks we need to really fight this war without regard for foreign civilians, if only to protect our own.

Essentially, he said the war is about religion and the administration's failure to see that or admit it is what has led us to a larger enemy. The enemy is no longer a country, but a fully operational intelligent organization located in 40 - 50 countries throughout the world. Invading Iraq he said, was bin Laden's dream come true.

Sorry I'm jumping but there was so much in this interview that you would need to read it to understand it fully. However, I am pasting an excerpt to show you why he thinks Muslims don't like us:

It is, I think, a proof of his thesis that America is malignantly inclined toward Muslims, that it is willing to attack a Muslim country that dares to defy it, that it is willing to do most anything to defend Israel. It's certainly viewed as an action which is meant to assist the Israeli state. It is in every way predictably, if you will, a godsend for those Muslims who believe as bin Laden does."

I'm certainly not an expert and neither am I a Muslim. I think the appeal that bin Laden has across the Muslim — I indeed think he's probably the only heroic figure, the only leadership figure that exists in the Islamic world today, and he does so because he is defending Muslims, Islamic lands, Islamic resources. From his perspective it's very much a war against someone who is oppressing or killing Muslims.
"And the genius that lies behind it, because he's not a man who rants against our freedoms, our liberties, our voting, our — the fact that our women go to school. He's not the Ayatollah Khomeini; he really doesn't care about all those things. To think that he's trying to rob us of our liberties and freedom is, I think, a gross mistake

To think that he's trying to rob us of our liberties and freedom is, I think, a gross mistake. What he has done, his genius, is identify particular American foreign policies that are offensive to Muslims whether they support these martial actions or not — our support for Israel, our presence on the Arabian Peninsula, our activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, our support for governments that Muslims believe oppress Muslims, be it India, China, Russia, Uzbekistan. Bin Laden has focused the Muslim world on specific, tangible, visual American policies.

At least skim it if you have a chance but if you have a lot of time read it through. It's very informative.

And thank you all for your previous comments!

Coincidence? I think not

2004-06-22T12:50:00.000-04:00

My first question. Is anyone reading this blog? if you are, can you offer me your comments? I'd like to know if I am screaming out in cyperspace all alone and no one is hearing me.
Because I have some more things to say and I am wondering what you think. Really, I am. (Including you, Dad.)
So I came across a link to a Katie Couric interview on the Today show with Michael Moore. The interview happened yesterday and because I don't have cable I watch these things when I find them.

The link is a story about the controversy surrounding his movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. And on the right hand side is a box showing a "free video" of the interview.
Here's the link:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5264641/

What is interesting about this interview is that it is eight minutes long and during that entire eight minutes there is only one slight interruption, but it came at a crucial question. Katie Couric was getting back to the long awaited subject of the mainstream "news media" and their handling of the Iraq war. She was asking the question "Why wasn't the media more critical of the ....Iraq war?" I couldn't even hear the entire question because each time I watched the video I was rudely interrupted by a sound similar to zzzzzzzzzzzzziiiip and this on the bottom of the screen "Up Next: Can Women win the Gender Wars?"
HUH????? What, may I ask, is that doing up there when I am trying to hear this question about the critique of the media? I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist and because Katie was asking a question that implies that the media may not have done enough before the war, some genius in production decides that this inane 'Up Next' bar will zip across the screen with a bang at the end and hopefully make people lose track of the discussion.

Maybe I'm making too much of this. And please let me know if you think I am. (But please watch the video first). But here's the kicker: The story that was 'up next' had nothing to do with gender wars but everything to do with 19 men getting struck by lightning in Colorado.

The only thing I can say to counter this is that the interruption might have been more effective if it happened during Moore's answer. So maybe it was all just a coincidence...

