The Blogher.org Weblog and Conference

One thing I've noticed as the blogHERcon or blogher event weblog takes shape is that it's developing its own great voice -- a combined voice of the participants there and the organizers. I'm really really really going to try to get to this event.

Believe me, I'm no world traveler. I'm no conference hopper. Hell, I've never been further west than Dallas, and that was for a client meeting, so this would be a big deal--becaus of the 'west coast' thing and because of the 'I work from home; going to the grocery store is a big deal' thing. Okay, going to the mail box is a big thing too.

So a trans-continental flight would be something else, complete with, I don't know, what do they give you these days on long flights--a movie maybe? A snack? A strip search?

AND I may have to bring our daughter with me if I go for lack of someone to watch her during July. Part of that excites me. Part of that exhausts me. Like the mailbox thing.

Anyway, if you live near the bay area, try to get to the event. They are even offering some scholarships for live-blogger participants. And the price isn't bad as far as conferences go.

If you live on the east coast, like me, feel free to perseverate with me!

If you live in one of the many wonderful countries not run by a big stupid goober, you should also check out blogher.org--the conference organizers are really trying to help women outside of the U.S. find ways to attend.

So, that's my roundup on blogher.org.

Maybe we can have our first annual blogsisters meetup there...

The War on Echinacea

Here in Hawaii the alternative health culture is strong. For the last month it has seemed that everywhere I turn I overhear someone talking about their fear of a new bill being voted on in Congress that would outlaw herbal supplements, such as echinacea. My natural response to alarmist dialog is to ignore it. I believe in the creative power of what we give our attention to and I'm not particularly interested in living a fear based life. Finally last night in a phone conversation a friend of mine started talking about her fear of the dreaded bill, so today I decided to do a little research.

I am not about to present myself as an expert in this area, but my initial take is to compare the threat of such regulation to our experiences with the "war on drugs" (and decades before with Prohibition). If it is a legitimate possibility that health supplements might be outlawed without an MD's prescription, I think that would make a huge inconvenience in getting these products, and would shut down the big companies that specialize in providing them to the many alternative health consumers who don't have health insurance. However, people would still get the supplements. They would have to find small local suppliers and the exchange would take place outside the tax system, but the laws of supply and demand supercede all government imposed laws.

Read the full article at www.indigo-ocean.com

What would you want high school kids to know about blogging.

I've been invited to be the "blogger" on a panel at a youth leadership conference. I don't have all the details yet, but I'm pretty sure that the whole panel will not be about blogging. Blogging will be one area represented. And I'm doing the representing. And so I'm wondering what would you want young bloggers and/or young potential bloggers to be aware of if they want to use their blogs to "make a difference" in the larger world. The audience will be kids who want to be leaders in the future.

Do you have your own "ethics" for determining what you blog and what you don't? Do you think there should be some regulations that determine what people blog? Have you ever gotten in trouble for something you blogged?

What I'd like to do is encourage the kids to try blogging, but to do so aware of the risks and pitfalls as well as the fun and benefits. What advice would you give them.

I will keep checking back here, so if you're so inclined, leave a comment or post something on our own weblog and put the link in a comment. I'd like to be able to reflect more than my own personal opinions when I open my big mouth on the panel.

In advance, thanks.

Free: 3 DVDs of The Corporation

April 23rd update:

Well, sharing this here turned out to be sort of a bust, no Sisters were interested, but if you're curious as to where the DVDs distributed through my own blog ended up, check out this link! :)

---

Original post:

Curious about the massive power that the multinational corporations yield and how they affect you (and everyone else) directly? Just email me a mailing address and watch this DVD which I will be happy to send you* free of charge, no tricks, no strings attached (then pass it on to friends, family, strangers... spark conversations, explore the numerous resources listed on the DVD or reflect on all this privately, it's up to you!). I want to help disseminate this information, this is my little "constructive action".

Education is crucial, it is only by learning to think for ourselves that we will begin to understand the consequences of our individual and collective actions, and choose to build a future that is fair and sustainable for all.

Synopsis (click here for more details)

The film is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.

*I have 3 copies left (see more on who I am/why I am doing this here), I'll wait until Friday evening (9pm EDT) then pick requests randomly if more than 3 people are interested. I'll update this post with the blogger names of the 3 recipients, or the States/countries where they are from, for more anonymity (don't worry, I won't post your real ID).

Duck and Cover--Catholic Style

I was a bit stunned today when I heard that Cardinal Ratzinger was made Pope.

When I heard commentary on BBC World News from a theologian at Georgetown that Ratzinger's main concern as Pope is the state of European Catholicism, I had to agree with this observation. There are many things that we in American do not understand about what is going on in Europe--a rising secularism that is nothing like what we have here, coupled with what was referred to as an "Islamicization."

I don't know if y'all will get what's meant by "Islamicization" and what all the hubub might be about, but, here's my take on it: there is a growing movement of Islam in Europe--and not just from more Muslims moving in. It is Europeans that are converting. This isn't all that good. These are mostly Europeans who are what would be called "unchurched"--meaning they have no understanding of religion or of faith at all.

