Blog Sisters:

I've written a song parody and a pair of limericks about the so-called White House shakeup. Here's a couple of verses from my song parody, The White House Shakeup Song, sung to the tune of Good King Wenceslas:

The White House Shakeup Song (Sing to Good King Wenceslas)
By Madeleine Begun Kane

"Bolten's cleaning house they claim.
He needs staffers brainy.
Upward polls are Bolten's aim.
Why not start with Cheney?

Many think that Don must go.
Rumsfeld's quite abysmal.
Dubya answers no, no, no.
Bush is just as dismal.

Miers may just lose her job.
Nearly was "Her Honor."
Andrew Card worked way too hard..."

The rest of my song parody and my two limericks are here, and my audio podcast version (with me attempting to sing my White House Shakeup Song) is here.

What is the "Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN)"? It's a powerful new way for victims of rape and incest to get qualified help in a way that's become increasingly comfortable for young people -- online.

Here's the official information -- please pass it along to those you think might benefit from it.
The pilot launch of the Online Hotline will begin in May, with a national launch expected in September. For more info, visit www.rainn.org/programs/online-hotline.


KnowNow Inc., a market leader in RSS content delivery and communication and notification services, today announced that it is providing application development services and its eLerts RSS solution to connect a victim with an available trained volunteer as soon as they need one, through RAINN’s newly announced secure online hotline. To ensure protection of each individual who has a query or a need to talk to a counselor immediately, the request is connected to one of RAINN’s trained volunteers quickly, securely and anonymously.

RAINN will launch the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline in the fall, which will be the web's first secure hotline service, offering live help 24 hours a day.

Given that calls to the national telephone hotline continue to increase (the free hotline helped up to 137,039 people in 2005, up 44% in the last three years), research and observation are finding an increased reluctance among young people to use the phone. Since 80% of rape victims fall under age 30, adding an online way to communicate is a critical component to making the program a success.

In addition to KnowNow’s RSS solution, RAINN is partnering with other key technology players to make this a reality in the fall, including AOL, Verisign, Accius and McAfee.

How It Will Work:

One click will take users from rainn.org to the Online Hotline. There, they will anonymously request help and be connected to a trained volunteer for live, one-on-one support. The user's screen will be as clear and intuitive as instant messaging, so there's no learning curve. Sessions cannot be traced back to a user. No record of the session or user remains after a chat reinforcing privacy and confidentiality, so victims know that when they reach out, it remains anonymous.

My latest is "A Pair Of Limericks For a Six-Pack Of Generals." Here's one of the limericks:

War Against The Generals
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Some Gen'rals say Rummy must go.
So I'm guessing they're traitors and foes.
Soon we'll hear that they're pals
With bin Laden, et al.
Or much worse, that they're Democrat bro's.

My other limerick about the Generals is here.

I just became the community manager of an amazing emotional support community for women called Phone Buddies. (I'm also a participating member myself.) The basic idea is that you trade peer counseling sessions with other women, so each woman gets free counseling. There are 6 different types of emotional support techniques taught to community members, so it isn't just your everyday chatting, though it also isn't professional counseling either. A lot of the time I just need someone to talk to in a way that is really helpful -- not therapy and not just venting either.

There are a lot of really cool things about it actually. You don't have to give out your last name so it's totally confidential. Stuff like that. Anyway, I'm telling other women about it because I'd really like to see the community grow. The more women that participate the more Buddies we all get to exchange sessions with.

The website is at http://www.phone-buddies.com so check it out for yourself. I think it's amazing. I told my mother and sister about it and they're excited too. I love helping people and I could really use a stronger support network myself. My company has done a lot of cool projects, but I think this is probably going to be the coolest of all.

17 years ago today 96 Liverpool fans died needlessly. Let them never be forgotten.

Yoga's growing US popularity attracts cash

Good article...good points.

As always, in everything I do I strive to maintain a semblance of balance in my days, in my work, in my personal life. Often it's a struggle because I am simply too busy. There is too much going on. I take on too much. Biting off more than we can chew. That's the danger I see with Yoga as well. While I desperately want to preserve my integrity as a teacher and promote the 'true' aspects of Yoga - I want to be successful, I want the program to grow and horror of horrors I want to make money being a Yoga teacher.

But last night, when the person who used the room before me, left behind dry erase markers and an eraser I decided to use it to actually 'teach' the class a 'lesson' not just movements but about the underlying principles that help govern Yogis/Yoginis: the Yamas and the Niyamas. As I was writing on the board, putting up the words and definitions, I noticed on the other board an 'erased' drawing of the human body complete with arrows pointing to the various parts and joints and then to the right of this 'ghostly' remainder of the body was an erased 'OM' symbol. I was suddenly overtaken by joy and I began to remember why I teach this practice to others. I re-traced the 'OM' symbol and went out to gather my class....

