WESHALLOVERCOME

(harvey milk: 1930-1978, civil/gay rights activist.)

the gay community is fighting for their right to marry, again. this time in federal court.

what the fuck?

i mean it: WHAT THE FUCK?!?!

are we really doing this?

are we really denying gays the rights we extend to everyone ELSE, just because some of us are uncomfortable with someone ELSE'S sexuality?

"you're gay, so therefore less than someone who's straight, so you deserve less. period." is that the opposition's argument? more or less?

fuck off with your blatant discrimination.

you know, someday we're going to look back at this debacle and feel the same way we do when we look back at slavery and segregation: STUPID.

what's so "sacred" about marriage, anyway?

there is a 50+% divorce rate in america! doesn't that tell you something? you can get married in VEGAS! doesn't that tell you something? britney spears was allowed to marry! hell-fucking-o, people! as far as "deserving" things goes, she hardly deserves to breathe, much less marry . . .

give gays the same right to be miserable as everyone else!

but that's not even the point, is it?

even if every heterosexual couple who ever got married lived in complete bliss, that STILL wouldn't mean gays should not be allowed to enter into the same social contract and receive the same benefits under the law.

i mean, we are talking about GROWN, TAX-PAYING, AMERICAN men and women here, are we not?

whatever happened to separation of church and state?

anyone?

anyone?

bueller?

that we have to go to court . . . and likely the supreme court at that . . . just to figure out that denying a person rights based on color, creed, gender, OR SEXUAL PREFERENCE is . . . i don't know . . . TOTALLY FUCKING WRONG . . . just seems to me pretty pathetic.

but if history has taught us anything it's this: battles are not won by those who sit and wait for change, who idle on the sidelines, but by those who make their voices heard.

WESHALLOVERCOME

YES WE DID!!!

if i had words with which to express my excitement, i might employ them now . . .

but i'll just say that tonight, more than any other night since i became an american in 1996, i am SO proud to call my self a citizen of this great nation and to call this remarkable place my home.

god bless america!

god speed obama!

TONIGHT'STHENIGHT,IT'SGONNABEALRIGHT. . .

athletes like to fuck.

but OLYMPIC athletes like to fuck A LOT.

i know, I KNOW . . . i just shattered your world with that bit of revelation, right?

yeah, me neither.

see, i read an article today that the chinese ordered 100K condoms for 10,500 athletes.

(crickets chirp)

AND???

right???

seriously, i don't get what the big deal is. i mean, i'm having a hard time believing that a story got written about this . . .

that comes down to roughly 9.5 condoms per person. (for the record: hope i'm never on the receiving end of that half condom . . . i'm just saying . . .)

big fucking whoop. TEN CONDOMS PER PERSON?

how long are the olympics? anywhere from 10 to 20 days or something like that?

people, that's ONLY enough condoms for MAYBE a once-daily shag!!!

HARDLY "olympic".

well, UNLESS . . .

nah, i won't say it. as it is, my mouth has kept me from finding a suitable life partner for the past 30 years. buuuuut, i know you know what i was about to say, you dirty bastards.

anyhow, the way i understand it, SOME PEOPLE out there think that 10 condoms per person for a 10-20 day period is a lot. "they", i am guessing, are married, old, and republican.

whatever . . .

here are my favorite snippets from the article on fox sports (you can thank me later for saving you from having to read the entire thing):

-"Sex may not be an Olympic sport, but that won't stop athletes of all disciplines from going for the gold."

-"Love is in the air throughout the Olympic Village, from archers who have more than one bull's eye in their sights to equestrian riders who have been known to go sans saddle."

-"According to AskMen.com, "Scientific studies have found that having sex actually increases testosterone levels." In other words, sex can be like a power bar."

-"Sexual intercourse, according to scientific research, can expend up to 50 calories — if done with appropriate levels of vigor and enthusiasm. Michael Phelps, who is on a 10,000-calorie-a-day diet, would have to practice a lot more than the breaststroke to burn off that many calories away from the pool."

bada bing!

