Are we not pus-- oops!-- women?

There's weird and there's weird. Ms. Lauren at Feministe turned me on this bit of weirdness, courtesy of weirdo Kim du Toit.

The Pussification of the Western Male

Now, little boys in grade school are suspended for playing cowboys and Indians, cops and crooks, and all the other familiar variations of "good guy vs. bad guy" that helped them learn, at an early age, what it was like to have decent men hunt you down, because you were a lawbreaker.

Now, men are taught that violence is bad -- that when a thief breaks into your house, or threatens you in the street, that the proper way to deal with this is to "give him what he wants", instead of taking a horsewhip to the rascal or shooting him dead where he stands.

Now, men's fashion includes not a man dressed in a three-piece suit, but a tight sweater worn by a man with breasts .

Now, warning labels are indelibly etched into gun barrels, as though men have somehow forgotten that guns are dangerous things.

Now, men are given Ritalin as little boys, so that their natural aggressiveness, curiosity and restlessness can be controlled, instead of nurtured and directed.

And finally, our President, who happens to have been a qualified fighter pilot, lands on an aircraft carrier wearing a flight suit, and is immediately dismissed with words like "swaggering", "macho" and the favorite epithet of Euro girly-men, "cowboy". Of course he was bound to get that reaction -- and most especially from the Press in Europe, because the process of male pussification Over There is almost complete.

How did we get to this?

The idea is not as new as he likely thinks it is. Far Right pundits, including gun research fraud John Lott, have been making the argument that troublesome women (along with uppity Negroes, of course) have been the ruination of America for quite a while.

You can read the rest of du Toit's Ode to Retrograde Masculinity here.

Note: This entry is an excerpt from Silver Rights.

Harmonic Concordance

In 1987 the Earth saw the first astrology-based global celebration of our era, the Harmonic Convergence. In two days we will have the chance to be a part of another landmark cosmic event, the Harmonic Concordance. "Harmonic convergence" describes the coming together of a group of energies to create a common tone. The term "Harmonic concordance" describes a group of energies in unison and resonance with a common tone.

Potential For Healing: According to astrologer Karen Steen, "Certainly, the chart indicates an opportunity to integrate greater emotional, spiritual, and ecological awareness into our personal lives and political and economic structures – if only that we all tune in together to such shared thoughts and feelings....

An expanded awareness now, as indicated by the Concordance chart, can assure real progress in our individual endeavors and progressive options for addressing global crises...."

What should you do?: Join together on that day with others in your community to focus on what you want more of in the world. Meditations visualizing a peaceful world, prayers of affirmation regarding harmony and global prosperity, and other such celebrations of the positive will have a far reaching effect. Remember, spirit work done alone makes a difference but that effect is multiplied (not added) when you join with others to do it, so organize a meditative get together with a friend or two or find a community gathering in your area. Spread the light and share the love.

On November 8-9, release what you no longer need with the total lunar eclipse, and open to the global energies of the Concordance. Finally, with the total solar eclipse of November 23, ground your expanded awareness and creative capacity, and begin anew to implement your intentions and plans."

-- Excerpted from full article at http://www.blisstherapy.com/news.html

POLITICAL LEANINGS?

Utne Magazine reminds us that the reality of today's political landscape is a bit more complex than the labels "right" or "left" and that political identities like "green," "communitarian," and "populist" don't easily fit the traditional left-right dichotomy.

So if you're as lost as I am, these quick quizzes may sort through your "real" political orientation, or if give you something to just want to waste your bosses time.

PoliticalCompass.org

AmericanChoices.org

The More Things Change...

If you haven't been keeping tabs, there has been a controversial tiff surrounding Condaleeza Rice and a cute little comic strip called "Boondocks."

Boondocks, a very popular, very cool Black, comic strip with militant overtones, kicked off the drama when the main character stated that Condeleeza Rice might not be so intent on destroying the world if she had a man. Ever since then, the character has been devoted to finding the perfect mate for this "weapon of mass seduction."

Oh Boy. Now don't get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for the strip's creator, Aaron McGruder, and I really wouldn't care so much about the comment...if it just weren't so darn take-me-back-to-the-1950s-= chauvinistic.

