My Shepherd Book Moment

I watched a man steal a bike tire this morning.

Just watched.

I kept wanting to do something, to confront him about it…but I just couldn’t.

Because what would happen if he instead turned to steal from me? I had my iPod on, & my computer in my backpack. I know from a conversation that sets of bike tires are about $150. And while that’s an unpleasant amount of money to have to shell out, my electronics carried a much higher replacement value.

And what if he was armed? Not that I saw anything to indicate he was, but what if he had some weapon concealed? What would I have done then? I would lose my stuff & possibly have to deal with some medical costs if I was hurt…and I don’t have insurance or the money to pay for help.

There’s no reason to believe that giving money would’ve been of any assistance or deterrence. I was waiting at the bus stop, so there was always the likelihood of coming back to take it after I’d left.

There’s no reason to believe that calling the police would’ve been of any help either. I have a hard time believing that they would ever be able to find a man running around with a back tire. And even if they had, what would they do to him? And his life sure wouldn’t improve from being put in jail. (Do we really need another black man trapped in the system?…as if he isn’t already…) They’re not geared towards actually helping anyone who is made to reside in there. So why should I even believe it’d be any better to have him in there than out here?


But it still all bothers me. I could empathize with the man stealing food to eat & the kid vandalizing the bus to knock the system. But stealing a bike tire? That in no way is really going to help him out.


And I wish that I had been able to say something to him about it, rather than just watch him finally succeed at pulling that back tire off.

It’s why it makes me feel a little like Shepherd Book. I remember the scene right after the agent is shot where he talks about all the things he had done in the previous few days that he couldn’t have possibly imagined taking part in while he was still at the abbey.

To a more insignificant way, I’m also feeling a disappointment in not doing anything at any of these times…but also with sense of blurred morality.

Things aren’t so easy to judge “outside of the abbey.”

This Means Death

We were trying to think of a place to go get coffee last night after the demo (since half the group was under 21), & Tamara (a young Palestinian woman) asked if there was a Starbucks nearby we could take over.

Her compatriot (who I think may be a high schooler) said that we should invade it [Starbucks] & shut it down saying: "This place is a health hazard for my people."

My props to that you man.

My Short Skirt--The Vagina Monologues

by Eve Ensler

My short skirt
is not an invitation
a provocation
an indication
that I want it
or give it
or that I hook.

My short skirt
is not begging for it
it does not want you
to rip it off me
or pull it down.

My short skirt
is not a legal reason
for raping me
although it has been before
it will not hold up
in the new court.

My short skirt, believe it or not
has nothing to do with you.

My short skirt
is about discovering
the power of my lower calves
about cool autumn air traveling
up my inner thighs
about allowing everything I see
or pass or feel to live inside.

My short skirt is not proof
that I am stupid
or undecided
or a malleable little girl.

My short skirt is my defiance
I will not let you make me afraid
My short skirt is not showing off
this is who I am
before you made me cover it
or tone it down.
Get used to it.

My short skirt is happiness
I can feel myself on the ground.
I am here. I am hot.

My short skirt is a liberation
flag in the women's army
I declare these streets, any streets
my vagina's country.

My short skirt
is turquoise water
with swimming colored fish
a summer festival
in the starry dark
a bird calling
a train arriving in a foreign town
my short skirt is a wild spin
a full breath
a tango dip
my short skirt is
initiation
appreciation
excitation.

But mainly my short skirt
and everything under it
is Mine.
Mine.
Mine.

The National Question

I got back from my candidacy class about an hour ago, where we had been talking about "the National Question." (Discussing what formulates a national identity & the importance that it holds for people & the role of socialists in regard to national self-determination.)

The main point was for all of us to see what we need to be doing. To examine the motivation behind intervention in another country to see if the idea is to really support the people of that country or if the plan is to exploit for personal benefit. And to recognize that the role of those of the oppressor group is to fight in solidarity in the struggle for the freedom & rights of all those who are oppressed. (For example, as a white & straight female, I need to be joining to help all from other ethnicities/nationalities, sexual orientation, etc.)


One of the questions that Gloria asked us was: How are we divided against other people?

Some of the obvious answers were the encouragement of racism against the black & immigrant communities, hostility towards affirmative action, fear of homosexuals & other sexual minorities (like intersexed & transgendered).

In comparison to these very serious issues that I just listed (and the many that I know that I didn't), the one that occurred to me while walking home is quite petty. But it has a habit of getting me up in arms very frequently.

I was walking my bike across the street, when this car made this rolling stop so that they could get past before I got to them.

And that irritates me.

It's a disregard of the idea that you are supposed to yield to pedestrians while in the crosswalk...and not just while they are right in front of your car.

I was also pretty disappointed while in a car the other night when a few of the passengers urged (happily within the confines of the vehicle) that they wish that the pedestrians would hurry up & get out of the way.

You want to talk about petty division?

As a biker & walker, I am tired of being hated. I see the cars that try to get through before I block their way. I've been yelled at while biking on several occasions (and on streets that had 2 lanes going in each direction)....Once where a woman told me to get my "bitchass off the street." And I can't help but feel like hostility is being directed towards me every time I cross a street where there are cars trying to go.

I was actually riding with some coworkers to a function this last week when they told me another one of our staff openly admits that she hates cyclists because they don't follow the same rules as the cars.

Bikes aren't cars.

And those riding bikes face anger from car drivers no matter what they do. If we run stop signs (even when cautiously), cross-traffic gets mad because we didn't stop. If we do stop (I predict), cars behind us get mad that they have to wait for us to accelerate enough for them to get to go...which also would slow down the cross-traffic as they'd have to wait for us to clear the intersection as well.

Talk about a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.


The point of this is not to advocate a end to cars. I know that they are beneficial for getting longer distances within a fairly short period of time. That's what I use them for. (And not that I wouldn't love to see them all destroyed to make the way for nonpolluting models...)

What I think is needed is an end to car culture. The urge to be fast. And to hate being slowed down by everything and everyone that stands in the way of getting where we want to be within the time frame we mentally set.