MYLIFEISBRILLIANT,MYLOVEISPURE

apparently, the chinese DID NOT GET THE MEMO:

"Chinese defend Olympic ceremony lip-synch
Parents of both girls said each felt privileged just to have taken part

BEIJING-Chinese officials defended their decision to pass off the voice of a 7-year-old songbird as that of another girl at the Olympic opening ceremony, calling it a simple casting choice. Critics said it was a step too far in China’s obsession with the perfect Olympic Games.

Beijing organizers of the games faced tough criticism Wednesday after a whistleblower revealed that the 9-year-old who performed a song during the spectacular opening ceremony was lip-synching to another girl’s vocal track.

Yang Peiyi, a 7-year-old with bright eyes and a smile made crooked by the stubs of her first grown-up teeth, was heard by an audience estimated in the billions during Friday night’s ceremony, singing “Ode to the Motherland.”

But they never saw her face."

(AP story continues here . . .)

as one writer said, "what can be cuter than buck teeth?"

i mean, it's true. gnarly teeth are beautiful. just ask the english, who brush with sugarpaste. they LOVE fucked-up teeth!

YOUHAVEMEINSIDETHETRAPYOUDON'TKNOWYOUSET

my car was broken into last month.



did i tell you?

no, of course not. i haven't written shit in weeks.

what a fucking slacker i am.

sorry.

well, anyhow, it was.

some tools broke in, stole my damn $400 coach purse--a birthday present from my brother joe--and made a mess of my car. let's see, i am now also sans laptop, driver's license (had to get a new one, which was fine since i looked like vomit in the other one), credit cards (which they took the liberty of running up . . . nice, because frankly, i just had waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money and i'm relieved they lightened that heavy burden), and a front passenger window (no, that's not true, i replaced it the day it happened to the tune of almost $300).

(and yes, incidentally, I KNOW NOW NOT TO LEAVE THINGS IN MY CAR. one to grow on.)

fuckin' ay. i mean, it's just two years old and already it's been crashed (a moving truck slammed into me on the driver's side after only two months) and broken into . . . jeeezuz!

who'd want to break into my car anyway? fine, it's a relatively new car, but it's a honda accord sedan . . . a family car, if you will . . . 4-doors . . . not in any way flashy . . .

on the sunny side (is there one?), i usually leave to go to school at some ungodly hour and it just so happened i slept in that morning or else i might have caught those assholes in the act and would have had to go all fucking ninja on their asses and probably been shanked by one of them.

bastards.

BUT IT GETS BETTER.

two days later, i get pulled over by the lapd, who want to know why my car registration is lapsed. i tell them that my car was broken into and that the pieces of shit who did it rather took a liking to my registration tag (in addition to everything else) and kindly removed it from my license plate.

then they ask me for my driver's license. i don't have it, OBVIOUSLY (to me, but not to them) . . . so i give them my number.

they go back to their little cop car, run my plate and dl number and then come back to me . . .

"miss, your registration checks out ok, but your license is expired," they say.

"oh (fuck)," i reply.

"we have two options here. we can either let you go and send you straight to the nearest dmv to renew your license or we can issue you a $500 ticket for driving on an expired license, impound your car, and take you to county jail. what do you think?" they say.

hmm, let me think this over for a minute, officers.

would i like cake?

or would i like death?

let's see, tough choice: cake or DEATH?

well, shit, I'LL TAKE CAKE!!!

fucking twats.


(i love eddie izzard. i especially love him in drag . . .)

the cops let me go, but not without telling me how gracious they were being by doing so.

gracious, eh?

yeah . . . they were gracious to me.

they were ALSO very gracious to the scuzzbuckets who stole my stuff.

let me explain: you see, when the other cops came to my apartment building the morning i found my car broken into, i had already spoken to my bank who told me when and where the thieves had spent my money. so, when the cops arrived, i said, hey i know where these guys went and at what time and why don't y'all go check out the closed circuit video and see if maybe you can actually catch them.

after a long pause and a hearty chuckle from the cops, i got, "miss, we have more pressing matters to attend to."

oh yeah, sorry, i know that krispy kremes don't taste as good cold as they do hot . . . (zing! yeah, i'm a bitch. sue me.)

or i suppose you could just throw people like me into jail because we're easy to catch and come willingly.