First of all, those types of comments are demeaning. Haven't we gotten past the whole idea that a woman's value is determined by the size of her...man? The answer is "No." Men are forever making lame comments like, "Someone needs to give her some" in response to some woman who just didn't feel like putting up with their B.S. that day.

Women are just as guilty. I was at a party once attended by a few women who were there with their men. They weren't just with them...they were glued to them. You know, the type of women who wouldn't be caught dead without a man. When I and my dateless self went up to greet these women they all instinctively gripped the arms of their men like I was going to grab one of them and run like the wind.

I could care less if Condaleeza Rice has a man, wants a man or really is a man in drag. But I do think if she had one, the press would be so heavily involved in her relationship that it just wouldn't work.

Second of all, how easy can it be to find a man when you are one of the most powerful women in the world? You have men who can't even handle a woman making a few thousand dollars a year more than they make. This woman is a top adviser to the most powerful man in the world. It's probably kind of hard to "push up" to a woman like that.

Third of all, if she was public about her relationship the media would spend all their time talking about whether or not she was going to get married and when she was going to have a baby. Society has a tendency to place women in one of four roles: wife, mother, fashion maven, sex object. Sooner or later, all public female figures get dragged, kicking and screaming, into one of these categories.

I'm sure Jackie Kennedy only wanted to be remembered for wearing nice dresses. I mean really, did this woman ever say anything? You wouldn't think so the way folks obsess about her style.

Condaleeza needs to be taken seriously for as long as this farce will hold up. Mark my words, the minute she goes public with a relationship people are going to be like--"Did you see what she wore when she was at that benefit with her man?"

http://sweetcity.blogspot.com.

Blogging for a Cure I

This marks the first of my November Blogging for a Cure postings. Throughout this month, I will attempt to post two or three times a week on the subject of diabetes. As will many Internet scribes: Blogcritics, Blogger, and individual writers throughout cyberspace will devote time and effort to spread the word about this insidious killer and about the work of the American Diabetes Association. The idea: to let people know the facts about diabetes, to encourage people to get tested and to monitor their disease, and to urge everyone to help involved in the effort to find a cure.

The issue is a personal one for me. My father, who died in September, had diabetes, and the disease played a contributory role to his death. My maternal grandmother is one of the 16 million Americans fighting the disease. So am I; dealing with this chronic illness is a constant struggle. And I have two children: My constant prayer is that they will be spared, but genetics puts them at a disadvantage. My responsibility, therefore, is to help them make positive health decisions that may protect them from ending up like their mother.

The kids are my number-one concern, of course, and recent news shows that this worry is justified. When we think of children, we tend to think of Type I diabetes, which is known as "juvenile diabetes." This develops when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the hormone insulin, which regulates blood glucose. This form of diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, who need several insulin injections a day or an insulin pump to survive. But the American Diabetes Association reports that up to 45 percent of kids newly diagnosed with have Type II, and young girls are more at risk than young boys.

Type II diabetes usually begins as insulin resistance, a disorder called "borderline diabetes," in which a person's cells do not use insulin properly. As the need for insulin rises, the pancreas gradually loses its ability to produce it. This form of the disease is associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, prior history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, and physical inactivity. Doctors say some people classified as African-American, Latino-American, Native-American, Asian-Americans, and Pacific Islanders are at particularly high risk. And increasingly, children who are overweight and lead sedentary lives -- perhaps because they spend too much time in front of video games and computer screens -- are at risk too.

Diabetes educator Lynn Baillif, M.S., R.D, operates Fit Kids, a program that teaches at-risk children healthy eating and exercise habits. She tells Medstar.com, "The best thing that we can tell parents is to get your kids to be more active and help them to pick healthier foods."

Here is where the difference between the two types of diabetes comes to the fore: In Type I or "juvenile" diabetes, the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. In Type II, it can, but can't process it properly. While there is no cure for diabetes, recent studies suggest that body fat interferes with the ability for cells to use insulin correctly. Meaning, reducing body fat can improve a Type II diabetic's health.