Cars are very isolating. You are in your own little bubble of steel. Disconnected from the humanity of the people around you & the environment you pass through.

Talk about dividing.

It's hard to unite when we're gunning for our speedy isolation cell that turns the majority of our communication with the ones around us into aggression.

So, while we're smashing the other state encouraged intolerances, can we make a little time to break out of our cars?

As economy sinks, officials fear violent solutions

(AP) -- An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide.

The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.

A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.

In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family's mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: "By the time you foreclose on my house, I'll be dead." Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.

Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation's financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.

"I've had a number of people say that this is the thing most reminiscent of 9/11 that's happened here since then," said the Rev. Canon Ann Malonee, vicar at Trinity Church in the heart of New York's financial district. "It's that sense of having the rug pulled out from under them."

With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16 percent in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.

"A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They're losing their homes, they're going into foreclosure, they've lost their jobs," said Virginia Cervasio, executive director of a suicide resource enter in southwest Florida's Lee County.

But tragedies keep mounting:

• In Los Angeles, California, last week, a former money manager fatally shot his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law before killing himself.

Karthik Rajaram, 45, left a suicide note saying he was in financial trouble and contemplated killing just himself. But he said he decided to kill his entire family because that was more honorable, police said.

After the murder-suicide, police and mental-health officials in Los Angeles took the unusual step of urging people to seek help for themselves or loved ones if they feel overwhelmed by grim financial news. They said they were specifically afraid of the "copycat phenomenon."

"This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair," Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said. "It is critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times."

• In Tennessee, a woman fatally shot herself last week as sheriff's deputies went to evict her from her foreclosed home.

Pamela Ross, 57, and her husband were fighting foreclosure on their home when sheriff's deputies in Sevierville came to serve an eviction notice. They were across the street when they heard a gunshot and found Ross dead from a wound to the chest. The case was even more tragic because the couple had recently been granted an extra 10 days to appeal.

• In Akron, Ohio, the 90-year-old widow who shot herself on Oct. 1 is recovering. A congressman told Addie Polk's story on the House floor before lawmakers voted to approve a $700 billion financial rescue package. Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae dropped the foreclosure, forgave her mortgage and said she could remain in the home.

• In Ocala, Florida, Roland Gore shot his wife and dog in March and then set fire to the couple's home, which had been in foreclosure, before killing himself. His case was one of several in which people killed spouses or pets, destroyed property or attacked police before taking their own lives.

"The financial stress builds up to the point the person feels they can't go on, and the person believes their family is better off dead than left without a financial support," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center.

Dr. Edward Charlesworth, a clinical psychologist in Houston, Texas, said the current crisis is breeding a sense of chronic anxiety among people who feel helpless and panic-stricken, as well as angry that their government has let them down.

"They feel like in this great society that we live in we should have more protection for the individuals rather than just the corporation," he said.

It's not yet clear there is a statistical link between suicides and the financial downturn since there is generally a two-year lag in national suicide figures. But historically, suicides increase in times of economic hardship. And the current financial crisis is already being called the worst since the Great Depression.

Counselors at Catholic Charities USA report seeing a "significant increase" in the need for housing counseling.

One mental health counselor said half of her clients were on some form of antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication. The agency has seen a decrease in overall funding, but it has expanded foreclosure counseling and received nearly $2 million for such services in late 2007.

Adding to financially tense households is an air of secrecy. Experts said it's common for one spouse to blame the other for their financial mess or to hide it entirely, as Balderrama did.

After falling 31/2 years behind in payments, the Taunton, Massachusetts, housewife had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them before her husband saw them. She tried to refinance but was declined.

In July, on the day the house was to be auctioned, she faxed the note to the mortgage company. Then the 52-year-old walked outside, shot her three beloved cats and then herself with her husband's rifle.

Notes left on the table revealed months of planning. She'd picked out her funeral home, laid out the insurance policy and left a note saying, "pay off the house with the insurance money."

"She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her," said her husband, John Balderrama. "Apparently she didn't have anyone to talk to. She didn't come to me. I don't know why. There's gotta be some help out there for people that are hurting, (something better) than to see somebody lose a life over a stupid house."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

"Declaration for Today" by Brent Mesick

(I realize I'm a couple months late sharing this, but I felt it was important to put out there since it is something we should be thinking about throughout the year.)

Today is the two hundred and thirty-second anniversary of the Continental Congress’ adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Rarely do we reflect on the content of the Declaration. We should reflect today, more than on any other Independence Day anniversary, after terrible breaches of trust, breaches of our rights by our government, what was declared so clearly and directly on July 4, 1776.

1. The first sentence of the Declaration states it is a matter of natural law that people have the ability to take on political independence, “to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another” and govern themselves.

2. The next section, the preamble, asserts that people have certain rights. When a government violates these rights, the people have the right to “alter or abolish” that government. This is often called the “right of revolution”. It states clearly “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

3. The third section lists the charges establishing King George’s violations of the colonists’ rights, proving him unfit to rule. Interestingly, charges included: “He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power”, “For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury”, and “For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences”.

4. The next section states disappointment that attempts by colonists and British citizens to mediate with King George were unsuccessful.

5. The final section is the conclusion that, there being conditions under which people must change their government and that the British have produced these conditions, the American Colonies must absolve allegiance with the British Crown and establish free and independent states.

We’ve already plunged into the Fourth of July weekend, full of nationalistic fervor and, perhaps, a sense of entitlement. Flags are flying and fireworks coloring the night sky as if to shed light on what it means to be a nation sprung from the rights asserted in the Declaration of Independence. These celebrations, however, commemorate the ideals themselves, not whether we reach them. When the fireworks end, we’ll see the darkness of a patriotism made jingoistic through corporate governance, neo-imperialism and harsh immigration policies. We’ll see political representation muted by a (practically) two-party system where the candidates separate themselves through rhetoric, but unite on policy such as corporate-favoring trade (NAFTA), domestic spying (new FISA legislation), and tax-funded religious programs.