ANDIFYOUEVERNEEDMYHANDSTOCARRYYOUTHROUGHTHEHEAVYTIMES. . .

last friday, the therapist mumbled about how switzerland was able to--very nearly--mimic a human brain.

he, sarcastically, it seemed to me, ended his post by saying, "i hope it has good parents."

but perhaps he wasn't being sarcastic. isn't it true, though, that a good upbringing makes a world of difference?

it makes all the difference in individual people, and therefore in one-on-one relationships, partnerships, communities . . . countries . . .

i, for one, do worry about major technological advances. and no, i'm not some backward-thinking christian conservative who eschews all science. i embrace responsible, ethical science. i do think, for example, that stem cell research is important and worthwhile. but i still wonder . . .

recently, i was at a district meeting with representatives from the other five high schools in my area discussing new textbooks and supplemental materials. we decided to adopt mcdougal littell's package for ninth and tenth graders.

and what a package it is . . . the new books combined with the new software were so amazing that i leaned over to my department chair and said, "where are the robots that are replacing us? these new materials teach themselves!"

well, almost. (thank god.)

there is an example of great technology that is going to make learning accessible, comprehensible, and fun. i'm all for it.

but what about a synthetic brain?

i am sure that some will ask, "why not?"

umm, i don't know, but if you've ever read "1984", then you might have some doubts. i mean, it looks like the next logical step, no? total mind control . . .

or not.

let's go back to "good parenting" because i think that's the key. i don't fear technology and science when it's in the hands of ethical, moral people. and i know that appears to be contradiction . . . like, "what's morality and ethics got to do with science?" i know it seems like a slippery slope, indeed, but i do believe there is a place for ethics and morality in the scientific world. i believe that scientists should be guided, if not by "morals" and "ethics", then by a sense to do "right" for mankind.

the thing is, though, of course . . . defining "right" . . .

i'm just saying that we should not forget our history here.

i am reminded of dr. j. robert oppenheimer. remember him? he's the scientist who directed the manhattan project and was responsible for creating the atom bomb . . . and who, upon seeing the awesome power of his creation said, "we knew the world would not be the same. i remembered the line from the hindu scripture, the bhagavad-gita, 'now i am become death, the destroyer of worlds.'"

oppenheimer, together with einstein and others, spent the rest of his life trying to educate the public about responsible scientific inquiry and exploration . . .

how, though, you ask, will we know if something is bad for us UNTIL it is discovered? well, friends, i didn't say i had all the answers . . . i'll just reiterate: proper parenting . . .

i see it like this . . . barring ecological concerns . . . in my last post, i was going to say that it was irresponsible for the duggars to have so many kids. i felt that, hey, you know, there are already a lot of people on the planet. we're not trying to populate a new country here, ok?

then, however, i thought . . . you know, they seem like good people. and doesn't my real concern have more to do with "unsavory" people procreating, rather than good people procreating?

i'd rather the duggars have 18 kids, than, say, charles manson have even one. why? parenting, that's why.

if i knew, for a fact, that all of the world's scientists came from "good homes", then i'd sleep better at night.

how 'bout you?

IGUESSPROMISESAREBETTERLEFTUNSAID

michelle duggar is my new hero(ine)!

(well, sort of.)

she's pregnant with her E I G H T E E N T H child!

that's right, people, no need to rub your eyes. you read it correctly. there is an american woman, right now, pregnant with her 18th kid.

AND SHE'S 41!

ha!

"fertility decline at age 35", take THAT!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK: The Duggar kids planned a big Mother's Day surprise for their mom this year. But the surprise was on them when Michelle Duggar announced on the TODAY Show that they were soon to welcome an 18th sibling.

“We’re expecting!” the happy mother told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira and the entire Arkansas clan. “Number 18!

To date, the Duggars’ 17 natural children range in age from 20 years to 9 months. Included in the mix are 10 boys and seven girls — Joshua, twins Jana and John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, twins Jedidiah and Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah and baby Jennifer, who arrived last Aug. 2.

With two sets of twins, Michelle, 41, has gone through 15 pregnancies that ended in 13 natural deliveries and two Caesarean sections.