As more and more children are diagnosed with the "adult" version of the disease, it becomes increasingly important to urge parents and schools to serve healthier foods, to teach children to make wise dietary choices, and to promote the importance of fitness and exercise inside and outside of phys-ed classes.

Parents and guardians can help kids by presenting a good example: Whether you have diabetes or not, make sure your kids see you eating a balanced, low-fat diet. And drag your children away from sedentary activities -- get them involved in sports leagues or dance classes. Better yet, join them for a walk or run occasionally, take them swimming, and play physical sports with them. With luck and consistency, this can provide all kinds of benefits both for the children's physical and emotional well-being -- and for yours.

For information on what you can do to live a healthier life and to help spread diabetes awareness, visit the American Diabetes Association Web site. And become a Diabetes Advocate -- get involved in the cause.

from all facts and opinions

Hairy Women

That was the title of a show I watched last night on channel nine, staying up way past my bedtime because I was so curious after seeing the promos. It was a documentary-style look about the cultural perceptions of women and their body hair. It looked at all types of situations: women who went to great lengths (and expense) to remove hair from all over their bodies (except for eyebrows and scalp), men who were obsessed with dark thick body hair on women (one somewhat humorous segment involved a man who was searching for his perfect "hirstute" bride-to-be in Europe, disappointed to find that they all pretty much shaved, tweezed, plucked and waxed as frequently as most American women). They introduced a woman whose high testosterone level caused her to grow a small but noticeable moustache and beard. She had spent most of her life shaving the hair off, but consciously made the decision to grow it out and "be herself," because she wanted to see how she'd be treated.

The show was good in the sense that it got me to thinking about my own notions of beauty and body hair and cultural convention. I have quite dark hair, and have always been a bit on the hairy side. I remember sometime around 6th or 7th grade, sitting on the bus, quietly minding my own business when a boy began to taunt me about having "gorilla arms." I remember when I first started to hit puberty and my mom lectured me about the faintly noticeable hair on my upper lip, that I needed to start bleaching it. I remember how much that bothered me, because in so many other ways my parents encouraged me to just be who I was. Wasn't that hair on my lip just part of me, my body, who I was?

I've shaved, tweezed, plucked, waxed, and done the whole routine. I put up with shaving my underarms and legs because I like the feeling of smooth skin there-- no other reason, particularly, and I often let my leg hair grow long in the winter when I keep my legs covered up anyway. I tweeze away my unibrow. But I think of one of my favorite artists, Frida Kahlo, and how she exaggerated her own facial hair in her self portraits. She identified her body hair as a part of who she was, and unashamedly, or maybe defiantly? portrayed it. I'll have to think more about it. Why has body hair on women become so taboo?

Blessed Samhain

Some call it Halloween; others call it Samhain (pronounced "SOW-in" in Ireland, SOW-een in Wales, "SAV-en" in Scotland or "SAM-hain" in non-Gaelic speaking countries). The Pagan sabbat was the first observance of this day. The present holiday of trick or treat and costumed kiddies was inspired by this contemplative time, which was intended to mark summer's end and to honor those who have gone before us.

Celtic Spirit offers a fascinating look at the tradition; here is an excerpt:

Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark, at Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Whereas Beltane welcomes in the summer with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of this festival is November Eve, the night of October 31st, known today of course, as Halloween.

The following is from "SAMHAIN, Halloween, & the Day of the Dead," the author's note from MYTH*ING LINKS: An Annotated & Illustrated Collection of Worldwide Links to Mythologies, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Sacred Arts & Sacred Traditions by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.

This season was the beginning of the New Year (and winter) in many rural areas of Europe. The actual time of transition, from sundown on Samhain to sundown the following day, was a "thin place" in the Celtic world, a place between-the-worlds where deep insights could pass more easily to those who were open to them. In addition to inspiration, through the portals could also pass beings of wisdom, fun, and play (and some of these played rough, requiring common sense and real caution on the part of mortals).