Today, now more than ever, we must reflect on the courage of those who declared the unalienable rights of people. We must be prepared to defend those rights and the rights enumerated in the Constitution and it’s amendments - especially the Bill of Rights. We must reject governmental infiltration and surveillance of peace groups, the power of the President and the Secretary of Defense to deem anyone an enemy combatant, the imprisoning of people without charge, the torturing and outsourcing to torturers, and the declarations of the President to be above the law. We must understand that because of these and other egregious assaults on our civil rights, we are marginalized from the political process, that the anti-war mindset held by the majority of Americans is disregarded, that by the stripping of rights we become powerless.

We should see, and act. We can begin with the election. Of these achingly similar presidential candidates, who can be influenced the most? How can we influence them? After the whirlwind romance of the election season, how will we ensure we are not cuckolded by a candidate too ready for corporate smooth-talk? Of candidates for all offices, how do they stand on civil liberties?

Next year, we will celebrate the Fourth of July for the two hundred and thirty-third time. I hope we celebrate the return of our rights.

US to Expel Venezuela Envoy~Al Jazeera

Chavez has for a long time been a fierce critic of the US [AFP] Washington has said it plans to expel Venezuela's ambassador and freeze the assets of two Venezuelan government officials as diplomatic tensions grew between the US, Venezuela and Bolivia. Friday's follow an order by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, for the US ambassador in Venezuela to leave the country. "We have informed the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States that he will be expelled and that he should leave the United States," Sean McCormack, a state department spokesman, said on Friday. "This reflects the weakness and desperation of these leaders as they face internal challenges, and an inability to communicate effectively internationally in order to build international support," he added. The moves came after the US expelled the Bolivian ambassador to Washington, which in turn came after Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, expelled the US ambassador from La Paz, accusing him of instigating violent protests in Bolivia. The expulsions have sparked a diplomatic crisis in North and South America. On Friday, Honduras said it would indefinitely postpone accrediting the US ambassador in support of Bolivia and Venezuela. Bolivia crisis At least eight people were killed on Thursday in clashes between anti-government protesters and Morales' supporters. Protests have erupted in several regions of Bolivia [Reuters] Morales had earlier accused the US ambassador to Bolivia of supporting protests by led by rebel state governors demanding greater autonomy and opposing Morales' plans to give more land to the poor. "Charges levelled against our fine ambassadors by the leaders [of] Bolivia and Venezuela are false and the leaders of those countries know it," McCormack said. On Friday, protests that have continued for several days abated, although tensions remained high. Despite having earlier ruled out an armed response to the protests, Morales government imposed martial law in the eastern province of Pando on Friday, as demonstrations there contined. Tit-for-tat expulsions The US treasury department said the Venezuelan officials whose assets were frozen on Friday were bing targeted as they were believed to have ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The US sanctions and Chavez's threat to halt oil sales to the US plunged ties between the two their lowest point in years. The diplomatic row highlights the souring relations between the US and South American countries. Chavez gave Patrick Duddy, the US envoy in Caracas, 72 hours to leave the country, making the announcement on state television and saying at the time that he would be recalling his ambassador from Washington. He made the announcement hours after saying that his government had detained a group he said were involved in a US-backed plot to overthrow him. Chavez's critics accuse him of trying to create instability in an attempt to shore up what they say is his plummeting popularity ahead of elections. Russian bombers Russia has sent two strategic bombers to Venezuela [EPA] Tensions between the US and Venezuela had already risen after Russia sent two strategic bombers to Venezuela for military exercises. Chavez said the aircraft had arrived to counter US influence in the region. The Russian move is reported to be Moscow's first strategic deployment in the Western hemisphere since the end of the Cold War and comes amid increased tensions between Russia and the US over the recent conflict with Georgia. Moscow remains angry that US used military vessels to carry aid to Georgia during Russia's intervention there.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Voting For the Lesser of Two Evils

I know that there is a great excitement going on across the country. This very evening. Right now.

Barack Obama has just accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

My enthusiasm is decidely lacking.

***

Last year around this time, gearing up to primary season & all the debate over who it should be, I was remaining ambivalent about the Democratic options.

Sure, there were epic options. There could be the first woman. Or the first black man. But I was unimpressed with all, & figured that they would have plenty of time to convince me that they were right for this country & would therefore earn my vote.

Later, when it narrowed down to Hillary & Obama, I started to lean towards Obama. The effect that he had had on the people of my generation was staggering, & I was hoping to support him & that he in turn would not let us down.


But he's failed me.

And the votes haven't even been cast yet.


So I wanted to take this moment to say that as much as I would like to the contrary, I will not be voting for Obama in the November 2008 election. I feel that he is lying when he talks about ending the war in Iraq because even though he plans to withdraw the troops from Iraq, many of them will just be restationed elsewhere (read: starting in Afghanistan). That is not the result we need. And I do not like his refusal to take military intervention off the table in regards to Iran. And I do not like his blind support in the Israeli government.

Due to all of this, I cannot in good faith vote for Barack Obama & still believe in myself.

I will not be voting for the lesser of two evils.

And I will mourn the weight on my heart of this disappointment.

Flashback Time

This summer is the 40th anniversary of the '68 National Conventions.

It is a time to think about what was happening at that time.

And a time to think about what will be happening in the future.


What role will we each choose to play in the future of our government & society?

Instant Gratification

In my latest efforts to become a little greener, I bought a worm composter last weekend to replace the giant composter that I got a few months ago that is causing trouble because it's too big for my balcony (since it is meant to be in a backyard....which I don't have....Oh, & don't worry. We plan on giving the old one away to someone who does have the space for it.)

How does this relate to my title?

When my roommate & I were talking about getting the more compact worm composter, the plan was to move all the material from the old composter into the new one. But when I was reading the directions today, it told me to make sure that I didn't add any more than 1 inch of compostable matter into the tray at a time so that the worms weren't getting overfed.

So much for just dumping it all at once and breaking down the old one.


But should that really be a surprise to me? And will I end up viewing it as an inconvenience? Why should I even consider it an inconvenience?


When I was thinking about it, I got to be reminded once again about how we tend to think about things in the immediate. It's hard to think about how our actions will play out in the long run. We just haven't been trained to think that way. Everything is about the now.