Both Michelle and Jim Bob — a former state legislator who served in the Arkansas House of Representatives — are real estate agents. They claim their family is debt-free, with the entire bunch helping to build their 7,000-square-foot home in Tontitown. And they are enriched by a devout faith in their religion.

The Duggars are followers of the evangelical Christian movement called Quiverful, which teaches that children are God’s blessing and that husbands and wives should happily welcome every child they are given. In fact, the Duggars' Web site, duggarfamily.com, quotes “Children are a heritage of the Lord” from verse 3 of the 123rd Psalm.

“We just let the Lord decide,” Jim Bob, 42, told Vieira.

“They are such a gift and we’re enjoying them so much,” Michelle added. “We would love more, and the power of the Lord took our faith to give us another one.”

The Duggars married in 1984, when Michelle was 17 and Jim Bob was 19. They held off on having kids for four years before Michelle ceased taking birth control pills to have their first child. After Joshua was born in 1988, Michelle returned to birth control but wound up getting pregnant anyway. Unfortunately, she suffered a miscarriage, which the couple attributed to use of the pill.

Michelle and Jim Bob decided to pray for as many children as God would give them. Within a year, Michelle was pregnant with the first of their two sets of twins.

Their large number of offspring has meant other large numbers for the Duggars. Michelle has been pregnant for 135 months of her life, with an average of 18 months between births. The family estimates it has used 90,000 diapers and launders 200 loads of clothes each month in a row of industrial-size washers and dryers.

Even though they go through three loaves of bread per day, they claim to feed their family for less than $2,000 a month. Transportation is facilitated by nine vehicles, led by a 21-passenger bus. They estimate that all members of the family have combined to work approximately 39,000 hours on their home.

Each child learns to play both violin and piano. And for what it’s worth, when child No. 18 arrives, they’ll have enough kids to field two baseball teams."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i mean, i'd rather gnaw my leg off than give birth to 18 children, but good for her. (i think . . .)

YOURSENTENCESNEVERDEFINEDYOU

after my last post, someone asked me why i hate bush.

the fact is that i don't hate bush, i LOATHE him (i find that, actually, "hate" is too weak a word. i hate oprah. i hate brussel sprouts. but at least they don't ruin people's lives (much). . .).

here are a few reasons (this list is by no means exhaustive):

reasons 1-937 (+/- 10): he's a liar. yes, all politicians are. hell, so am i sometimes! but he's a REALLY BIG liar.

one lie, ok. two lies, ok. a hundred lies, even, ok. BUT NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN LIES?!?! and those were exclusively for the war in iraq; that's not even counting all of the lies required for other international and domestic affairs . . .

reason 938: he's a moron. i could be more eloquent, but why waste all that energy firing off my synapses when it it easily boils down to this: we've got an ass who maxed out at "Cs" in college at the helm of the world's largest super power . . . and i resent it. a lot.

reason 939: iraq. some have called it a "necessary" war. i wouldn't necessarily say so . . . but now that we're in it i agree that we have to fight smart and do whatever we can to make sure iraq doesn't succumb to sectarian violence, which would leave it wide open to terrorist organizations (more so than it already is).

if we pull out now, as certain people suggest, iraq will become one giant training ground for al qaeda, hamas, you name it . . .

people thought 9/11 was bad, ha! pull out of iraq now and let's talk in 6 months to see what those people have to say THEN!

and even more basic than that, it's just plain wrong to take the seagull approach now. we owe the iraqi people more than that . . .

reason 940: the economy. i have to move to zimbabwe now if i want to be able to live in the style to which i have become accustomed (see post from march 26th). you know, with the way bush has shit all over the us dollar, zimbabwe is probably the only place left in the world where i can afford such little luxuries as . . . i dunno . . . FOOD!

reason 941: he's made the whole world loathe US! as if people didn't have enough fucking reasons to want to kill us before WITHOUT this idiot galavanting around the globe running roughshod over other people's cultures, beliefs, and values!

reason 942: he said that god spoke to him. listen, if god does exist, you think he's gonna call YOU?!?! fuck no!

wait. shit. this reason is the same as #938. fuck . . .

