"A Peoples' History of the United States" by Howard Zinn
"We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists" edited by Melody Berger
"Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo
"Shooting War" by Anthony Lappe
"V for Vendetta" by Alan Moore
"Minimum Security" by Stephani McMillan
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
As Gas Goes Up, Driving Goes Down--From CNN.com
(CNN) -- At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, Americans have curtailed their driving at a historic rate.
Americans are not driving as much as they did a year ago as gas prices skyrocket.
The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.
Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less -- that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942.
According to AAA, for the first time since 2002, Americans said they were planning to drive less over the Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before.
Tracy and Adam Crews posted on iReport that their annual Memorial Day weekend has traditionally involved camping and fishing.
"Well, due to the continual rise in gas, we felt our only recourse was to nix the idea this year and stay home" in Jacksonville, Florida, they wrote.
Instead, the couple said they "decided to camp out in the backyard. We set the tent up, just finished installing our above ground pool, and cleaned up the grill. ... We have ourselves a campsite! It's been a blast!"
Nakeisha Easterwood of Smyrna, Georgia, said with gas prices on the rise, she sometimes catches rides with friends, and doesn't drive into town more than once a day. "It's crazy," she said.
According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to a record $3.936. That compares with an average price per gallon of $3.23 last Memorial Day.
"With it being near $4 a gallon, you definitely have to drive slower and pick and choose when you're going to do it," said Steve Kahn of Roswell, Georgia, at a Memorial Day festival in Atlanta.
Some Americans have turned to public transportation. Ridership increased by 2.1 percent in 2007, in part because of rising gas prices, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest level in 50 years, the group said.
The Energy Information Administration says gas consumption for the first three months of 2008 is estimated to be down about 0.6 percent from the same time period in 2007.
For the summer season, gas consumption is expected to be down 0.4 percent from last year.Monday, May 26, 2008
China & Tibet
After my Socialist meeting last Friday, we went out for drinks to "carry on the conversation". (I was really skeptical that anyone actually would continue to discuss politics...and this was one time I was pleasantly proven wrong.)
A couple of the guys brought these two girls back to the table, in what you'd think would be the standard pick-up. The one who was closer to me, that I could actually hear, was getting questioned a lot about what she thought about the political system in Sweden (which is where the two of them were from).
And then they hit her with questions about China. She argued against, & they argued for. (One of the great things was that the guys afterwards said that they knew they were taking a more extreme view for the sake of debate, & did agree with her on some points & don't believe that China should be held up as the ideal Socialist state.)
What does this have to do with me?
Just another opportunity where I feel totally ignorant of the world around me.
I've stopped reading the newspapers for what's going on because I know that it's so filtered & carefully evaluated that I feel it can barely be trusted as the truth. But that means that I'm totally in the dark about it all.
Like China & Tibet.
When I was in India, the town I lived near, there were a large number of Tibetan refugees. I remember seeing the postcards at the Cultural Fair with pictures of activists hanging a sign asking China to stop the genocide on the Tibetan people.
The whole thing sounded absolutely horrible. So I had no problem when I got the decal for "Free Tibet" to slap it immediately onto my car.
Now I kind of feel like I'm one of "those" kinds of liberals. And that makes me feel icky inside.
I did some reading. And while I know that I'm not getting the whole story, I feel like I'm getting a little more. (And if anyone had any more to let me know to help me be more educated about this subject, I'd be more than happy to hear it. Honestly.)
The issue doesn't seem to be as easy as a country that is being held against it's will by another one & is demanding autonomy. Tibet has long been a part of China. Recognized by Tibetans as part of China. It sounds like Tibet is wanting China to let Tibet preserve their cultural & religious heritage (or at that is at least the demands by the Dalai Lama).
This isn't what I'd think of when I think of "FREE (insert country here)".
Sure, there are plenty that think that China has no right to be involved in Tibet, but when is there ever a consensus on international relations anywhere?
And maybe it's just my skepticism, but just knowing that the CIA was involved with Tibet fighting China makes me pull back a bit.
I hope to learn more about the relations to cure my dreadful ignorance. But this is just a first start.
A couple of the guys brought these two girls back to the table, in what you'd think would be the standard pick-up. The one who was closer to me, that I could actually hear, was getting questioned a lot about what she thought about the political system in Sweden (which is where the two of them were from).
And then they hit her with questions about China. She argued against, & they argued for. (One of the great things was that the guys afterwards said that they knew they were taking a more extreme view for the sake of debate, & did agree with her on some points & don't believe that China should be held up as the ideal Socialist state.)
What does this have to do with me?
Just another opportunity where I feel totally ignorant of the world around me.
I've stopped reading the newspapers for what's going on because I know that it's so filtered & carefully evaluated that I feel it can barely be trusted as the truth. But that means that I'm totally in the dark about it all.
Like China & Tibet.
When I was in India, the town I lived near, there were a large number of Tibetan refugees. I remember seeing the postcards at the Cultural Fair with pictures of activists hanging a sign asking China to stop the genocide on the Tibetan people.
The whole thing sounded absolutely horrible. So I had no problem when I got the decal for "Free Tibet" to slap it immediately onto my car.
Now I kind of feel like I'm one of "those" kinds of liberals. And that makes me feel icky inside.
I did some reading. And while I know that I'm not getting the whole story, I feel like I'm getting a little more. (And if anyone had any more to let me know to help me be more educated about this subject, I'd be more than happy to hear it. Honestly.)
The issue doesn't seem to be as easy as a country that is being held against it's will by another one & is demanding autonomy. Tibet has long been a part of China. Recognized by Tibetans as part of China. It sounds like Tibet is wanting China to let Tibet preserve their cultural & religious heritage (or at that is at least the demands by the Dalai Lama).
This isn't what I'd think of when I think of "FREE (insert country here)".
Sure, there are plenty that think that China has no right to be involved in Tibet, but when is there ever a consensus on international relations anywhere?
And maybe it's just my skepticism, but just knowing that the CIA was involved with Tibet fighting China makes me pull back a bit.
I hope to learn more about the relations to cure my dreadful ignorance. But this is just a first start.
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