Christianity would declare that these creatures of "otherness" were evil, but that only reveals how clumsy is the relationship between the West's monotheism and much older, archetypal realms of the "imaginal." The creative impulse is inherent in life. In humans, only when it is repressed by too many narrow minds full of rigid "do's and don't's" does it rebel and re-direct its power into malice and violence. At its worst, monotheism impoverishes the creative juices within us, demonizing them, closing us off from multi-dimensional realms all around us. Then we wonder why children use guns in schools which have been starved of the imaginal by the forced withdrawal of the arts, theatre, and music.

In this season of Samhain, we are reminded of other wondrous worlds existing side by side with our own, and we are invited to play, laugh, don disguises, delight in small miracles of human friendship, use common sense, and free our hearts to explore who and what we truly are.

From the inbox, I found this piece from the Goddess Tara. It is part of her sales pitch for spells and such, but the message was so lovely, I wanted to share it for the benefit of my Pagan and Wiccan readers, friends, and loved ones:

Blessed Be!

The wheel has turned, and the New Year is here. Now is the time for remembering those who have gone before us. They can once more come across the veil, letting their presence be felt. Do you have a dream to share, or a question to ask of them? Now is the time. A celebration of the beloved dead - they are never forgotten, as they are always with us. As the old year dies so the new year is born. This is the way of the universe.

"The song of the heart is always heard."

Be true to yourself, love and do not fear the process of your life, let it unfold, for love is true freedom and power. Remember, love is a pure energy, and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can simply be transformed, as it is eternal. So whomever you have loved can never truly die in your heart.

From October 31st through November 2nd is one of the holiest of sabbats. People all over the world will be celebrating this High Holy Day of the Dead. I will be performing my own ritual on the night of October 31st, at 12 midnight PST. My sister has flown in from across the country to be with me on this special night, as we will attempt to communicate with our father, who entered the Summerland earlier this year.

"I know there is NO death, only transformation."

So on this night we will celebrate life, and we will feel with the heart. Go into the mysteries, cut open the veil in the West, and invite the ones we remember to be with us in the sacred circle - between the worlds. We will be together again for a time, between the worlds, coming together again once more.
"Feel the winds of change, let yourself fly free. Remember you have the power to create your dreams."

Moon Times for October / November

Samhain / Halloween All Saint's Day Full Moon (The Mourning Moon) Lunar Eclipse Veteran's Day Waning Moon Sun enters Sagittarius Solar Eclipse New Moon Thanksgiving

Oct. 31 Nov. 1 Nov. 8 (8:13 pm ET) Nov. 8 (8:20 pm ET) Nov. 11 Nov. 16 (11:15 pm ET) Nov. 22 (12:43 pm ET) Nov. 23 (2:30 am ET) Nov. 23 (4:02 pm ET) Nov. 27

In closing, remember that we are changing the world, and that everything She touches changes. May we have peace, harmony, love and abundance for all.

To all, a happy Halloween and Samhain. Blessed be.

from all facts and opinions

Identity Crisis

The Right Christians points to a very interesting game: Gender Genie, inspired by an article in The New York Times Magazine, uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author. You plug in text you have written -- it works best, it says, with pieces of 500 words or more, hit a button, and then tells you whether you are male or female.

Well, I tried it three times, and each time, the finding was that I am a man.

Leaves me with quite a lot to think about...

from All Facts and Opinions

One Short Thought

George W. Bush is a miserable failure.

It's a Google project by a bunch of lefty bloggers. Try putting that phrase and link into your site, if you like. It will be neat to see those connected terms -- "George W. Bush" and "Miserable Failure" -- get major search-engine hits. Could be fun.

Blogging for a Cure

I have diabetes. It is very possible that this disease one day will kill me. Not having health insurance, I do what I can to manage the illness through diet, but it is taking its toll. And I am one of the lucky ones. At least I know my condition and can take some steps to preserve my health.

There are at least thousands of people walking around who have diabetes and do not know it. Not knowing can be deadly. And far too many people don't have knowledge of the disease -- the fact that it is on the rise; that it can be managed, and not necessarily through painful insulin injections; that being overweight can play a crucial part in avoiding the disease or in lessening its complications.