EVENIFYOURHANDSARESHAKINGANDYOURFAITHISBROKEN. . .DOITWITHAHEARTWIDEOPEN. . .SAYWHATYOUNEEDTOSAY

truly, i detest bush as much as the next guy (gal). no, really. when bush was re-elected, i cried . . . for a week. i'm serious. you can ask any of my friends. and when he finally leaves office, i'm going to throw a party. a very, very BIG party . . .

but when i read today that a children's puppet show on palestinian, hamas-owned television ran a sketch in which a child puppet stabbed a bush puppet to death, i was more than a little disturbed.

and you know, yeah, a lot of things in this world disturb me . . . most more, much more than this last.

it's not like i'm unfamiliar with the whole effigy concept, either. i get it. i do. old news. i understand. it's just that, for the most part, adults are capable of processing such visuals and information, whereas children are not.

kids are going to see that violence and think that THAT is what they are supposed to do when they disagree, vehemently even, with something or someone. they're not going to understand that it's an outlet, a form of protest, albeit a bad form of protest, rather than a call to violent action.

i know that violence is precisely hamas' aim; getting kids to wage war as soon as they're able to hold a gun . . . hell, sooner, perhaps . . . is their goal . . .

god, i don't know. i was gonna make a point here somewhere, but every time i talk about the middle east, i get overwhelmed and tongue-tied . . .

as a teacher, working with kids everyday . . . young, impressionable minds who would be guided by our example, our kindness, our tolerance, our generosity, our equanimity, our patience, our mercy . . . i cringe at stuff like this. as a moral human being, frankly, i cringe . . .

when will people ever learn that violence ONLY begets more violence?

GETYOURMONEYFORNUTHIN'ANDYOURCHICKSFORFREE

(this beer costs $1M in . . . oh jesus, what are they calling it now? the zim? the rhodesian dollar? bearer checks? i digress . . . according to "official" figures, that beer should cost about $33US, but the "real" price, that is, the black market price would be closer to less than $1US. and you know, i'm all about cheap beer. well, actually, i hate beer, but wine . . . ooh, a nice gewurztraminer or riesling . . . now we're talkin'!)
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just found a country where the US greenback is STILL worth something!

ZIMBABWE!!!

yes, friends, if you hurry to your local travel agent NOW and hop a flight to zimbabwe this instant you could be able to go to a magical land where your american currency would be able to buy you stuff . . . lots of stuff . . .

ok, you might lose your life in the process, but hey, it's worth it, right? i mean, life is about acquiring more and more and MORE crap until you explode and if you can't do that, then is there even a point in taking in another breath?

exactly . . .

seriously though, people . . . news outlets are reporting that zimbabwe's economy just hit 100,000% inflation!!! AS IF they didn't have enough problems already, right? i didn't even know that THAT was possible!

there were several interesting articles about the situation all over the net. i've posted some of them for you below, if you're interested.

there is some particularly good information over THERE on the link to your right: voices without votes.

or, ethan zuckerman has a wonderful piece about it at: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/

or if you prefer, newsweek, too, has an article about zimbabwe: http://www.newsweek.com/id/129010?GT1=43002

why do i care, you ask? why might YOU care? well, just a few days ago, our president had the gall to come out and say that the us economy is going through a "rough patch" . . . saying that inflation is nothing to worry about.

oh no?

i know, I KNOW! let's ask the people of zimbabwe and see what they have to say.

fine, i get it: we're NOT zimbabwe. thank god. we're not even remotely close to being in the same situation. but as americans, we're so insulated from troubles . . . from our own and the world's . . . that it's important, i think, to take a look at what's going on around the world . . . to get outside of ourselves and really think critically about where we stand, where we COULD stand . . . unless we become more informed and then use that information towards positive change.

many americans think that peaceful protest and voting are passe. that peaceful protest and voting are the zeitgeist of a bygone era; activities that only hippies engaged in in the 60s and 70s. but this is not so. protesting and voting require--or ought to require--critical thinking, which never goes out of style . . . and contrary to present popular belief, is the crux of a modern, high-functioning, ethical, humane, and civilized society.

it's hard for me to listen to people who say that there is no point in protesting or voting; that no-one is listening. the truth is that for however bad america might be right now, WE STILL HAVE A VOICE. if enough of us speak up, speak out, then our government will have no choice but to listen. it is our DUTY as citizens to keep this country's leaders on the straight and narrow.

the moment we lose sight of that is the moment we lose everything.

