Blog Sisters:

We're back from Baghdad; five of our team stayed on and four have returned to carry the truth about this war to the American press and people. The trip to and from Baghdad was harrowing to say the least.

On our trip into Iraq, we crossed front lines twice. There were many burned cars, buses and trucks as we traveled. About 150 kilometers from Baghdad, we came upon a truck on fire. We slowed down and saw American troops on the hill above. They had their guns trained on us and motioned for us to stop. We did and waved white flags. Eventually they motioned us in the first car to continue on. The second van was still at the site and we waited for them to start up, but before they could, 4 Iraqi soldiers started running for the van, the Americans motioned for the second van to take off but the Iraqis were nearly up to the van. The van was able to get away, but as we watched from the first van, it looked like the Iraqis might actually catch up to them. We continued on past the Americans and shortly thereafter a station wagon passed us with its back windows shot out. We learned from them that they had not slowed down and the Americans had shot at them. We then came to an Iraqi checkpoint and were worried that some of the soldiers might consider confiscating our vehicle, but they waved us past, after reading the statement we had written in English and Arabic. The statement read:

"I am a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams. We are against the war and all other forms of violence.

We are going to Baghdad to join other members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams who have been there, living among the Iraqi people since October. We wish to stay with them during this terrible war that is being waged against them.

We are trying to protect the Iraqi people and the institutions of health, welfare, and education that are important to life. We will visit
and support hospitals, water purification plnts, schools and orphanages.

We are with the Iraqi people because we know God loves them and weeps for them."

The looks on the faces of those who read our statement was one of awe and puzzlement. We arrived in Baghdad around 430 and got settled in at the hotel we were staying at. We met at 6 pm to worship together with the other members of the team who were already there. In the midst of the worship, the bombs began. Most were far off, but some felt near.

The bombing continued on and off during the entire time we were there. One of the most devasting things we learned was that the U.S. is using anti-personnel fragmentation weapons in Baghdad!!!!!! We visited a home and picked up several of the "pellets." Jim Douglass who is part of our CPT team, recognized them from his time in Vietnam.

We've met hundreds of Iraqis as we toured the bombing sights. Not one single person was anything but friendly and welcoming to us. It is difficult to sleep at night because of all the bombs. But amazingly, the Iraqis continue life, having birthday celebrations, planting seed, and just generally going on with life.

Because the Americans have destroyed all communications facilities, there now are no phones or emails out of Baghdad. The Iraqis, picked up six of our team members as they walked between the two hotels, but had stopped to see some of the latest damage from the bombing the night before. They were held for 6 hours and we had no idea where they were. Some of us feared they might have been picked up by hostile melitia forces who would hold them hostage. Finally, our "minder," the government official who was responsible for us, located them at a police station and was able to have them released.

The next day the 6 were given orders to leave Iraq. Since this was just a day prior to our planned return, and there was no telling when we might have an opportunity to leave, I asked to go with them. So 5 stayed and 4 of us left.

On our way back from Baghdad to Ammon, one of the cars we were traveling in had a blowout and ended up in a culvert. All 5 of them were injured, but our convoy was unaware until we got about a half hour away. Immediately Iraqi people stopped and transported our injured to the nearest town. This town had just endured severe bombing 4 days previous. The bombs had destroyed the hospital there along with a number of other buildings. But they brought them to the small building that was being used to replace the hospital and treated them with love and kindness, sharing the the few medical supplies they still had. I found myself wondering if the same thing had happened here in the states---if Iraqis had bombed our town, destroying our hospital, would we treat them with the same love and care? Or would we beat them to death in anger?

We are here in Amman, and leave on Tuesday for the states. But last night, as we drifted off to sleep, we could hear a B-52 bomber and each of us feared that the bombs would start dropping. Americans are being systematically lied to about this war, and I'm coming back to help spread the truth about this awful war that we are waging. Love Kara

Do Bs really fit in 'GLBT'?

Most bisexuals aren't out, they socialize mostly with heterosexuals, and form longer relationships with opposite-sex partners. So are they gay?

By Paul Varnell

GAY MEN AND lesbians are far more likely to disclose their sexual orientation to their personal physicians than are bisexuals,
according to an online survey conducted late last year by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications.

The survey found that 55 percent of lesbians and 67 percent of gay men said they had come out to their physician. But only 23 percent of the self-described bisexuals said they had done so.

But the headline on the survey press release, repeated in many gay newspapers, was to the effect that fewer than half of all "GLBT" people had disclosed their sexuality to their physician.

That was extremely misleading. It obscured the fact that a majority of the lesbians and (especially) gay men were taking proactive
responsibility for their health by dealing openly with their physician, and it equally obscured the important fact that bisexuals were not dealing well with disclosure that would help them obtain better health care and more accurate medical advice.

That leads to the conclusion that for some purposes, it can be important to disaggregate gays, lesbians and bisexuals (to say
nothing of transsexuals) and not talk of them as if they were a unitary "community" or have more in common than they actually do.