A room

2004-06-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

I wish I had a room to write in without being disturbed by clanking dishes or running water. I wish I had a room to sleep in without feet stamping on the floor above or the sound of a dog running from room to room. I wish I didn't have to hear the dresser drawers slamming or the cat crying. I wish I could sleep through the night, wake up refreshed and want to write. The trouble with writing is that it is such a part of me that I avoid it. I know I need to do it, I know I want to do it, but there is this part of me that procrastinates, that says I'm not inspired, therefore I can't write. There is this voice that says I can't write period. As in, I suck. But then there is another voice that says, hey wait a minute I did this professionally for almost five years and I got an A everytime I wrote on English literature this past semester. Oh well, I think to myself, that's still not really writing. Well what is writing? Is this writing? Or is this ranting? Is journaling writing? Is the only type of writing the kind that happens when you make things up? Or when you make things rhyme?

I don't know. Which brings me back to the room. I'm reading A Room of One's Own, which is where I got the name for this blog. It's by Virginia Woolf, a very brilliant writer who killed herself. (Why do brilliant female writers commit suicide?) Back to the book. She says that women need money and a room of their own to write good fiction. Of course, they need talent but they need the free time to practice. Lately, because of my lack of a full-time job I find myself wondering why I'm not writing more. But the answer is simple: I am worrying about money.

I created this blog as a reason to write. This was my "room to write," my special area where no one could go in to change anything but they could read it and comment. But mostly, it was for me to see my stuff published and to light the fire under my butt to keep writing.

So I am and that's good. But I need this to 'count' in my own mind as writing. I need this to really be a room to write.

Oh one last thing.
We saw the most beautiful display of lights last night. Yesterday, as you all know, was the first day of summer. My brilliant idea was to go down to the creek behind our house and watch the bugs. So around 11 p.m. we went and saw the most beautiful thing in nature you will ever see. Amidst the blackness a hundred little lightning bugs turning on and off like Christmas lights on the creek. Lightning bugs, or fireflies as some people call them, are the coolest little creatures. I used to catch them in a jar and watch them glow when I was small. I always let them go at night's end. But I've never seen so many at once. Our goal is to get some fold up chairs and go out there more often at night and actually sit and enjoy it. Last night was so clear that we could also see the stars.
What a beautiful day it was! Today it's raining, however. But I don't care. The birds are still chirping and summer is officially here.

New: Links

2004-06-21T13:42:00.000-04:00

Check out my new links section at the bottom of the page. If any of you are interested in being a part of it, I'm charging $10 per link. Those up there got a discount but I just can't do that for anyone else. I have to make a living somehow right?

Just kidding. I'll be adding more up a little later after I get back from my appointment. So if you're not up there now you will be later.

Off to see about volunteering at the local youth center!
Ta ta!

The memory hole does not forget

2004-06-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

So I found this fantastic link to a website many of you may be familiar with (thememoryhole.org). this is the website that successfully FOILed the Airforce into getting 360 photos of coffins coming home from the Iraq war. These are photos teh Pentagon and the Bush administration did not want released. it was a big controversy a few months ago. But I found that the memory hole has another great link. they have posted the five minutes of video of bush at a florida elementary school moments after he was told that the second tower of the WTC had been hit and america was under attack. this is the video that appears in michael moore's new movie.
here is the link. even if you can't or don't have time to download the video you can see the clips of it below the downloading link.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/bush-911.htm

What's most interesting about this link is the commentary accompanying it. The writer questions why Bush stayed those extra five minutes listening to a group of first graders read and then stayed more to pose for a photo with the teacher and talk to reporters - who even questioned him about the attacks.
This is just a glimpse of the kind of idiotic response by Bush that will be in Moore's movie, I'm sure.

And thanks to the memory hole, which is run by a guy who is a champion of First Amendment rights. The memory hole does not forget what happened in the past and neither should you. As the New York Times said, don't let this administration rewrite history. Remember it as it really happened.

Where you at

2004-06-19T22:59:00.000-04:00

I am a movie trailer addict. While watching the movie trailer for Fahrenheit 9/11 (among other movies on apple.com) I found a link that tells you where in New York this movie will be playing.
I know lots of you out there are probably interested in knowing if it will be playing at a theater near you. This page is updated often so keep checking for it before the opening date of the movie (June 25). You can also buy advance tickets if you get ambitious.

http://www.f911tix.com/results.php?st=NY

Good luck.