FROMADISTANCETHEWORLDLOOKSBLUEANDGREEN,ANDTHESNOW-CAPPEDMOUNTAINSWHITE

the us treasury has come out with a new five dollar bill.

WHY?!?!

with the value of the dollar going down faster than ashley alexandra dupre on eliot spitzer, why print new bills? why don't we just use monopoly money?

no, i'm serious.

ANDTHEBATTLE'SJUSTBEGUN.THERE'SMANYLOST,BUTTELLMEWHOHASWON

(the dalai lama held a press conference, today, sunday, in dharamsala, india, to discuss the recent tibetan protests in lhasa and subsequent injuries and deaths resulting from the chinese government crackdown.)


i am not an intelligent woman.

and no, this isn't a case of self-deprecation or my masochistic nature talking, either.

i am not an intelligent woman.

so, will someone please be kind enough to explain to me just exactly WHY we're having the olympics in china?

i don't get it. i mean, the chinese government is one of the most violent and oppressive regimes the world has ever known. right? or am i confusing them with my native costa rica. you know, they both start with "c".

china's communist government stands against EVERYTHING that the olympics are supposed to represent, so why they fuck are we even there? why were they even allowed to throw their name into the hat?

for the last god-only-knows how long, the chinese have had the dubious distinction of being one of the top 10 human rights violators on america's report on human rights. this year, they were taken off the list despite the fact that their record remains "poor", which is legalese for still really fucking atrocious.

and THIS is who we want hosting the olympics?

wow.

as i was listening to NPR this past week, i heard some morons talking about how china was "not as bad" as some other countries; that the former soviet union, for example, hosted the olympics once too . . .

are you shitting me? "not as bad" . . . "the ussr did it too" . . . where did they find their arguments? hmm? "convenient arguments weekly"?

i feel like i am in the fucking twilight zone.

when did it become ok to sell our souls for so little? at least dr. faustus got power and knowledge for his. but what did we get in exchange? cheaper toys? lead poisoning?

this is the same type of shit that went down with saudi arabia just late last year, when they were going to execute a woman who'd been raped and the international community said nothing . . . though everyone did stir up quite a ruckus when that one british teacher in sudan was going to receive 40 lashings for allowing her kids to name a teddy "muhammad".

and why say nothing about saudi arabia?

oil.

i'd really hate to speculate as to the real reason that america dropped china from this year's top 10 list . . .

we cannot have our proverbial cake and eat it too, people. how can we chastise some countries for egregious human rights violations and then, in essence, condone others . . . nay, REWARD them?!?!

on friday, his holiness, the dalai lama issued this statement:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I am deeply concerned over the situation that has been developing in Tibet following peaceful protests in many parts of Tibet, including Lhasa, in recent days. These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance.

As I have always said, unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution. It is unrealistic to expect unity and stability under such a rule and would therefore not be conducive to finding a peaceful and lasting solution.

I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

according to the new york times, protesters were not as peaceful as the dalai lama's statement might suggest, but not everyone has the patience of an enlightened being like the dalai lama.

i don't, at all, agree with violent protest. but, what are we to expect from years and years and years of oppression? what did the chinese government think was going to happen?

the situation in tibet is akin to a pressure cooker and the violence seen this past week is a way of releasing some of the tension there. alas, i'm afraid that the lid has yet to come off . . .

i, for one, will not be tuning in to this year's olympic games.

YOU'VEGOTTEETHFORBITINGANDYOU'VEBOREAHOLEINME

old news, but new to me since i've been in my self-imposed exile: bush vetoed the proposed ban on waterboarding, amongst other forms of torture, including beatings, electrocution, burning, the use of dogs to threaten or realize physical harm, stripping, and forced sexual acts.

wow.

i mean, really, do we actually need a ban on these deplorable, reprehensible, immoral methods of interrogation? how is it possible that we've been able to show our collective face in the international arena for this long, demanding that other nations conduct themselves morally, humanely, according to the laws set forth in the geneva conventions, while we engage in methods of interrogation that would make even the most fervent spanish inquisitors blush?

so, let me get this straight . . . our argument is: if they can, then so can we?

i say again, wow.

fine. great. while we're at it, let's also bring back witch trials. i mean, why not?

we cannot hope to bring our so-called freedom and democracy to the world, unless we bring also our integrity.

bush's actions say to the world we are incapable of being a true leader, for no leader may hope to guide with a broken moral compass.

if we use the terrorist's methods, then are we not also terrorists?

if have not our honesty, our moral fortitude, then we have nothing.