How to we change that attitude?

How do we see beyond the instant gratification of whatever it is we think we need to see the picture as a whole & think of the effect of our actions as time passes?


I hope that for me my worms will be a great help to help me slow down & think more.

2,400-Mile Car Race is Powered by the Sun

University teams showcase possibilities for solar power

	The solar-powered car built by the University of Michigan team takes off during a leg of the North American Solar Challenge on Friday in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Dirk Lammers / AP

updated 8:57 a.m. PT, Sat., July. 19, 2008

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Even as U.S. oil refiners scramble to increase the flow of Canadian crude from Alberta to Texas, a caravan of futuristic solar cars is racing that 2,400-mile route in reverse to show what transportation could look without a drop of oil or gas.

The sleek solar-powered sports cars competing in the North American Solar Challenge always turn heads, but with price tags that can climb well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, don't expect to see them parked in your local car dealer lot anytime soon.

"I don't think so," said Daniel Uhlord, a member of the SolarWorld 1 team from Hochschule Bochum University in Germany. "They're not quite up for the challenge of everyday life."

But solar could still play a significant role in a future transportation society less dependent on oil.

Uhlord and others envision an electric "solar assisted" car with cell-phone-like batteries that charge in the morning sun while you sip your coffee, then recharge in a parking lot while you toil away at work.

The cars racing to Canada this week are essentially electric cars — albeit super-efficient versions that tap into the power of the sun, said race director Dan Eberle.

Testing applications
The state-of-the-art technology found in their motors, batteries, control systems and electronics could one-day find their way into a hybrid or fully electric commuter vehicle.

"Instead of having solar panels on the car, you have a solar panel at home or a solar panel at work," Eberle said. "You drive in, plug in, charge it and then drive without carrying the solar panel along."

The North American Solar Challenge, last run in 2005, aims to promote solar and renewable technologies. The 15 race teams took off from Texas this past Sunday and are expected to arrive in Calgary on Tuesday.

SolarWorld 1, weighing in at 450 pounds at a cost of about $750,000, can cruise at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour, but racers are required to obey local traffic laws along the mostly rural route.

Each driver is escorted by a pair of pit-crew vans filled with engineers monitoring a cadre of statistics. Teams constantly work to improve the efficiency of the solar arrays, batteries, power converters and motors, but Uhlord said a solar car's most important aspect is its aerodynamics.

An iPod added
In preparation for last year's World Solar Challenge race across Australia, the German team had to decide on a small valve to inflate the front tire and whether to use a straight pin or one with an angle. That tiny detail made a difference of more than an hour in the team's final time, he said.

Dirk Lammers / AP Prince Soriano, a mechanical engineering student from Red River College in Winnipeg, Canada, wipes down his team's car Friday in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Cars use two-way radios to chat with their pit crews, and the German team added a small technological touch to keep drivers humming along.

"You can also hook up an iPod to it," Uhlord said. "It will dim out or fade out the music when you talk or somebody else talks and everything's integrated into the helmet."

Follow the race online at www.americansolarchallenge.org

Expectations

Normally here I'd make some apology about how I normally try to make things not so personal, even though a fair amount of posts of mine really are, but I've accepted that that's silly. I won't be doing that. There's something in this irritation that I think relates to more lives than just mine, actually I KNOW it does, but that is irrelevant. I just need to write it, & this is a fitting setting.

Okay, so last week I went "home" for a visit. Regardless of the circumstances, I ended up staying at my dad's house for the first night & the hours I was carless waiting to head to the airport. We haven't related well for a long time, & while the hostilities may no longer be wild & free (thank you to time & distance), we still don't really talk much or really get along that well. Evidence for this is the fact that I ended up suggesting we go out for dinner at 9:30 at night because I had gotten so tired of the "conversation" where he would ask me something, I'd respond, & then we'd sit in silence for a few minutes.

Through this mess, there was something that stuck with me & has still been grating on me a little in the back of my head since then. He asked me several times about my long-term goals, & offered that maybe I'd grow up in 5-10 years. (In the guise of how my education is helping me now, how long I plan to stay with my job, whether there was a man in my life, and directly by asking what I plan for my future.)

Back the fuck up.

Okay, so I work about three jobs, putting in about 35 hours/week combined, and don't have any insurance. HOWEVER, I really enjoy my jobs. And they do allow me to be able to afford to live in San Francisco, provide for myself entirely (he doesn't pay any of my bills), & actually pay down my credit card bills. This doesn't seem like it's too bad of an accomplishment for a 25-year-old who's in the midst of self-discovery.

I'm happy with where my life is right now. I like where I live, I like the things I get to do, I'm proud of the "green" tips that I've thoroughly incorporated into my life. I wish I was working fewer jobs, but I can't really complain about any of them though. They leave me pretty satisfied. And I know I won't be doing them forever, but everything changes so much that it seems silly to me to really do hardcore future planning. All I know is that I'd like to keep living in San Francisco for at least a few more years, & that I think I might want to teach someday (I'm just not ready for it yet on several fronts).

So, I had pointed out to him that I was responsible, I just thought it was silly to plan for the future with how uncertain the world is at this moment. He said he didn't think I wasn't responsible, but that didn't seem to close it up in a satisfactory way that made me feel accepted.


(I'm not sure how much of this relates...but on my last day [I think] he pointed out how mature one of my male friends has become [with me pointing out that it would be a surprise if he DIDN'T turn out that way], & how he wishes I was more "out-going" & "happy" like I used to be.

Oh, & a tiny note that it piques my sense of intrigue that there are pictures up of his wife's children & grandchildren, his two sons...but nothing from my mother's side...granted, that would be me, my brother who hasn't spoken to him in years, & my sister who's made a lot of bad choices. Just a pondering moment.)


Is this a common guilt trip that parents lay on their kids? (Possibly particular to parents of at least middle-class standing?) That they're not doing enough with their lives? (And possibly disappointed at the amount that their education impacts their employments?)

If so, that's absolutely disgusting.