While many of us here would say, "what's the problem with that?"...think about it a bit. The problem is that many who are unchurched suffer from a malaise of spirit which then leads them to accept belief systems that are counter to any progress that has been made.(yeah, go ahead, bitch at me about the language, but this is what it is)

People will accept a radical, reactionary form of Islam because it seems to hold the answers and promise them certainty on moral issues.

Kind of what born-again Christianity does in this country.

So, I understand where the "Islamicization" of Europe could be troubling--it's not that Muslim immigrants are the problem, but that troubled, unchurched Europeans are. And this becomes the answer to why Europe might need Ratzinger now.

But, Ratzinger is also a "fundamentalist" Catholic. Which could lead to problems for us over here.

Fundamentalist Catholisim is NOT (and I cannot stress this enough) anything like or even near Fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. We tend to think the two are the same--that's a result of the rising "protestantization" of Catholicims in this country.

Catholics here have allowed a level of "protestantization" so that we might be accepted by mainstream protestants...so that we might not be considered "demons" or "living under sufferage" here (as F.D.R once said) and be considered fully American. And, because of this, Catholics have been able to make strange bedfellows with some Fundies.

Oh, very bad move there.

Fundamentalist Christians don't necessarily like Mainstream Protestants (who the American Catholics have been trying to ape all these years)...And Mainstream Protestants don't necessarily like Ratzinger because of his support of
Opus Dei, an ultra-right Catholic lay movement (that Mel Gibson happens to be very much a part of).

Given that the main religious persuasion of this country is Protestant (with a down and dirty Fundie headding it) and since Fundamentalist Catholism is nothing like Fundamentalist Christianity, and the Fundies really don't like the Mainstreamers, and since the Mainstreamser hate Opus Dei (which Ratzinger has a fond apprecation of) I can only conculde that we Catholics could be seriously screwed in the near future (if things in this country keep moving towards the Fundie side).

The worst-case scenario: be prepared for some cross burnings on the lawns of the local Catholic church and a rise in pre-Kennedy discrimination.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and saying a few good prayers.

--Tish G.
(and before some of y'all bitch at me further and start kvetching about the whole separation-of-church-and-state thing, read my blog entry on Ten Little Known Points About American Religious History)

Why Charles Barkley is My Soulmate

The other night, when I had way too much coffee and was up until around 2am surfing blogs, I also caught The Tonight Show...with Charles Barkley.

There was big old Charles, goofing it up with Jay....and then he started to make sense. Charles made a very cogent point that Liberals and Conservatives, esp. those who are hosts and commentators on the various television news programs, are nothing more than rich people serving their own interests. Basically, Charles was saying that these Liberals and Conservatives were only putting on shows and not really debating the issues, because, as rich people, the true isssues of this country don't effect them.

He hates both Fox and CNN--saying, truthfully, that they are both one in the same and are there just to further the agendas of rich people, not to forward a true liberal or conservative viewpoint. (hmmm...kind of like alot of "blogs" out there that like to purport they are run by "amateurs"...but that's another issue)

Charles went on to say that race is not the big issue in this country....it's social class.

OMG! Charles, I love you!

He went on to say (if I might distill his comments) that poor whites, blacks, and hispanics have more in common than they think--and that commonality is terrible public school educations and a system that works to keep all of them down.

This, coming from a black man who has been highly successful in the system and has a great deal of money.

He's also very right.

Both Liberals and Conservatives, in their own ways, play the race card as a way of stirring up the poor against one another. It was a tactic used during the Civil War to get poor whites in the South to fight for the Plantation owners when even they were bought and traded by their own kin...and in an insidious, covert way that was just as demeaning as open slave trade.

So, let's face it, I'm right and Charles is right--the rich trade on the fears and ignorance of the poor. They pit one group against the other with polemics and rhetoric guaranteed to stir up emotion against reason. They feed them a "street culture" that glorifies their ignornace and encourages violence against themselves. They keep the race issue alive because it serves their purpose--to keep them on top. The Liberal rich love affirmative action because it keeps poor whites from advancing by saying that poor whites, because of their skin color have the exact same opportunities as rich whites (even if their family structures and educations are vastly different). The Conservatives are against affirmative action because they know that, if you have enough money, your color doesn't really matter--you are better as an ally working to keep the rabble down and maintaining the status quo than you are in helping to advance others of your "race."

(Note: it's fascinating how, when someone in a minority family gains status, all generations of a family become huge paragons of virtue--it's the old Protestant idea that states you are blessed and among the saints if you gain money and success in the temporal world, and that this is predetermined by God. What a crock of shit. But a crock of shit that works for both Liberals and Conservatives. go figure)

If a guy like Charles Barkley can see this, and has the courage to get out there and say it, there is definitley something to it. Guess Charles either has enough power to not fear any retribution, or "they" just let him get away with saying that because he's perceived as a clown.

I'm not positive of either perception...I'm not sure of the current popular opinion on Charles.

Still I find him a fascinating man. Charles is, in many ways, a warrior who has not only learned the power of brain over brawn, but also has been able to turn nasty mouthyness into playful yet socially astute banter.