YEAH,YOUSHOOKME.YEAH,YOUSHOOKMEALLNIGHTLONG

so, i've been asked, "why obama?"

here's the short version:

i was initially for clinton, though truth be told, there really isn't much of a difference between clinton and obama in terms of policy. yeah, i know, shocker! at first, however, clinton seemed to have a little more interest in fighting poverty and economic equality (two things, which i firmly believe are nearly always at the heart of almost every conflict) than obama. i thought she seemed more genuine, at least in that respect.

and yes, i get that clinton . . . and obama, and every other candidate . . . they're all part of the same dog and pony show . . .

but in the last several months, i think obama has really struck a chord in the american people. as people have been saying, he has ignited a lust to dream, awakened in us a desire to believe. or if you prefer, he's given us that old JFK feeling. (so i hear, since JFK was before my time!)

we're past the sex and race issues, i think. all that talk that if obama wins it'll be because he's black and that if clinton wins it'll be because she's a woman is total bollocks. the fact that the race is between them is actually the best evidence that all such jibber-jabber is moot.

and there are differences, however slight . . .

as for the theory that a black president won't survive, that's just the kkk's wet dream and wholly unworthy of firing our synapses. so, let's just fuggedaboudit.

for me, obamamania is alive and well. the man's got that je ne sais quoi, that bit of magic that makes me think he'll be a much more formidable opponent for mccain, than clinton. he just might, people, have the ability that clinton lacks, to create an unstoppable wave.

INTHEVALLEYOFTHETHUNDERINGHEARTS

it's super tuesday.

when i told my kids that in second period today, one of them (you know exactly WHICH one, too, because you were probably the same kid when you were in high school) said, "super because i'm here, right, ms. banana?"

yeah, kid, right.

still not 100% yet, but nevertheless i'm off to vote in the primary!

can you figure out for whom i'm voting?

LITTLEPINKHOUSESFORYOUANDME

apparently i am somewhere between gandhi, the dalai lama, and nelson mandela . . .

funny, if you realized that i grew up in a household that worshipped ronald reagan and gave one of its sons to the military.

maybe my brothers weren't kidding . . . maybe i WAS adopted.

if you want to find out where YOU stand politically, check out: http://www.politicalcompass.org

WE'REGOINGDOWN,DOWNINANEARLIERROUND,BUTSUGARWE'REGOINGDOWNSWINGING

OMG, so i read in an article today that a "pathologically aggressive" german teen was sent to REMOTE SIBERIA (redundant, "remote siberia", isn't it?) to reform.

WOW.

calling it "an intensive educational experience abroad" (anyone up for a spot of gulag?), german youth services lit up a decidedly fierce debate about how to handle adolescent crime.

but really, i don't know what's worse? honestly, who am i to judge? so in germany they're shipping their troubled teens to siberia, while here in america we're give them ipods and spring break trips to hawaii and cozumel. (i'm neither kidding nor exaggerating.) both extremes are bad.

kids need discipline, yes. but kids also need love. they need discipline and love in EQUAL parts. too much of one is just as bad as too much of the other. there's got to be a point somewhere in between siberia and the ipod where both kids and adults can see eye-to-eye. what a child needs is his/her parents, family, love, safety, boundaries, friends, discipline. stark isolation isn't the answer, i don't think.

what we're seeing in germany is frustration, but you don't get frustrated with a kid and ship them off to siberia . . .

america has tinkered with a similar concept for decades. it started in the 50s and is still around today. called "kid bootcamp", it is basically the same thing as germany's siberia experiment. kids are deprived of their family, surroundings, comforts and psychologically stressed in order to "break them down" and then, ostensibly, to rebuild them. just like in military bootcamp . . . but if what the military churns out is any indication of what we get back from such programs, then i think this is NOT the way to go.

and no, i don't claim to know the exact path to follow, either. not like god (if he/she exists) left a cookie trail, but i am willing to bet that a) siberia ain't it and b) it probably all comes back down to proper parenting. yeah, you'll have one or two nuts that, regardless of great parenting, will grow up to be utter bastards, but for the most part kids will turn out well if they are brought up with love and discipline.

anyhow, there are my two cents.