If your child is managing to be happy, to be at least mostly clean, & is taking care of themselves (however that is defined) should be fucking good enough. Why can't THAT be the thing that you wish for your children instead of whatever fucking bullshit has been fed by the culture towards what your children should end up being like?!

Now it's my turn to shake my head in disappointment. For shame, parents. Your heart doesn't lie in the right place. Please take a step back & recognize your children as what they are & build bridges if possible. It'll make them feel less rejected & benefit everyone the world over.

Is It Really Stealing?

I know that there are several articles I have read or heard about over the course of the last few months living in San Francisco demonizing the people who scavenge from the recycling bins that people put out with their trash. (They traditionally take out cardboard or CRV marked cans/botttles for recycling to make some cash.) The argument is that it is ripping off the people who have paid for Sunset Scavengers to pick it all up.

Then last night I was checking out the green compost bins (to see if I could talk my landlord into getting one). I learned that if you pay for them to pick up the black trash bin, you can get the other two (the blue recycling & the green compost) for free. If that's true, then it's just people getting mad that people are going through their trash & finding enough stuff over time to earn money off of it.

Is this a hatred akin to the one for dumpster divers in most parts?

It's just strange to me to think about because there are lots of places around the city where people will also just put old things of theirs that they no longer want on the sidewalk for others to come along & pick up if they want it. (I've put out & picked up plenty of street clothes & such.) And there's the Really Free Market in Dolores Park every month where people bring things to freely trade.

So then why do we have problems with those taking from the bins? Is it because they are taking from our bins, rather than the bags we put out with the intention of people looking through them? Or is it because they are taking things we put out & managing to make money off of them (whereas few people would have the space to accumulate enough to earn a reasonable amount of money off of these items)?

I don't know. But it's an answer I'd be very interested in learning.


EDIT: after talking with my friend Jake (a long time dumpster diver), there are a few more tentative ideas I would like to add.
~I presume the trash companies are losing money from the stuff being scavenged because they will not earn the money from selling the recyclables. But I can't say for sure because this point would not be likely to be printed in an article. (Because a "boo hoo! we don't make as much money!" argument would not work so well.)
~I wonder if they are intended to incite more scorn for the homeless because they are most likely to be the ones scavenging (or thought to be scavenging...plenty in the Haight neighborhood clean out the recyclables from Golden Gate Park....where there is no recycle bins). As well as those without homes who recycle cans & bottles to earn money are not part of the City's Care Not Cash Program.
~I wonder if articles like this increase racial tensions because the drivers of the cardboard trucks I see are Latino.
~My neighborhood recycling center is under threat for eviction because they are being accused that many of their patrons are homeless gentlemen who are scavenging from the neighborhood's bins. One of the men in charge there said that they were having problems with Sunset Scavengers (the trash company) because also by having a recycling facility, less CRV containers were being thrown in the bins (although by California law there must be a recycling facility with a cash-back program within a certain number of miles of a major distribution center, ie. Safeway). He said they were going to have trouble if the issue got up to the level of the mayor because the head of the Sunset Scavengers is a former mayor, & had the present mayor as a deputy.

Political manipulation of facts (even when unintentional) is bullshit.

Thank you.

(All comments will be greatly appreciated.)

How Dare They Rip the Fourth Amendment?

Thursday 03 July 2008

by: Joseph L. Galloway, McClatchy Newspapers

Early next week the US Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love.

That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

That a majority on both sides of the aisle - not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties - intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

We are living in a time when the right of habeas corpus - which simply put is your right to be brought before a proper court of law where the government is made to prove that there is good and legal reason to detain you - recently survived by a margin of only one vote at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now these bad actors are prepared to set aside your right to privacy - written into the Constitution as a key part of our Bill of Rights - with hardly a nod in the direction of the true patriots who rebelled against an English king and his army to guarantee those rights.

That they will do this while the last empty phrases of the political windbags at the Fourth of July celebrations are still echoing across a thousand city parks and the bright red, white and blue bunting and blizzard of American flags still flap in the breeze is little short of breath-taking.

How dare they?

Those denizens of the White House and Capitol Hill and all those gray granite buildings that line avenues with names like Constitution and Independence in the nation's capitol would have us believe that we must trade our rights, all of our rights, for some measure of security from the terrorists.

They would have us believe that a nation of 300 million people must surrender what a million other Americans gave their lives in war to protect in order to protect us from a couple of hundred fanatics hiding in caves in Waziristan.

Benjamin Franklin himself wrote of such a debate:

"Those who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

The fact that British troops, operating on flimsy general warrants handed out by local magistrates, were kicking in the doors of ordinary Americans and rifling through their pantries and papers in search of smuggled, untaxed goods was a prime reason why our ancestors rebelled against their king and went to war.

This is WHY we celebrate the Fourth of July. This is why the vote on renewing the expanded version of FISA and whitewashing the egregious violations of the Fourth Amendment for seven long years by our government is important.

If neither John McCain, the Republican, or Barrack Obama, the Democrat, can find the courage to oppose such a violation of so basic a right then what are we to do for a president, a successor to George W. Bush, The Decider, who has since 9/11 decided what rights you are entitled to keep, what laws he will or will not obey, and whether you will be protected by these words of the Constitution:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

That's it. That's the Fourth Amendment. That is what these folks in Washington, D.C., have violated continuously and in secret for seven long years.

Somewhere across an ocean and a desert, hiding in his cave, a man of hate named Osama bin Laden is laughing up the sleeve of his dirty robe at the thought that he and a small handful of fellow fanatics could tie a great nation in knots - knots of fear stoked by our own leaders.

We have done incalculably more and greater damage to ourselves since September 11, 2001, than a thousand bin Ladens and ten thousand al Qaida recruits could ever have done to us.

Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." Now it would seem that we have no one to fear but ourselves and our leaders.

The questions I pose are these:

How can even one senator on either side of the aisle in good conscience vote in favor of this law that does nothing to enhance our security and everything to diminish our rights as a free people?

How can both men who seek to become our next president cast such a vote when both should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder declaring that they would govern by our consent and with our approval, not by wielding the coercive and corrosive and corrupt powers that King George III and his latter-day namesake from Texas thought are theirs by divine right?