Next month, Blogcritics, Blogger, and individual blog scribes will devote time and effort to spread the word about this insidious killer and about the work of the American Diabetes Association. The idea: to let people know the facts about diabetes and to encourage people to get tested so that they can live healthier lives.

If you have a blog or web site, please help the Blogging for a Cure effort. Recruit as many people as you can who have diabetes, know someone with diabetes, or who care about public health to volunteer to write something about diabetes daily, three times a week or once a week on their blog and/or on Blogcritics throughout the month of November. Working together, we can all make a positive difference in helping to cure diabetes and to raise awareness about this terrible disease. And we can do more: fight for increased federal funding for diabetes research and prevention, improved health care and insurance coverage, and an end to discrimination based on a person's diabetes.

If you have any questions, ask away. As more details about the event are confirmed, I will pass them along. And more information can be found at the American Diabetes Association's Action Center.

Cannot find Second Half Recovery - Second-Half Recovery Explorer

Cannot find Second Half Recovery - Second-Half Recovery Explorer

This is priceless...

Unwanted Snail Mail

The previous resident of the apartment forgot to cancel her catalogue subscriptions so for the past couple of months, we've been getting tons of clothing magazines. They've been piling up on the coffee table next to the door and the corner of the living room. We haven't been reading them (let alone ordering from them) and I've been thinking of chucking them into the recycling bin, but what's the point when we've been using them as placemats for hot pots and trays from the oven?

What pisses me off the most about these catalogues, though, are the pictures. Normal people don't look like these models. The clothes are not going to look the same on me as they look on them. I suppose the goal is to make the buyer think that she will look like the model if she wears those clothes. Or if the buyer is like me, she would know that she would never look like the model. Do advertising agencies want to make half the population neurotic and insecure? There's already enough in the world to make one worry. It's like those catalogues just want to add insult to injury.

And I absolutely despise those pouty expressions the models are made to mimic, especially on those underwear catalogues. They're marketing their product to the wrong demographic, that's what. Maybe a better home for all these magazines is a needy frat house.

(cross-posted at Syaffolee)

A new book focuses on women writers in southern Africa

Margo Jefferson, writing for the Books section of The New York Times, recommends a new anthology of writers.

Sometimes literature itself puts a country on our internal map. At about the same time the South African novelist J. M. Coetzee won the Nobel Prize, Oprah's Book Club announced that its next selection would be another South African novel, Alan Paton's 1948 book, ''Cry, the Beloved Country.'' To learn more about South Africa, I turned to the Feminist Press's rich new anthology ''Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region.'' It's an amazing resource, close to 600 pages, and it's a true collaboration, the work of seven editors from four countries. The 20 or so original languages include English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and siNdebele. The traditions are oral and written: there are poems and folktales, stories, diaries and political documents starting from the 1830's.

An anonymous widow's chant from Lesotho (first collected in 1836) has the ring of Greek choral poetry.

Would that I had wings to fly up to the sky!

Why does not a strong cord come down from the sky?

I would tie it to me, I would mount,

I would go there to live.

And here's the black South African journalist Marian Morel describing, with sardonic brilliance, a 1959 Capetown beauty contest:

''The girls -- colored, Indian and African -- had to provide their own dresses. Factory workers, domestic workers, waitresses by day. Now with a dab of powder, a secret twist of their dresses, they were trying to become the Princess for the Night.

'' 'Gonna, I feel like a baggage of nerves,' one girl told me. 'I wish I wasn't competing. I wish I was just spectating like you.' . . .

''The band swung into 'Anchors Aweigh' and the girls sailed in. . . . A fellow in an orange shirt posted himself behind No. 19, and every now and then licked her left ear. She didn't blink an eyelash. I gave her 10 out of 10 for poise.''

I've been a fan of South African literature for as long as I've been politically conscious. When I consider how much my life has been enriched by Nadine Gordimer, Athol Fugard, Bessie Head and other writers of the country, I am amazed. Amid its political strife, southern Africa has produced a wealth of observers of what it means to be human in the twentieth century. If the new anthology from the Feminist Press is a guide, that legacy will continue into this one.

Note: My blog is Silver Rights.

After my own... brain?