If we fail to separate them out, we will be unable to identify -- or even think to look for -- problems each group may uniquely be facing and solutions that may work better for one group than another. The amount of similarity and the degree of actual "community" depends on the issue.

AT THE POLITICAL level, grouping bisexuals with gay men and lesbians makes some sense. In almost every way, bisexuals face the same issues of discrimination and prejudice that gays face, and for exactly the same reasons:

Some of their sexual activity violates sodomy laws; they cannot marry if they fall in love with a person of the same sex; they cannot serve openly in the U.S. military; they may encounter problems with child custody and adoption, and so on.

In other words, bisexuals face discrimination only because they sometimes behave like homosexuals.

Beyond that, gay activists have always sought to include bisexuals as part of a broader gay community because it helps increase the number of gays to politically relevant -- and more recently economically relevant -- levels. That familiar 10 percent figure for the gay population includes a substantial number of functional, if not self-defined, bisexuals.

But despite the identity of interests, there are important differences at the psychological and personal identity level. It seems clear from survey research that bisexuals understand their sexuality far differently from lesbians and gay men, and handle disclosure and relationship issues far differently, as the medical survey mentioned earlier suggests.

In interviews conducted for the extremely interesting 1994 book Dual Attraction: Understanding Bisexuality by former Kinsey Institute associates Martin Weinberg and Colin Williams, most bisexuals reported that they "were predominantly heterosexual in their sexual feelings, sexual behaviors, and romantic feelings" and socialized more with heterosexuals than with gays. So it was not so surprising that, for instance, only one-third of the bisexual men were out to their social acquaintances and fellow employees at work, whereas two-thirds of the gay men were.

THE QUESTION GAYS may then ask is how seriously these self-described bisexuals take their same-sex tricks, dates and relationships, or more fundamentally, how seriously they take the homosexual component of their sexuality.

No doubt there are vast individual differences. But the bisexuals Weinberg and Williams talked to "often said that the nature of
bisexuality had a negative effect on the stability of relationships over time. Some -- both men and women -- mentioned being unable to focus exclusively on one sex."

When bisexuals did form committed relationships, Weinberg and Williams found that those were "overwhelmingly" with opposite sex partners, and they were much more likely to be non-monogamous "because open multiple relationships are an important part
of their lifestyle."

Such findings suggest troubling obstacles for gay activists on a range of issues, from efforts to reach bisexual men with HIV
information to attempts to solicit bisexual support for same-sex marriage. They also remind us that in many ways the recently
coined "GLBT community" is more a semantic artifact or political term-of-art than anything like an actual community.

Paul Varnell is a Chicago-based syndicated writer and can be reached at pvarnell@aol.com.

Paul Varnell is a twit. The fact that he describes the acronym 'GLBT' as "a recently coined expression" shows how hopelessly out of touch he is with our community. The only reason I'm forwarding this is to encourage you to SPEAK OUT and voice your opposition.

Here's what you can do.

1. Send your letters to the editor about this article to: action@temenos.net and I will publish it on www.temenos.net.

3. This is a syndicated column, so look for this article in your local gay paper send your letter to them.

4. If at all possible, include the phrase "Paul Varnell is a twit." in your letter. (Ok, that last one is just for me, but it would make me terribly happy)

That was yesterday, this is today. Demonstrators, encouraged by their success, will be going for bigger effects. Police around the country will be getting out their mace, tear gas, and stun guns. And those little black objects on their belts can propel lead pellets over large distances.

A protest lets you show support for peace. A mob makes your cause look ugly--and mobs are dangerous. When police are angry and scared, bad things can happen. Being arrested by an angry cop, in company with a lot of other people who are excited and scared, is much more scary than exciting. OTOH, nasty as it is, it is more fun than being crushed or trampled by a mob running away from tear gas. If you go to a protest, stay far from the "center" of action.

Better yet, stay home and sign up to work for an anti war Democrat like Howard Dean. That would bring us closer to sane government than we are now.

Democratic candidates in order of how much I like them and why
Anti-war: Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich
Voted last fall to authorize Bush but says he's against *this* war: John Kerry
No chance to win: Bob Graham, Carol Mosely Braun, Al Sharpton, Gary Hart
Pro-war: John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman

Which side of the fence?

Unless you took this picture, or you happen to be the bird, you don't really know which side of the fence the bird is over. In other words, it's possible, and in all likelihood probable that we (blogsisters) don't all feel the same way about the impending war.

[an excerpt]

My friend Becky's eyes fill with light whenever she talks about her fiancé. Michael is a soldier, a new recruit (God only knows why) who just finished basic training. But now, Becky's eyes are filled with tears: Because the couple have yet to make their relationship legal -- thank heaven they are heterosexuals and have that right, although, thanks to the Shrub's rush to war, they lack the time -- Becky was not allowed to attend her beau's recent graduation. She was not even permitted to see him. And, she tells me, she won't get that chance, because Michael is being shipped out to goddess knows where to fight a war that even he questions. The last time we talked, a devastated Becky moaned that it will be at least two years before she sees her love again -- all because of a piece of paper and Bush's murderous grab for power and greed. How do we support Michael? Send him home to Becky's arms. NOW.