The Times makes my week

2004-06-19T10:34:00.000-04:00

When the media proves me wrong it really makes me happy. However, when I say the media here I am usually referring to the press, not television news or cable news. We have cable internet but no cable tv and around here that means no television at all. But we survive.

As I was saying before, though, I am very happy to be proved wrong by the mainstream media. Especially the New York Times. They were one of the major newspapers that accepted the president's reason for going to war and now they are one of the major newspapers (or perhaps the only one) taking him to task for lying about it now that he has been shown wrong by the 9/11 commission and, as the times says, "news articles" in general.

The Times wrote a scathing editorial in today's paper and pulled an Al Franken. It brought tears to my eyes.
Take this for example...

Mr. Bush said the 9/11 panel had actually confirmed his contention that there were "ties" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. He said his administration had never connected Saddam Hussein to 9/11. Both statements are wrong.

Before the war, Mr. Bush spoke of far more than vague "ties" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. He said Iraq had provided Al Qaeda with weapons training, bomb-making expertise and a base in Iraq. On Feb. 8, 2003, Mr. Bush said that "an Al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990's for help in acquiring poisons and gases." The 9/11 panel's report, as well as news articles, indicate that these things never happened.

What is more amazing is their willingness to tell Cheney to basically shove his "evidence" up his butt, since the man has never shown the American people his so-called "overwhelming evidence."

Mr. Cheney said he had lots of documents to prove his claims. We have heard that before, but Mr. Cheney always seems too pressed for time or too concerned about secrets to share them. (that is such an f-you it's not even funny)
Last September, Mr. Cheney's adviser, Mary Matalin, explained to The Washington Post that Mr. Cheney had access to lots of secret stuff. She said he had to "tiptoe through the land mines of what's sayable and not sayable" to the public, but that "his job is to connect the dots."

The message, if we hear it properly, is that when it comes to this critical issue, the vice president is not prepared to offer any evidence beyond the flimsy-to-nonexistent arguments he has used in the past, but he wants us to trust him when he says there's more behind the screen. So far, when it comes to Iraq, blind faith in this administration has been a losing strategy.

Finally, finally the times is seeing and saying what we have all been saying for the past year. But not every American reads the New York Times. Most Americans get their news from television. Hopefully tv news won't be too pressed for time and will give this report as much coverage as it deserves. If anyone out there has been watching the news lately, please comment and tell me what's going on in that part of the world.

What we really said was...

2004-06-18T17:55:00.000-04:00

So I am loving right now that the top story of google news for the past few days is the 9/11 comission's findings that there was no collaberative effort between Iraq and Al Qaeda on the 9/11 attacks. We all knew this. We meaning the people who REALLY read the news and understand what the government did and why, but there are other people out there who just believed what the government told them. But who can blame them? People who took the oath of office blatantly lied on national television. Anyway, what I'm seeing now is just hilarious. The administration is backpedaling by saying that they never really said there was a connection, just that the terrorists and Sadaam Hussein had contact with each other (read: the terrorists asked Hussein for assistance and he never responded). So now on a story by the wire service Reuters, Condi Rice is doing some major damage control. Seems Bush's press people trying to give a "move forward" attitude was not working with reporters.

Good, they are no longer cow-towing. they are doing their job and asking the hard questions.
Case in point:

As the White House strove to curb potential damage to President Bush's credibility on Iraq, his closest aide on international security denied any inconsistency between the bipartisan panel's findings and Bush's insistence that a Saddam-Qaeda relationship existed.

"What I believe the 9-11 commission was opining on was operational control, an operational relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq which we never alleged," Rice said in an interview with National Public Radio.

"The president simply outlined what we knew about what al Qaeda and Iraq had done together. Operational control to me would mean that he (Saddam) was, perhaps, directing what al Qaeda would do."

Whatevs Condi. I'm just not buying it. You can't lie your way out of this one. Yesterday on Air America, Al Franken (God I love this man, he is such a gift to liberals in ways you cannot imagine) played back an audio clip of President Bush saying exactly what Rice is trying to deny.

Leave it to Franken to uncover those major lies. But he also does minor ones too. (But any white lie means there are larger ones looming.)