Happy Overthrow Your Government Day! (A Day Late)

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Faux Passion

The result of a lot of conversations lately have been making me think more about passion. Not like sexual passion, but having a love for an idea, one worth committing to.

Part of this has come from me discovering how wonderful it is to be surrounded by people who truly care about what they are doing to shape the world...be it (for me) environmentalism, political, cycling. There is a wonderful feeling being with these people celebrating their passion. And it makes me want to get more involved in those communities whenever they are celebrating their love.

Now this is where it gets a little scattered. (As if it hasn't been already.)


This is where I get to think on all those people who are lacking.

I ended a nearly seven year relationship partly because I realized that the person who I thought was going to help push me be more revolutionary wasn't that at all. He was anti corporate media, & was so against shopping at Wal*Mart that he would only go wearing something offensive. He was going to be a poet, & wanted his MFA to be focused on gender lit.
Where is he now? He works for a bank processing applications. I never bothered to invite him to political events (reproductive rights, environmentalism, etc.) because I was sure he wasn't interested in going, even if it was just to support me.
His idealism was weak. The words seem like they fell short, & ended up being just words instead of thoughts or actions. And that's no good for a person who wants to love more.

But what's more insidious is finding a person who is doing all the actions, & then discovering how expansive the lack of ideals is.

I met this person who seemed like he could be pretty good. He was vegetarian & was very good about having all his products be earth-friendly. Turns out that both of those are just because he worries about what he puts into himself, & not a concern for anything in the broader world. He told me recently about how he felt really conflicted because he wanted to see Tom Morello perform this weekend (because he's pretty awesome), but didn't like that the concert was a benefit for Cindy Sheehan's congressional run. The reason: "I don't like her politics." I know that she's against the Iraq War, what else is there? What is there to be offended by?
Especially with the first part, it just disgusts me to know that someone is going through the actions for selfish reasons & not for some altruistic purpose. Sure, it's better than not doing those things, but it still shows a person that I wouldn't want to hang out with.

How Much--The Ginger Ninjas

How much
How much do I care about peace?
Do I care enough about peace to ride my bike to work?
To not say "it's too far", & instead just move closer and quit when I get there?
To say "Enough is enough is enough. I will not work for The Man anymore."
Do I care enough about peace to ride and ride and ride
Cleaning my mind until I find a real job working for everywhere everyone everything else in the world?
Not real like 9-to-5, real like keeps me alive.
Not real like Peter Jennings, real like Amy Goodman.
Not real like "somebody's got to do it", real like Earth Island Institute, Global Exchange, Doctors Without Borders, South Yuba River Citizens League.
Real like if I don't do it, who the hell will?
Do I care enough about peace to admit that inactions are actions, and all actions are votes, and not voting IS voting, not voting IS voting.
To vote with my mouth, my conscience & wallet, & my ballot while I'm at it.
To buy all organic all the time.
Always.
From sheets to roses to underwear to sprouts.
To cause a commotion at Safeway.
Say, "Let me know when you make the transition, and I might reconsider my decision to never shop here again."
To dig up my chemically-dependent, heavy-drinking lawn & replace it for good with a permaculture garden to share with my neighborhood.
To UPS 40 pounds of corn and 5 thousand gallons of water to my refugee penpal in Rwanda every day for a year before eating one more mouthful of pig, of chicken, of cow.
To build my house out of straw.
Make it small; fill it with compact fluorescents; super-insulate the water heater.
Make certain every splinter of wood is Jay Butterfly certified.
And once I built it, to stay home.
To not fly, to forsake air travel and it's out-sized, suicidal tendencies for warming up the planet; it's insatiable greed for there and here on the very same day.
Fuck those little plastic cups anyway.
Do I care enough about peace to let my fingers to the walking?
Right out the door of the business-as-usual yellow pages and into the national green pages every time the American in me can no longer resist the urge to consume.
To sell half my shit, then give half what's left today...except for the television must be destroyed before maiming the mind of one more little boy.
To have just one kid.
To adopt between one and eighty-eight.
To meditate on the origins of impatience, anger, & hate so that I may never yell at any of them or anyone else I love, or don't yet love.
To spend as much time with them as I do sending interoffice e-mail at my job (real or not).
To remember that the truth has been found.
I can't buy from Exxon without Prince William's Sound.
I can't buy from Chevron without hired helicopters gunning and going to the ground.
Not from Shell and that little thing with Ken Saro-wiwa.
Not from Unocal and their Ivy League pals
Shilling on Nightline, promoting the new Uzbeki-Afghani-Osama-Bin Pipeline.
And therefore to commit to a reduction in internal combustion.
To admit I'm addicted to my automobile.
My own two little axils of evil.
I keep finding myself back at the pump, with every finger on the trigger.
And I know, in that moment, they is me, I am them.
Pushed & sucked & pumped through a dirty oil filter.
Do I care enough about peace to sell my car?
To hitchhike, but refuse to ride in any SUV eight-commuter.
Range Rover, Range Rover, send our black soldiers right over.
Jesus Chrysler Honda Krishna!
I keep finding myself back at the outlet.
Ready to plug something else in or check something else out.
Do I care enough about peace to close the Gap?
Or at least stand in front of the Gap with a picket?
To never set foot in WalMart, Kmart, Waremart, Bi-mart, PetsMart, StarMart, or Starbucks again?
How about Home Depot?
To stop buying, stop buying, stop buying clothes made of oil sewn by 8-year-olds in dark factories on the other side of the planet;
Sold in stores built on wetlands, farmlands, once-quiet-lands, so-far-from-where-you-live-lands.
So hemmed in by asphalt, big trucks, broken glass, & mufflers;
So underserved by public transportation that driving there seems like the only reasonable way to get there;
But which are too cheap to pass up.
Do I care enough about peace to stop buying those clothes?
To shop instead at thrift stores?
To buy organic cotton, hemp, recycled clothes made by people I know who live on my street?
To acknowledge that peace is redwood trees standing.
Peace is worldwide family planning.
Peace is organic peach canning.
Peace is Maya Angelou in the Oval Office, sitting at the big desk.
Peace is live music in my kitchen.
Peace is your grandma riding her bike to the bus, to the farmer's market.
Peace is a living wage for the Columbian peasant who grew my cup of coffee.
Peace is the collective self-esteem of all the world's kids.
And I've got to wonder, if you took all the 10-year-olds in China, America, Afghanistan, Nigeria, & Mexico City & gathered all their self-esteem & put it in a laser beam of light & shot it into the night,
Would it make it to the Lincoln Bedroom?
Would it make it to the moon?
Do I care enough about peace to cut up my Discover card?
Send it back to the bankers who are using my money to finance the Three Gorges Dam?
To displace a million people?
Brown, voiceless people?
To drown the Great Yangtze and 5,000 years of cultural history beneath the largest chunk of cement ever conceived by Stanford University engineers?
To distrust scientists with technological cures for organizational problems, with DNA cures for tomatoes that ripen, and DDT cures for mosquitoes that bite, with nuclear cures for energy problems, nuclear cures for war problems, nuclear cures for nuclear waste problems.
This just in! Top scientists today have just announced that they have found a cure for ignorance!
All the newsmen blared, if Einstein was so smart, why didn't he see we weren't ready for MC to be squared?
To revolt every time some corporation commits an appropriation, steals a word, a plant, an idea, a gene, a famous face, a mental space, a sacred place, a 6th grade class.
Get the hell out of my watershed before I copyright our whole language & trademark your ass!
To boycott their labels.
Never worship their stars.
Carry scissors & markers, & stand in the street offering on-the-spot removal of swooshes from feet.
To educate myself in the arts of resistance by seeking out the real news in Boycott Action News, in WorldWatch, in Mother Jones, in AdBusters, in Yes! Magazine.
To climb & climb, up & up the ranks of the Ruckus Society.
To recycle, but only as a last resort after reusing, retreading, reducing, rejecting, rejoicing, & replacing our throw-away culture.
To carry a plate & cup in a bag on my shoulder
Ready to hold spontaneous nourishment without notice, without needing virgin old-growth disposable tableware.
And when the cashiers say: "paper or plastic?", I say "no, thank you."
To ask questions about everything I demonize, criticize, generalize, jeopardize, canonize, ostracize, memorize, advertise, or super-size.
About everything I say I can't live without.
About everything I stand for, sit for, work for, play for, pray for, pay for...live for.
About everything I eat, buy, do, make, facilitate, drive, consume, produce, wear, think, value, believe, throw away & leave behind.
Do I care enough about peace to light myself on fire on Las Vegas Boulevard?
To walk the talk.
To walk, and walk, and walk.
To walk to the White House.
To walk to Iraq.
To walk to no place in particular, holding a sign above my head that says:
"One Walker for Peace."
Ignoring mind closures and "no trespassing" signs, testosterone-fueled egos & the intentionally blind.
Planting tiny peace seeds in every fertile bare patch of human mind that I find.