Way at the top of Blogdex this (Sydney) morning is misbehaving.net, a group blog including some of our fellow Blog Sisters talking about women in technology-- a topic after my own, er, brain!

Looks to be an interesting place already! I'm excited to see where it'll go. And I do hope it keeps going. As one of two or three girls in all of my comp. sci. classes in college, I do strongly believe there isn't a lot of support/ discussion for women in at least that technological area.

Edit:
After reading all the comments about feet getting stepped on in regards to who gets to post on misbehaving, I'm not so enthused about that, so I hope I didn't put my foot in it by my hasty endorsement. But I have liked the published content so far, and I hope that keeps going in a good direction-- whatever I do or don't know about personalities/ relationships behind-the-scenes.

The Spiritual Path of Honesty

When people think of meditation they often think of concentration practices. That is one form of meditation practice, but not the only type. I generally like to follow extremely structured meditation practices, called sadhanas, with a period of mindfulness meditation.

In concentration meditation practice we learn to regain control of the mind enough so that it is sufficiently calm to allow meditation to take place. The practice is not the meditation, but rather the process that creates auspicious conditions for meditation to arise.

In mindfulness meditation practices the goal is to become familiar with the activity of one's mind. What is your mind usually up to? I find mine to often be engaged with attempts to establish the concreteness or importance of my existence. It is of course a goal that has no culmination since it pursues the confirmation of a falsehood, but still my mind seems pretty good at keeping itself busy with the attempt.

In mindfulness meditation practices we don't try to control the mind, we just watch. We say to mind, "I won't try to hold you here. Go ahead and run around all you like. I will just watch." The key thing that makes it meditative is that we do not follow after the mind, letting it drag us around as if it was in charge not us. Instead we center ourselves in spirit, our true identity, and watch the mind the same way we might watch our hands move as we type on a keyboard.

Becoming familiar with your mind is a key step on the path of truth and honesty, enlightenment. In enlightenment we see things as they really are, not as we have been conditioned to see them, not as we have agreed to pretend life is. We are rigorously honest in thought, word and deed. Watch your mind and you will begin to learn the truth of your experience and the nature of your being.

[orignally published at www.blisstherapy.com/news.html]

Margaret Cho on Ann Coulter

All this and she isn't even hot. If you are going to be wrong, at least be hot. I am guilty of some of the biases that Ann is, but in reverse. My prejudice and hatred of the establishment, the judicial system, anti- abortionists, racism, misogyny, the integration of church and state - can spiral downwards out of control, and maybe my facts could be discounted and I could be called a liar as well. But I don't give a shit, because at least I am hot. I know I may not be traditionally pretty, but playas line up around the block to make some time with me, and they aren't even getting it right then. The line is just for the wristband, yo. The hotness is not about age, looks, body type, race - it is about honesty, knowing who you are and being who you are, without trying to front like you are better than you are. It is about the down deep authenticity of self, then living it, loving it and looking it.

Margaret Cho has a blog. I dig this woman. But what's up with no permalinks?

Google

Google

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

I adapted this text from one of the sites to Impeach Bush. I sent this to the Presidential Candidates and to my representatives. Feel free to copy the text and do the same.

Please register my strong support for the Campaigns to Impeach George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld.

I believe these men have overstepped their authorities, and have exceeded the powers granted their offices by the U.S. Constitution. Further, they have broken international treaties such as the Geneva Convention, and this increases the danger to our own troops in the field. More of our soldiers have died since the end of our invasion of Iraq than during the operation. It has been proven that the case made before Congress was false. There was no immanent threat. There was no connection to Al Queda. There were no weapons of mass distruction. No elected offical can be allowed to lie to Congress and to the American people with Impunity. No one should be able to put our young men and women in uniform in harm's way under false pretenses. They deserve better, and so do the rest of us.

For the first time in history, the Administration has interfered with the content and the dissemination of scientific information in order to further its extreme ideology. Public money is being used to fund religious organizations in a direct affront to Constitutional principles. Judges and Federal prosecutors are being bullied by the executive branch of government. American citizens are being held without the basic rights of representation and habeus corpus.