Take this one. Remember when Bush fell off his bike a few weeks ago while riding around his Texas ranch? Well his aides told the press that Bush fell or slipped because it had rained a lot. Franken did a little research and found out that it in fact had not rained there for 13 days.

Everytime Franken uncovers a lie he plays this audio clip of someone screaming, "LIAR!"
It's too funny.

Check it out at:

http://www.airamericaradio.com

Even Roger Ebert likes this movie

2004-06-18T09:55:00.000-04:00

I just read the best column by a movie critic. And the critic is none other than Roger Ebert who responded to a reader wondering why Michael Moore is not "objective" in his documentary. Ebert explained that a documentary is not meant to be objective, it's meant to show the accurate truth while arguing a point. I don't know exactly what Moore's point is because I haven't seen the movie, but what I can gather from the trailer is that Moore, like many liberals, does not believe Bush to be competent or truthful.

But back onto this 'objective' crusade. I find it interesting that this word even exists anymore when referring to mass media, be it movies, television, magazines or newspapers. I mean, really, who is objective anymore? And who ever was? Objectivity is a myth among journalists, something you strive to get only for the sake of looking unbiased. But no one is ever unbiased. I had a journalism professor who advised us never to sign petitions, never to protest. It made me fearful of stating my opinion.
And I am a very opinionated person, as you can see. So what am I supposed to do though, not vote? I knew there had to be a line I could draw somewhere but I never knew where. So i kept my opinions to myself and even when people (mostly sources) asked me what I thought, I'd tell them it's not my job to have an opinion, just to report the facts.

But when you pick apart each level you will find that there are biases everywhere. I learned this in school and I learned this every day on the job. In order to present a story in a concise fashion and fit it into an 8-inch or 12- inch news hole it is you who must decide what facts to put in and what facts to omit. As a journalist, you can't help but insert your opinion indirectly into the story by deciding which facts and which quotes are more important than others.

I think conservatives try to use this objectivity myth against journalists and this is probably why we have such a fearful Washington press corp. And that's probably what led this reader to write to Roger Ebert. She probably thinks this myth applies to all members of the media, including filmmakers. She thinks everyone should cowtow to the administration with this so called use of complete "objectivity" when making, writing or filming anything political.
But alas, Ebert set her straight and went ahead to say he saw the movie and saw nothing inaccurate in it. He did say, however, that there were some inaccuracies in Moore's last and most lucrative documentary, Bowling for Columbine. You'd have to read the column to understand them and even then you will see how minor they are. They are so minor I can't even remember the scene in the movie.

OK. I am going to try this again. (I keep unsuccessfully trying to link stories in my posts.)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/cst-ftr-moore18.html

Polls show ignorance

2004-06-17T10:22:00.000-04:00

This the result of a recordonline poll today of people in the Hudson Valley.

Do you think al Qaeda and Iraq cooperated to attack the U.S. on 9/11?
Yes 51.1% (270)
No 48.9% (258)

Total votes: 528

First, I am appalled that people even think that the two are connnected. But I am more appalled that 51 percent of Mid-Hudsonites think this. Do these people read the news? Are they not believing what they are reading? These are questions that need to be asked in order to determine where the media has gone wrong in the information business. It has been investigated and included over and over that Iraq did not cooperate with al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. Why do people not know this?

Listening to Air America online... a liberal radio station out of Chicago that Al Franken helped start. They just said that in an upcoming fundraiser for Bush people are being asked to pay $10,000 each for a picture with Bush.
Wha????

I'm not the only one...

2004-06-16T10:24:00.000-04:00

While reading the Daily News this morning I came across this little item in the gossip section Rush and Molloy. It explains my point regarding the real violence of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11.

DiCaprio's hot
for 'Fahrenheit'

Leonardo DiCaprio (r.) saw Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' last week in L.A. and felt so strongly about the documentary, he flew to New York for Monday's premiere at the Ziegfeld and met up with Moore (l.).

Leonardo DiCaprio believes in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" so much, the reclusive actor emerged last week for the L.A. premiere - then flew to New York to attend Monday's screening.
"Leo's doing more press for this movie than he ever does for his own," quipped Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein.