I think I am going to make it through everything that modern/materialistic society has to throw at me.

I grew up in a loving household in which education was prized. I attended Smith College, where women's minds are taken seriously, and got a fantastic education. I spent my junior year in Paris. I loved France, the French language, the people, everything. Upon graduation from Smith, I asked a distinguished French professor to be my mentor, and he accepted. I applied to, and was accepted at the Sorbonne.

Instead of going to France, I married a man I had been dating, who had started slapping me around early in our relationship. I lasted over 30 years before I got out. And I can't even give myself credit for leaving. My eleven-year-old son had to run away from home and get the police involved before I woke up and realized that my life was not normal.

So what's with that? How does a woman who's been told all her life that she's powerful, she's intelligent, she's capable, fall into such a trap? And not have a clue that she's even doing it?

And if a woman with all the obvious advantages can make such poor choices, what must it be like for the millions of women who didn't start out so lucky?

I dedicate this poem to our Leaker-In-Chief:

Ode to the Leaker-In-Chief
By Madeleine Begun Kane

"The latest revelation
In the Scooter Libby case,
Is that when it comes to leaking,
Georgie Dub is quite the ace.

Those weren't aberrations
When he ordered up those leaks.
Bush betrays his office daily... "

The rest of my Ode To The Leaker-In-Chief is here.

Famous One-Eyed Kitten to Go on Display

Wonder how many people are going to flock to see this?

I've written two Tom DeLay limericks. Here's one of them:
Ode to the Bugman
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Tom's speech was jam-packed with some gems.
His withdrawal he blamed on the Dems.
It seems Streisand and Moore
Forced him out the House door.
Has the Bugman been sniffing his chems?

You can find both Tom DeLay limericks here.

The 13th issue of Carnival of Feminists will be hosted on I See Invisible People on April 19. The theme of the issue will be "Feminism and Challenges - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual." Possible topics including: self-determination in health and mental health care, disability issues, transgender issues, issues of aging, integration of religion and feminist beliefs, economic issues, etc. The issue will not be limited to the theme, though I hope to get a nice collection of posts fitting it. Please feel free to nominate a post of your own, as well as those by other people.

Posts written after 5 April 2006 will be eligible. Nominations will close at midnight 17 April, though exceptions may be made if I have the time.

Nominations may be sent to ISeeInvisiblePeople AT gmail.com or submitted through the online form.

Thanks.

No, this is not a post about the 1920s. Kuwaiti women are voting and running for public office today for the very first time. Big news, except for any major on-line news source in the United States (as far as I can tell from a Google News search, anyway). I heard the story this morning from BBC World News on my trusty public radio station, WHYY. Here's who has covered this historic event in their on-line editions today (as of 10 am anyway):


Aljazeera

BBC News

CBC News

ISN (International Security and Relations Network)

Reuters

and Metro Toronto (running the Reuters article).

(Cross posted at Distracted)

And They Cook, Too

A Blogger Cookbook Fundraiser for
Doctors Without Borders

Compiled and edited by Ginger Mayerson and Kathy Flake

Graphics by Tild~

Illustrations by Carol Colin and Robin Riggs

From the introduction:

Last year on October 8 an earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, hit Kashmir, the northern part of Pakistan. Being a native Californian, I know that’s no small cheese. Unfortunately, by October 8, 2005, I was tapped out from Katrina giving and could not give to my favorite charity, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Les Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). There was no doubt in my mind that MSF would be on the spot, doctoring in Kashmir, then and even now, and around the world wherever they are needed, as usual.

And so, partly out of guilt, but mostly out of admiration, the plan for this cookbook fundraiser was born. Now, I don’t cook very much and my basic culinary philosophy is "Shake it out of the box and eat it." However, I very much admire people who make an art of cooking and even make it look fun. I also read a lot of blogs, all kinds of blogs from all over the world: political, art, culture, whatever, and I noticed many of these bloggers posting recipes. Sometimes I’d print them out and put them in my very neatly organized, but seldom consulted three-ring Recipes binder. Every now and then I’d think how nice it would be to have all those online recipes in a book format... And an idea began to take shape..

Ads for this cookbook fundraiser are starting to pop up on blogs all over the reality-based portion of the blogosphere. Remember: this is a collection of recipes from PROGRESSIVE, LIBERAL bloggers!

See the Table of Contents and more...

...which includes the list of bloggers who contributed recipes and/or their time and effort in assembling this project.

As you will see, there are some pretty big names on that list:

Body and Soul, Majikthise, Mad Kane, The News Blog, Sadly, No!, Dohiyi Mir, Elayne Riggs, Agitprop, Pam's House Blend, and the list goes on...







This entry also appears here.