TIE,TIE,TIEMEUPAGAIN

to eat or not to eat cloned meat? THAT is the question. well, one of them, anyways . . .

now, i've been trying to wean myself off of meat . . . beef, chicken, pork . . . but yes, i still imbibe. so, you know, i feel free to chime in on this cloning business. and as far as my food is concerned, call me old-fashioned, but i'll take my carne au naturel, thank you.

this whole fda "cloned meat is a-ok" stuff is a bit scary . . . and also (pardon my french) bullshit. i don't care what their research says. i say, no m'am! and i don't mean "scary" because i don't think that the meat won't be safe.

i think it's scary and total bullshit that the report fails to address whether or not food cloning is morally sound. i don't believe it is. and yes, i get that the fda is not going to go open that pandora's box, but still . . .

i mean, i'm not one of those ultra-conservatives, believe me. i want to see stem cell research. i want to find a cure for parkinson's and alzheimer's, and paraplegia, and quadriplegia, i DO (especially since i'll probably end up with parkinson's or alzheimer's myself).

i just worry that we're determining the worth of bioengineering projects--like cloning animals for food--solely on the project outcome's "usefulness". but frankly, just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

WEDON'TNEEDNOEDUCATION

(2007: philadelphia, pa. this photo is one i took while walking through the cemetary where benjamin franklin is buried. what you can't see is that i totally ate it right before this shot when i tripped on a headstone and went flying, ass first, into ben's grave. it wasn't pretty. i mean, typical. totally typical lana banana klutz, but definitely not pretty. ask me about denver . . . me, fire hydrant, concrete. yeah.)

so i advise our school's paper. it's my second year doing it and i love it, which i didn't at first. but then i bought some books, learned some things, "stole" some things (good teachers are great thieves, i've realized), got some help, then i got a lot of help from prj (good job, prj!), and with his guidance it's come a long, long, loooooong way (even in a single issue).

last year, my first, i went to the jea (journalism education association) conference in denver and was floored by how many new things i was able to learn in just four days. law, layouts, photography, sports writing, interviewing, you name it. this year, i went again, but this time i was in philadelphia. once more i found myself inundated with truck loads of insightful and practical information. but i felt like the kids should have really been there too . . .

for the upcoming convention, i vowed that the kids would be a part. and they are. the yearbook adviser, blu, and i are taking about 40 kids to anaheim for the spring convention. but our real dream is to take a smaller group--the editors from both yearbook and news staff--to washington, dc, next year.

what's the big deal? why pay all that money to go so far for a convention? to start, the jea puts on a top-notch convention. the best of the best are there, it's organized, it's highly informative, and yeah, it's fun. plus, for me personally, i teach at a school where 60% of the population is poor and latino and if they don't get exposure to travel, the arts, and literature from me, from the teachers at my school, then they likely won't ever get it. it was true for me when i was one of them and it is true for them now . . .

the only problem is: moolah. (ain't it always?) i was going to gripe about not having more funding. and in fact, this is a revised post, because i did gripe about that and more still, but then, you know, that's not really the district's fault. it's actually the government's fault. SHOCKAH! yeah, i know, can you believe it? while i forgive the immediate powers that be, i do have several ugly words that i'd like to sling at governor schwarzenegger, who has drastically cut california school monies . . . monies he had promised time and again since first being elected into office. but i've learned to not trust politicians. especially ACTOR-politicians. (wait, isn't that redundant?)

at any rate, i suspect that the absence of money will be a constant in this line of work. something my family doesn't let me forget (always reminding me about what could have been had i continued with law school).

ah, well, car washes here we come! thank god california is sunny and warm nearly all of the time . . .