Weinstein is in a corporate war with Disney, which refused to release the film because the work is critical of President Bush's handling of 9/11.

DiCaprio, who met with Moore several times as the "Bowling for Columbine" Oscar winner lensed the film, told The News:

"I think a lot more people who are on the fence about who to vote for, after they see this film, it's going to galvanize them. Young people didn't vote in the last election - that was the problem, and it's going to be the main issue in the next. If you're a young person you've got to get as many people registered to vote, and then get them to vote for their candidate." In DiCaprio's case, "that's John Kerry," he told us.

Spike Lee thinks the Motion Picture Association of America wants to block young people from seeing the film by giving it an R rating. Lions Gate and IFC will release the film, in more theaters than ever for a documentary, on June 25.

"Giving it that rating was slick," Spike told us. "But teens should still go to see this movie. John Turturro brought his son tonight. The ratings people were hung up on the violence. Teens see more violence in videos than in this movie.

But this isn't make-believe. Let them see what bullets do when they hit."

Moore said, "I was asked if this film might affect the election. If it persuades just one person to engage and go vote, I'll be happy."

For all of those interested there is also a column by Michael Daly saying that Michael Moore is a force to be reckoned with.
I am trying to link it here but have been unsuccessful. I'll let you check it out if you're interested. The Daily News is a good source of brief information. I know it's a tab but it does not have the conservative slant that the NY Post does. It's a pretty decent newspaper when it comes to city papers.

A must see and I haven't even seen it

2004-06-15T19:05:00.000-04:00

i just watched the trailer for michael moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11. It looks so good you'll want everyone in your family to watch it. it's a lot of stuff you already knew but also stuff you've never seen before, for example: president bush speaking to bunch of rich people calling them the 'have mores' and saying they are his'base'.

the movie comes out june 25 and already the right wing backlash is upon us. the movie has been rated R because of its violence. they show a beheading and a burning body, among other things. but the movie is about the war and that is reality. there is an inordinate amount of violence on television but something that is a reality has to be given an R rating? Since when hasn't a 15 year old seen something disgusting and violent. this is not about the government being afraid for the youngsters. this is about the government being afraid OF the youngsters. they don't want these kids to see the truth and to see what is really going on and what the mainstream media has so carefully kept hidden from us. and that is because youth are powerful and once they turn 18 they become even more powerful with their right to vote. even without that right they have a voice and they have the advantage of being bright and original and protesting and defying the government in ways we could never imagine.
so thanks goes to former gov. cuomo who is a lawyer and is taking up the fight for michael moore. he encourages people to see this movie and pledges to go on talk shows to tell people to see it. this is according to a story on the ny newsday website.

This is not a movie to wait until it comes out on video or DVD. this is one of those timely, current event type movies... a documentary, folks, on important issues that are going on in this world as i write this. we will be enraged but at least we will be more informed.

A sort of summer reading list

2004-06-14T09:43:00.000-04:00

I have a rather large reading list. I can never even put a dent into it because I keep adding more to it. This is a problem since I don't have all the time in the world and the time I do have I spend on the internet reading the news or some form of it. Then I spend time on this thing, which is a lot of fun and counts as my writing activity of the day.
My list:
Maya Angelou: I know why the Caged Bird Sings
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
Odell Shepard: The Lore of the Unicorn
Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew
Sylvia Plath: The Unedited Journals

Books to finish (these are books that I've started and have recently put down to read another book that I can't put down):
JR Tolkien: The Hobbit
Al Franken: The lying liars and the lies they tell us
Henry James: Portrait of a Lady
Michael Herr: Dispatches
Deborah Appleman: Critical Encounters in High School English- Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents
Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique
Leslie Cannold: The Abortion Myth

Book I am currently reading that is blowing my mind:
Rachel Simmons: Odd Girl Out, the Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls

Cool thing that I just got as a gift: The 1999 movie version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. So good and so funny. Calista Flockhart played a wonderfully jealous Helena and Kevin Kline an incredibly dramatic, Nick Bottom. Definitely a must see for Shakespeare fans.