Too bad Jay has such a big stake in the status quo.

Tish G.

Feminist, Philosopher, Anti-Porn Activist Andrea Dworkin Dies

Just in case y'all haven't found out yet, Andrea Dworkin died over the weekend at hew Washington D.C. home which she shared with partner John Stoltenberg. She was 59.

An official obit appears here in The Guardian, and there is an interesting essay about her at Susie Bright's Journal(this is interesting as much for the comments as for Bright's essay).

I have never been a true fan of Dworkin's philosophy--felt the writing far too polemic and high strung to be of any use in a solid intellectual debate (although alot would disagree with me.)

I also felt that, deep down, there were many things plaguing Dworkin that should have been dealt with in ways other than the public forum.

Perhaps, though, someone needed to raise the negative-aspect issues of sex the way Dworkin did. Up to that point, the voices who had raised some doubts were pooh-pooed by the higher minds cloistered in the Ivory Tower. Dworkin's polemics were often like someone yelling "fire" in a crowded movie theater--and while you can have an idea what the consequences of that act will be, you can never fully realize its full effect or if there was that much of a fire in the first place.

Yet one of her more egrigious claims--that all heterosexual sex is rape--has had a far reaching and, I believe, stultifying effect on how we perceive female sexual freedom and sexual expression. By claiming this, Dworkin not only philosophically doomed most of us straight women to the gaols of victimhood and made our mates and lovers into criminals, but also, insidiously, set up a backlash that has worked hand-in-hand with the sex industry in convincing women that they are both feminist and empowered when they are selling sex (see my own polemic on the sex industryhere).

If the type and kind of sex you prefer to participate in is considered a crime (as in Dworkin) or when "sexual expression" is reduced to a commodity, where your power to refuse it is eventually taken away (as it often ends up in sex work) do you then have *any* true sexual expression or freedom?

Andrea Dworkin took her personal suffering and turned it into philosphy and politics When I heard of her death, I was glad to hear that she did not suffer. Death, knowing no philosophy nor politics, is often far kinder than life ever could be.

--Tish G.

Available Now At Newsstands... IN HELL

Culture Commandos

Republican He-Man magazine

Patriot or Terrorist?

Federal Dick

Cross-posted at Tild~

For My Reading Pleasure Only ..................

Many women from the Third World cite many reaons for loving their existence in the US of A.
Freedom from oppression, social and religious, an oppurtunity to forge an identity of their own etc.

I have a simple reason. I love the fact that I can check out books from the Public Libraries for free. In India I would have to be a member of some book equivalent of Blockbuster. And like the video rental store they would have plenty of copies of "popular" titles and very few if any of the writers who did not make it to best-sellers list in India. So no Andrea Lee/Sandra Cisneros but many, many copies of say the latest Danielle Steele. If I have to buy every book I read I would be broke - considering that I get through books really fast + I would probably never have a big enough home to accomodate all my paper possessions.

I am a member of the Minuteman Library in Cambridge. Even if I moved away I think I will be a member there. They treat me like a book-lover should be treated with trust and kindness. I don't know if I will have many acheivements to my name when I am through working but I will be happy if it read on my epitaph:

She never mutilated or lost a library book through all the years of her reading.

Of course I won't have an epitaph, I am Hindu but enjoy the public library everyone. It is a wonderful resource.

Happy Library Week

Guide For The Opera Impaired

I took a brief break from political humor -- just long enough to post my
Guide For The Opera Impaired,
which even includes "The Uniform Opera Plot Act" a/k/a "Leave No Opera Hater Behind."

Wrapping up Estrogen Month

As in, "in a neat tidy box so all you have to do is click on one post to find the archives." I've cross-posted this from my blog, and hope it will serve as a handy link for those asking the question "Where are all the women bloggers?" as well as those considering Estrogen Month for a Koufax 2005 nomination as Best Series. I'll also stick this link onto my blog's sidebar, pretty much where you'd expect to find it. Below is a handy-dandy table containing the links to almost all my Estrogen Month posts (sorry about all the blank space preceding it, it's my first-ever attempt at a table so I'm not sure how to get rid of the space):

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6
Day 7	Day 8	Day 9	Day 10	Day 11	Day 12
Day 13	Day 14	Day 15	Day 16	Day 17	Day 18
Day 19	Day 20	Day 21	Day 22	Day 23	Day 24
Day 25	Day 26	Day 27	Day 28	Day 29	Day 30

And here's Day 31, 'cause March is like that with 31 days and all. I'm also going to repro the Photoshop I did on Day 19 just 'cause I got a kick out of doing it:

And of course don't forget the three permanent "Where the Women Bloggers Are" sections in my public Bloglines bookmarks, situated right beneath my "News+Views Gals" and "Kultcha Gals" sections.

Israel/Occupied Territories: Women carry the burden of conflict, occupation and patriarchy - Amnesty International

Israel/Occupied Territories: Women carry the burden of conflict, occupation and patriarchy - Amnesty International
Please follow that link to Amnesty International and take the actions they have set up there.

Peace