Do I care enough about peace to ride my bike to work?

Mothers Are a Dear Thing

I hate hearing that friends' mothers are not doing well. They're in ICUs or fighting inoperable cancers. It's just not right.

Having lived through that pain, I know firsthand that it is not a pleasant experience in the least.

Especially when the children bearing it are still relatively young & could possibly miss out on their mothers being there for important moments in life. Like being there for weddings, or present for support during births...or even just as a comfort after a bad break-up.

This blows.

A Great Loss to the Comedy Community

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- George Carlin, the influential comedian whose routines used profanity, scatology and absurdity to point out the silliness and hypocrisy of human life, has died. He was 71.

George Carlin, here in 2007, kept up a busy schedule, performing as recently as last weekend in Las Vegas.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, died of heart failure Sunday, according to publicist Jeff Abraham. Carlin went to St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon, complaining of chest pain, and died at 5:55 p.m. PT.

Carlin performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and maintained a busy performing schedule, which included regular TV specials for HBO.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin was "a hugely influential force in stand-up comedy. He had an amazing mind, and his humor was brave, and always challenging us to look at ourselves and question our belief systems, while being incredibly entertaining. He was one of the greats," actor and comedian Ben Stiller said in a statement. Slideshow: The life of George Carlin »

Carlin was often quoted, his best lines traded like baseball cards. "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" began one famous routine. Another pointed out the differences between the pastoral game of baseball and the militaristic game of football: "Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park! Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium."

Then there were the non sequiturs: "The bigger they are, the worse they smell," he observed. Watch Carlin in action »

He filled three best-selling books, more than 20 record albums and countless television appearances with his material. Time.com: How Carlin changed comedy

He appreciated the impact his words made on fans.

"These are nice additional merit badges that you earn if you've left a mark on a person or on some people," he told CNN.com in 2004. "I'd say it's flattering, but flattery implies insincerity, so I call it a compliment."

Carlin was probably best known for a routine that began, "I was thinking about the curse words and the swear words, the cuss words and the words that you can't say." It was a monologue, known as "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television," that got Carlin arrested and eventually led to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The "Seven Dirty Words" bit prompted a landmark indecency case after New York's WBAI-FM radio aired it in 1973.

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 that the sketch was "indecent but not obscene," giving the Federal Communications Commission broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency on the airwaves.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," Carlin said. "In the context of that era, it was daring.

"It just sounds like a very self-serving kind of word. I don't want to go around describing myself as a 'groundbreaker' or a 'difference-maker' because I'm not and I wasn't," he said. "But I contributed to people who were saying things that weren't supposed to be said." Watch the impact of Carlin's seven dirty words routine »

In November, Carlin was slated to receive the 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, given by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

"In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think," Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. "His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching."

In a typically wry response, Carlin said, "Thank you, Mr. Twain. Have your people call my people." Watch an appreciation of Carlin »

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, in New York. He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade and joined the Air Force, where his misfit ways continued -- he received three courts-martial and several punishments.

After leaving the military, he spent a few years in radio, where he met Burns. In 1960, the pair left to pursue a comedy career in Los Angeles. Burns told the AP that the Carlin of those years was "fairly conservative," but things changed when the two saw Lenny Bruce in the early '60s.