Another must see for literary people is the movie Sylvia. It is an accurate portrayal of Sylvia Plath and shows how brilliant yet disturbed Plath really was. The scene I love the most is when she recites the Wife of Bath from Chaucer in Middle English. It sounds so delicious!

I also want to read every book by Jane Austen just to read this new novel written about twice in the NY Times. It sounds so magnificent and original!
Here's the link. If you don't have a log on and it asks for one, it's free to create one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/books/14AUST.html

And to think she got the idea for the title of the book from a simple sign in a bookstore!
How freaking original!
I have to write down my ideas more often. Instead I cut out the article or print it out and put it in a shoebox that sits under my bookcase. Now that doesn't help much does it when it comes to percolating my ideas.

Media wastes too much time on white space

2004-06-12T10:50:00.000-04:00

So I don't have much new to say about the world even though there are a thousand and one things going on.

For one, Ronald Reagan died and that is all the media can focus on. Instead of moving on to other news while their camera is focused on a California highway that a Reagan limo is soon to pass through, they don't. They keep wasting their time and our time on something that isn't even happening yet. I understand the need to cover the funeral and what people think about and all that stuff beforehand but when absolutely nothing is happening that is the media's cue to move on to another subject for a little while! But they never do! These cable news networks milk events like these for every cent because they are too lazy to do the real reporting... such as covering the G8 Summit in Georgia. Now there's an important event. I mean, Iraq's new prime minister was here in the states and it wasn't even headline news!

In the hospital

2004-06-11T09:51:00.000-04:00

It's a beautiful morning. And to think I was in the hospital yesterday wondering if my appendix was going to need removal. You see, I've been feeling like crap for the past two weeks and have been really stressed what with school ending/moving/trying to find money via work. So when I finally went to the doctor yesterday they pressed on my stomach and when it hurt they said I might have appendicitis.
So I went to a hospital where one of the registration nurses couldn't spell appendicitis. She was nice though so I forgave her.
In the waiting room I noticed that a lot of people there looked more ill than I felt. One woman was actually clutching her stomach and looking as if she were in a daze. I've been there before but I wasn't there yesterday, thankfully. I felt as though I shouldn't be there but I wanted to know what was wrong with me.
Then when we were told to go into the ER and I had to put that stupid gown on where you have to hold the backside and make sure your butt doesn't show while you to the bathroom to pee in a cup.
K. went with me to the hospital, of course. And being the wonderful man he is, waited by lovingly my side reading a Mac Addict magazine. I read a little bit of my book, The Hobbit, but mostly I eavesdropped on the people in the "section" (beds are cordoned off by curtains) next to me. The woman was obviously suffering from the side effects of lung cancer. She was on oxygen. Her daughter was talking and telling her not to worry, she could break out of her lease and stay at a hospital/home if she needed to. At one point, the kids told the doctor the mother was never sick before. One of the doctor's asked why she smoked. I think she thought this was an absurd question and just said that it was a habit, like all other habits. (Needless to say we left before her.) Keith was dying for a cigarette (i don't think he was eavesdropping like I was). So I told him to go outside and get a breath of an American Spirit because I had a feeling the doctor wouldn't come for some time. Lo and behold, moments after he left the doctor came to give me a clean bill of health. Turns out I have irritable bowel syndrome. So I was told I need to lower the stress, not take things so seriously and eat foods with high fiber.

That means do yoga, take more breathing breaks and eat more broccoli.

Weird parallels

2004-06-09T08:16:00.000-04:00

So I'm reading the latest news. Apparently Marc Anthony and J LO will not publicly admit to getting married. This is of course working to their benefit (in terms of publicity) because the press keeps drooling over them, trying to pull their teeth and get them to fess up. Speculation after speculation is coming out in the tabs. For instance, the NY Post claims that J LO is preggers. Now why this is our business, I don't know. It's not as if she is a public servant. It's not like we have the RIGHT to know, but that's what the reporters keep telling themselves to convince themselves it's okay to pry into other people's business. But I digress.
The parallel I'm seeing here is pretty small, but it's one nonetheless.
This reminds me of Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra. Marc Antony is so blinded by his love for Cleopatra that he withdraws while fighting Octavius Ceasar and consequently loses the battle and, ultimately, the war with Ceaser. Now, present day Marc Anthony is not fighting any war per say but one could say he is battling members of the media each trying to conquer him and get the juice.

