State of the Union

An amusing dubbed spoof of Bush's State of the Union Speech lives here. It's good for a giggle, but really I post it because the link was sent to me by my neo-con officemate who has come a long way in the last year.

Links of Hope

I propose that rather than focus on the previous tragedy of this day, we use it to acknowledge and appreciate those people who are putting great effort into making this world a better place. In particular, because of the religious nature of many of the world's violent conflicts, I would like to draw attention to a number of open-minded, politically active religious organizations. Kudos.

International Centre for Islam and Pluralism
Muslim Peace Fellowship
Faithful America
Jewish Peace Fellowship
Christian Peacemaker Teams

Shame on ABC for Propagating Lies

It's that time of year again when the U.S. media unabashedly and heavy-handedly exploits the grief of the people of this nation. Shame on all of them. Once again the conservative neo-Nazis are using the tragedy to obtain political gains. This year ABC is airing a "docudrama" called Path to 9/11 which essentially rewrites history by blaming the Clinton Administration for the events of September 11. And right before the November elections...how subtle.

You can read all about this abomination here.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that Scholastic, Inc. was planning to show this propaganda (with an accompanying "study guide") in 100,000 classrooms across America. In another victory for the politically active, Scholastic responded to petitions by pulling these materials in favor of a critical thinking approach with a focus on media literacy!

Bask in the good news here.

Anyone who thinks that trying to make a difference is pointless should take heed and step up to the plate. We have a solemn responsibility to make our voices heard.

Sleeping In

1 - The Manta Rays

I dreampt that I was boarding a boat to see a theatrical production, but when I got on none of my friends were there and the dark wood cabin was full of much older people, already sitting down on benches. The captain started the boat and we motered around in tight circles, tilting so much that I could see the bottom of the small bay that we were in. Manta rays covered in plants or barnacles glided gracefully but somehow menacingly across the bottom. I remembered someone saying that it was a scary place to swim because of them. (In my waking life I have no fear but love of them...)

2 - Places We Never Go

In my dream I allowed myself to miss Colorado, which I moved away from a year ago. Heard my own voice say that I should move back, if it would make my heart happy. So I found myself in the run down purple mining shack mountain house that I lived in there for four years. I was thinking of how I would arrange it when I moved back in, thinking of getting a roommate, and in this process came to the top of a long narrow rickety staircase plunging down into a bottom floor (which had never been there in waking life) that I remembered only going down to but once before, long ago. So I descended, recognizing the place but feeling an urgent desire to finish my business and return to the floor that I lived on. I remembered that there was a labyrinth of rooms behind a door at the end and to the left of the main chamber, thought for a second that maybe my roommate(s) could use some of those rooms, but then remembered the other, warehouse-sized room on this floor - containing a literal mountain of cobwebs, dust, broken mouldy boxes, crippled furniture, stained photos, and insects, millions of breeding insects...

For the Love of God

Our dear friends at Unremitting Failure have recently exposed a serious liberal conspiracy, which should be shared among all those lion-hearted enough to stomach it.

Spotlight on: Squirrels

Seriously, these guys are hilarious and accomplish quite the opposite of what they purport to. Keep an eye on them. It will bring meaning to your life.

CNN.com

I used to think of CNN as a reliable source of news. I'm not sure when their competence began to crumble, but in the last few months I've had two eye-opening experiences which have caused me to change my mind. First of all, there was the July 18th American Morning show where Carol Costello revealed that she didn't understand that embryos were fertilized. Perhaps an honest mistake? My mistake apparently was to place a CNN.com feed on my Google homepage. At the moment the top story reads Schwarzenegger: Cubans, Puerto Ricans 'very hot'. Surely there's something more important happening somewhere?

Then again, maybe they're right - ladies, meet Chayanne

What are we even doing this for?

Isn't it a little pathetic, all of us sitting here in front of these machines striving to communicate with one another, to become great, to have our thoughts read and hopefully understood by others? Shouldn't we be outside watching the leaves turn colors, or in a cafe listening to bad poetry, or having a great conversation, in person, over a glass of wine?

image on right courtesy of Leurd