These men may have committed War Crimes by ordering the carpet bombing of areas of Afghanistan, in attacking Iraq without provocation, in detaining prisoners and suspects without respect for the Geneva Convention's specific guidelines for the treatment of Prisoners of War. The "Bush Doctrine" of "preemptive" war is illegal under the Nuremberg Charter, and is the same thinking that the Nazis employed sixty years ago.

Their assaults on civil liberties in the United States are unconstitutional, and they directly violate the guaranteed rights of American citizens. They have used lies about dangers which did not exist to justify breaking the social contract between this government and the American people.

The Bush Administration's decision to ignore Freedom of Information Act requests is clearly illegal under that Act. The Bush Administration's obstruction of investigations into the events of September the 11th, 2001 and of investigations into the Osama bin Laden family prior to September the 11th, may warrant Obstruction of Justice charges. Evidence has come to light that the Administration ignored warnings about a planned terrorist attack involving the use of planes as missiles. They failed in their most important duty- to protect the lives of American citizens.

Now, we have learned that during the days after September 11, members of the Bin Laden family were allowed to fly arround the country while our public airlines were grounded, and finally to leave without allowing the FBI to question them. This may have been an act of treason, and I strongly urge you to challenge the administration on this grievous breach of basic investigative procedure.

The exposure of a CIA operative in an apparent attempt to intimidate political oppenents must be the last straw. Partisan politics must not be allowed to endanger the American people by compromising national security. We, the People, will not rest until the source of this leak is exposed and prosecuted.

America has seen nothing like this in her history. The Nixon administration's crimes were minor in comparison to the behavior of these men. They have foresworn their oaths of office and should be removed.

Sincerely,

Loving Google

I'm loving Google's toolbar, which I've just put on my computer here at the office and which Robin is installing on my home computer. As Google owns Blogger, all I have to do is press a button to instantly get to my blogging edit function. Way cool.

Undead: Horror for the rest of us?

While I'm sure it'll always be a cult flick, Australia's latest zombie movie Undead has a lot of things going for it that other horror-type films lack. In the campy, self-mocking tradition of the Evil Dead movies, this film takes horror movie subversion to a new level by presenting us with a female beauty queen protagonist who, although screaming and scared as fellow town members start being gored by flesh eating monsters, still has what it takes to pick up that shotgun and start kicking undead booty.

Rene, desperate for cash to keep up the family farm, enters small town Berkeley's local pageant and wins the vaunted title of Miss Catch of the Day. But despite her small success, it's not enough to save the farm from foreclosure, and she's about to head off to the big city for a new start when mysterious meteors start falling from the sky. She's stopped in the midst of her flight by a car accident on the road. It looks like everyone's dead... or are they? But her true spirit shines through as she picks up the steering wheel lock and swipes it through her first zombie.

Not long after, she encounters Marion, the town crackpot who claims he was abducted by aliens. He thinks the aliens are behind the strange meteor shower and the zombification of the town's residents. It's the end of the world, he declares, and only the strongest are left to defend humanity in this final battle. Certainly, it does seem like something supernatural is going on: there's a giant spiky wall surrounding the town and trapping everyone in with the zombies. And why does the rain start to smoke when it hits the few humans left? And what are those weird lights beaming down from the sky and making things disappear?

The zombie invasion turns out to be something quite different in the end, but Marion does get something right: only the strongest are left at the end. Rene is the only one who learns the truth about the meteors. Earlier in the film, someone tells Rene that as Miss Catch of the Day, it's her job to look after the best interests of the town. And in the end, it's the Beauty Queen standing between humanity and a brain-sucking, horrible undead fate, with cowboy boots and a giant shotgun. Rene is a survivor, and in the end it's not her looks that keep her alive.

I know zombie flicks aren't for everyone-- many can't stand the gore, cheesy special effects, the absurd situations, and find the action predictable. And in the case of Undead, there are also plenty of inside Aussie jokes that might pass most moviegoers by. But it also shines as a gem among the throng of Hollywood Night of the Living Dead knock-offs, and certainly there's something compelling about a gutsy feminine hero who subverts the horror genre's female stereotypes.