Take this conversation he had with Matt Lauer yesterday morning while on the Today show, (coincidentally promoting his new album...)

>>During an appearance on NBC's "Today" show, co-host Matt Lauer asked the Latin singer how he had spent his weekend.

"I see where you're going with this, and I'm going to preface it with just saying -- y'all know I don't talk about my personal life," Anthony said.

Lauer replied: "So, I -- do I need to congratulate you?"

"Yeah, I have two albums coming out, man. Absolutely. And I would appreciate it," the 34-year-old singer said. Anthony, who performed in Rockefeller Plaza, was wearing what appeared to be a wedding band on his left hand.

When Lauer continued to ask whether a wedding had taken place Saturday at Lopez's home in Beverly Hills, Calif., Anthony responded, "That would fall into the category of personal. And that's where I'm going to leave it." <<
-Salt Lake Tribune

Man, talk about nosy! And I thought I was bad. But I'm sure Matt Lauer can blame his editors on that one. I can see the conversation now, "Matt, you must get him to admit it. Think about the ratings Matt! The ratings!"

Regardless of who made him do it, Lauer wouldn't stop pestering him. Now because of this he is going to get bombarded by the prying media because everyone out there wants to get The Scoop.

So perhaps we can look at this another way and conclude that
Marc Anthony is losing the battle with the media because he keeps listening to J Lo, who the Daily News claims is telling Marc to keeps his mouth shut.
Case in point:

One friend of the couple thinks that Lopez has told Anthony to zip his lip.

"She's the boss," the friend tells us. "He's like a puppy around her. He's blinded by love, and whatever she says goes."-NY Daily News

And of course we have all learned that everything we read in the newspapers is true. Yeah Right.

In the play Marc Antony is so devoted to Cleopatra that when she leaves the sea battle because she doesn't want to get her ships dirty, he quickly follows. He knows throughout the play how she is manipulating him but he continues to give in to her seductive ways. But Shakespeare never marries them. There's where the comparison ends. Cleopatra, strangely enough, is married to her brother. And Antony is married to Caeaser's sister! Both are in these marriages for purely political reasons. Perhaps, J.Lo's previous relationship with Ben Affleck was completely publicity driven (or political) as was Antony's previous marriage. The two are so in love that they cross the boundaries of a Shakespeare play and tie the knot. Now if she were really pregnant that would make a great Scoop and maybe a great twist to Shakespare's work of art.

someone else's two cents

2004-06-07T10:52:00.000-04:00

Last night my honey found the best article/commentary on this thing called marriage that J.Lo keeps getting her big butt into.
This link from msnbc says what i saying in a much more sarcastic voice:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5152079/

It also includes the results of an online poll on how long readers think J.Lo's marriage will last. About 9,000 people responded to it and just 3 percent said it would last forever.

So on another topic, I recently read an article on Google News (the best online resource for world and national news) in which France loves America but hates G.W. Bush. I want to take this moment to thank France for coming to its senses and realizing that Bush does not represent the true America and America also hates Bush. The article says that France has realized that Bush does not represent the true majority of Americans. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to this article and cannot find it in the black hole that is google news.
But I just wanted to share that enlightening piece of news with my fellow Americans, who are proud to be citizens of this country but do not want to affiliate ourselves with the current president or his disgraceful administration.

I also want to thank Roger Manell of WDST for finally pronouncing Shawangunk correctly after butchering the name before the commercials. To all those not in the know, it is pronounced Shawan-gum.