"It was an epiphany for George," Burns told the AP. "The comedy we were doing at the time wasn't exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction."

Carlin remembered a similar feeling, he told CNN.com.

"[His career] represented a lot of such honesty on the stage, the willingness to confront a lot of sacred cows and expose them," he said of Bruce. "He did it with a great deal of irreverence and with a lot of brilliance."

Carlin went solo in 1962. For most of the decade, he was a conservative-looking presence: clean-shaven, attired in jacket and tie, making his amused observations to audiences on "The Tonight Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show."

But as the times changed, so did Carlin. He let his hair down, grew a beard and dressed in jeans and tie-dyed T-shirts. It was this Carlin who became a hit with college audiences in the early '70s and made such albums as "FM & AM" and "Occupation: Foole."

Carlin hosted the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" in October 1975.

He also appeared in movies, including "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989), Kevin Smith's "Dogma" (1999) and "Cars" (2006). For the latter, he was the voice of Fillmore, the Volkswagen bus.

He starred as a cabdriver in his own sitcom, "The George Carlin Show," which ran from 1993 to 1995. He also played the character of Mr. Conductor on the PBS series "Shining Time Station" and lent his voice to two episodes of "The Simpsons."

Carlin was blunt about his own struggles. He suffered several heart attacks, one at Dodger Stadium during a baseball game. He also underwent treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.

He was relentlessly amused by humanity -- in one of his most famous lines, he pointed out that "if you're born in this world you're given a ticket to the freak show. If you're born in America, you're given a front-row seat" -- but refused to consider himself a cynic. He preferred "disappointed idealist."

It all went into his comedy. He was fascinated by language and euphemism, noting that "there's a reluctance to confront reality and a desire to soften unpleasant realities." In a different life, he said, he may have been a teacher.

Which he was, anyway.

"Part of what my impulse is with things I've said or done, I think it is an attempt to demystify these things, to take them out of the realm of the forbidden and the disgusting and the off-base, and to at least bring them into the discussion," he told CNN.com.

He is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin. Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997.

Free Bird

Okay, so this is a little more personal. (Which is hard to stomach because I hate blogs of self-centeredness...but I'll justify that this is general enough.)

Almost one year ago I moved halfway across the country in the effort to start my life over with a clean slate. I'd know only two people in the whole state, & would have no pressures on me to be the person that I'd been for I have no clue how long. I was tired of having to be so good & just being so nervous in being judged all the time.

I just don't feel like people are that open to friends of theirs experimenting with the idea of who they are once they've grown accustomed to them being a certain way...or at least not right in front of their eyes anyways.

There were so many things that I had been wanting to do or get involved in, but just didn't feel like I had the support to check them all out. (Not that no one cared about the same things as me, but they didn't have the motivation to do it with me.)

But when you have to go out & learn an entirely new place & find out what you want to do & where you want to try to make friends, I think it helps.

The changes that I've made in the last year have been noticeable.


But, I also have to wonder, how many others are trapped? Trapped in an existence where they are what they are expected to be, but never getting the chance to wonder if they really want to be all that or if they want more. I can't believe that I'm the only one. For a country of people who are stalked by the media for their low self-esteem, can I really believe I was the only one who was suffocated into something less than I am?

No. I don't.

I just wonder how many others will find their way out before it's too late.

Obesity Contributes to Global Warming--Reuters

By Michael Kahn

GENEVA (Reuters) - Obesity contributes to global warming, too.

Obese and overweight people require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat, and the problem will worsen as the population literally swells in size, a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says.

This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, the school's researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in the journal Lancet on Friday.

"We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility," Edwards said in a telephone interview. "Obesity is a key part of the big picture."

At least 400 million adults worldwide are obese. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

In their model, the researchers pegged 40 percent of the global population as obese with a body mass index of near 30. Many nations are fast approaching or have surpassed this level, Edwards said.

BMI is a calculation of height to weight, and the normal range is usually considered to be 18 to 25, with more than 25 considered overweight and above 30 obese.

The researchers found that obese people require 1,680 daily calories to sustain normal energy and another 1,280 calories to maintain daily activities, 18 percent more than someone with a stable BMI.

Because thinner people eat less and are more likely to walk than rely on cars, a slimmer population would lower demand for fuel for transportation and for agriculture, Edwards said.

This is also important because 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he added.

The next step is quantifying how much a heavier population is contributing to climate change, higher fuel prices and food shortages, he added.

"Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food," Edwards and Roberts wrote.

(Editing by Stephen Weeks)

Is There Power Left In the People?

After seeing a showing of rare rock video clips at the library, I thought it was only appropriate to go over to the Red Vic to watch "Chicago 10". (imdb article here...watch the videos.)

It was incredible. It really makes me want to go out & find the trial transcripts & read up about the people on trial.


But that wasn't the most important thought that came to me while I was watching it.


While watching footage of policeman beating demonstrators with their nightsticks & shoving them into the police vans & of all the talk of the anger of the masses against the Viet Nam war, I couldn't help but feel that this story is just a little too relevant to now. We're in the midst of another bad war, & with National Conventions taking place this summer in preparation of the election in the fall.

The stage feels similar.

And the question is: What would I do?

Clearly, I don't care enough to the point that I'm planning on taking off work to attend either one of the conventions. But, more importantly, would I show up for an event like the one MOBE & the Yippies planned? Would I stick it out knowing the likelihood of being gassed & beaten & perhaps killed? Do I believe in my voice that strongly, & know that my life's worth speaking my words?
I don't know that it is yet...But I want it to be. I want to be filled with that passion.


But this all supposes that there are people out there who would organize something like that. I'm holding some doubts. There's too much apathy, or working with the system (which would only keep it sanitized anyways), or whatever else excuse there is for people to sit around on their asses & complain about how bad things are but never really do anything about it. So even if I can say "Speaking my opinion is worth the most to me", would there be a movement to welcome me with like-mindedness?

I hope that by the time that I have found my level of sacrifice, that enough others have found theirs & will march with me.