More of this commentary can be found at All Facts & Opinions.

To begin with the communities in the United States can start a "Hope for Humanity Fund" - saving a coin every day to help a community in a Third World country. The reason why we need to save a coin everyday is because we must be conscious every day of the need to help someone, somewhere in the world. Writing a check at the end of the year does not create the consciousness that is necessary to build a relationship. Saving a coin everyday also gets children involved in the process and they learn early that life is about giving and helping and not just about amassing and consuming.

"His sons are important to him. The promise of their release and their return to Pakistan may be the psychological lever we need to break him."

There weren't many people there; few visit during weather like this. As I walked by the panels, relishing the stillness, I came upon a man in fatigues. Though one of those floppy green hats covered his head, he seemed under dressed considering the cold. The area around him was devoid of wind and snow, as if the Wall created a sheltered harbor from the storm. He was staring at one panel, at a spot about chest high. Upon my approach, he said to no one in particular, "Goddamn bastards are doing it again." The sound of his voice startled me; I flinched, and stopped. He turned to look at me.

"We never learn, do we?" he asked. My quizzical look made him chuckle, and he continued as he turned back toward the Wall: "It never ceases to amaze me what we let ourselves be turned into cannon fodder for. We let ourselves get talked into all sorts of horror, and only after the body bags start piling up do we begin to wonder why."

We both knew he had my attention now. "Know how many names are here?" he asked. "Something like 50,000," I replied. "You make it sound like a goddamn statistic" he said, "There's Fifty Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Twenty Nine names on this Wall." He said the words slowly, enunciating each one. "Fifty Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Twenty Nine. Every one of them a son; a brother, or a father, a husband, a cousin, a lover, a neighbor, a friend. Fifty Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Twenty Nine boys brought home in boxes. For what? For fuckin' nothing. And now the bastards are gonna do it again."

He's clearly delusional.

The man who, through the country's apathy, ignorance, and blind trust, now wields the greatest power ever known to humankind, sees reality as a field of play where he is the biggest kid out there, or at least has the biggest stone to throw.

And part of the nightmare is that he is and he does.

Ergotism, or long-term ergot poisoning, was once a common condition resulting from eating contaminated rye bred.  In some epidemics it appears that females were more liable to the disease than males (19).  Children and pregnant women are most likely to be affected by the condition, and individual susceptibility varies widely.  It takes 2 years for ergot in powdered form to reach 50 percent deterioration, and the effects are cumulative (18, 20).  There are two types of ergotism--gangrenous and convulsive.  As the name implies, gangrenous ergotism is characterized by dry gangrene of the extremities followed by the falling away of the affected portions of the body.  The condition occurred in epidemic proportions in the Middle Ages and was known by a number of names, including ignis sacer, the holy fire.
        Convulsive ergotism is characterized by a number of symptoms.  These include crawling sensations in the skin, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, tinnitus aurium, headaches, disturbances in sensation, hallucination, painful muscular contractions leading to epileptiform convulsions, vomiting, and diarrhea (16, 18, 21).  The involuntary muscular fibers such as the myocardium and gastric and intestinal muscular coat are stimulated.  There are mental disturbances such as mania, melancholia, psychosis, and delirium.  All of these symptoms are alluded to in the Salem witchcraft records.
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It is one thing to suggest convulsive ergot poisoning as an initiating factor in the witchcraft episode, and quite another to generate convincing evidence that it is more that a mere possibility.  A jigsaw of details pertinent to growing conditions, the timing of events in Salem, and symptomology must fit together to create a reasonable case.  From these details, a picture emerges of a community stricken with an unrecognized physiological disorder affecting their minds as well as their bodies.
        1) Growing conditions.  The common grass along the Atlantic Coast from Virginia to Newfoundland was and is wild rye, a host plant for ergot.  Early colonists were dissatisfied with it as forage for their cattle and reported that it often made the cattle ill with unknown diseases (22).  Presumably, then, ergot grew in the New World before the Puritans arrived.  The potential source for infection was already present, regardless of the possibility that it was imported with the English rye.
        Rye was the most reliable of the Old World grains (22) and by the 1640's ot was a well-established New England crop.  Spring sowing was the rule; the bitter winters made fall sowing less successful.  Seed time for the rye was April and the harvesting took place in August (23).  However, the grain was stored in barns and often waited months before being threshed when the weather turned cold.  The timing of Salem events fits this cycle.  Threshing probably occurred shortly before Thanksgiving, the only holiday the Puritans observed.  The children's symptoms appeared in December 1691.  Late the next fall, 1692, the witchcraft crisis ended abruptly and there is no further mention of the girls or anyone else in Salem being afflicted (4, 9).