The so-called Institution of marriage

2004-06-06T17:52:00.000-04:00

What gives? Talk about ruining the "institution of marriage," Jennifer Lopez has reportedly gotten married for the third freaking time. Come on. Three times is not a charm in my marriage book. (not like i have one but if i did...) anyway, you ahve all these christian fundamentalists and even everyday catholics who believe that gays and lesbians getting married to their partners - who've they've been with for years - are "ruining the institution" of marriage." yet every time J.Lo gets married it is front page news in the city tabs.
note:
www.nydailynews.com/front/story/200334p-172938c.html

In this story it says that J.Lo and her "new husband," singer, Marc Anthony surprised their guests at a BBQ by getting married. Surprise, mom and dad! We're tying the proverbial knot that Marc just untied a few days ago! That's right Marc Anthony, according to the story, just got a "shotgun divorce" from his wife, former Miss Universe. The Daily News article then goes on to say that the two have lots more in common than J.Lo's previous two hubbies (not to mention hubby to be: the one and only Ben Affleck). Their both of Puerto Rican decent and of course they both grew up in NYC (she in the Bronx and he in Harlem). Anyway, my point is here that it's as if the Daily News writers are trying to convince themselves that by some chance in hell this marriage might work out. Or might last longer than J.Lo's longest marriage, which i think, according to documented sources (the daily news and the new york post, of course), is about two years. That's freaking sad. What's even sadder is that I was hoping the same thing and not because I care about the newlyweds but I care about what this means to young people (read: teenagers) who see this crap on television or read it in the tabs. This constant re-marrying is what is really ruining this so-called institution of marriage. When a beautiful famous, rich woman gets married three times in one decade under the media spotlight it allows people to believe that they can do the same thing. (And that's why lawyers are so damn rich.) This thing called divorce is such an easy fallback for rich and middle-class people alike that the institution of marriage really doesn't exist anymore. Yes, people get married and stay married for years and even decades. But, they are in a class by themselves. And I admire them. But, they are not part of this elaborate superficial institution that the Christian fundamentalists would like to profess is real.

While I was complaining about this earlier in the evening, my boyfriend said something that struck my fancy (before suggesting I rant about this on my blog). He said that maybe J.Lo is getting married so she doesn't look like a slut for sleeping with all these guys. In my book, she would look like less of a slut if she just had normal relationships with these guys instead of marrying them every few years. She was inches close to marrying Ben Affleck, and who knows why that really ended. And who knows why she continues to keep getting married to men she doesn't know very well (she and Affleck just broke up in January - you do the math). There is of course, the ever present Elizabeth Taylor theory...
But I just won't even entertain that here.

Our new place

2004-06-04T16:11:00.000-04:00

So i would like this website to be a critique on pop culture, the media and world events in general. I plan to discuss articles I've read that make similar comments on the world and come up with my own conclusions on issues important to me.

But since I am new to the area (both the town I now live in and cyberspace) I'm going to tell a bit about the new place where my boyfriend and I live. We moved here three days ago and the apartment is really taking shape. I've lived a lot of places (count them: 14 apartments in 9 years) and this is by far the nicest. The kitchen is enormous, with brand new appliances, tile floor and ladies and gentlemen: a dishwasher! We both have no idea how to use it, of course. The bathroom is about the same size as the bedroom and we have a pretty good size living room (all hardwood floors). Scoop, our cat, is snoozing on a sunny shelf one minute and sniffing the cardboard boxes the next. We have a little backyard and a sun porch/mud room which we use for storage and scoop's bathroom. Presently Scoop is eating in OUR bathroom so go figure. The air is so cool in the apartment because we are surrounded by buildings. Oh one last thing. The creek is in our backyard. We just have to walk behind the barn which is behind the house, walk over the berm and take in the view of the water.
OK, it's time for some afternoon coffee...

testing

2004-06-04T10:42:00.000-04:00

this is my first blog; my very own room to write in cyberspace. welcome all. going to check to see if this thing works. (confirmed: it does)
here's a link to a website made by this guy in san francisco who sent out 1,000 journals around the world just to see where they would end up and what people around the world write about. it's wild because even though he's only gotten one returned to him hundreds of others have been uploaded to his website, thereby allowing people to see what's written in them.

www.1000journals.com

You can look up where the journals have gone. I did this and sure enough one passed through New Paltz. You can even request a journal or make your own by leaving it somewhere and seeing where it goes. They have a sticker you can download (or purchase I'm not sure) and put it on the notebook to show what it's meant for.

It's such a neat concept and although some handwriting is illegible what you can read is very amusing.

Check it out and tell me what you think!