I haven't seen The Exorcist before and now I don't need to

notes from Hans Blix's speech

Hans Blix is a great speaker, so if you get a chance to see him, I recommend it. I didn't start zoning out until the Q and A session (and that was because the questions asked had already been answered in the speech). So here are my notes:

title: "Lessons of Iraq?"
a war of necessity? NO.
no nuclear capability as in 90s
Iraq as a model democracy for MidEast
"a war chosen"
SH was defiant, not a danger
"I feel resentment about such suspicions" - his comment on the suspicions of members of the administration
Cheney's comment that the inspections were "useless at best"
"yellowcake" revealed as forgery before invasion
was the war predetermined?
Iraqis opened themselves up since they were somewhat closed off about inspections
most were destroyed already in 1991 - BCHs were. quantities unconfirmed.
SH had no incentive to cooperate:
- he didn't mind the belief that he was hiding weapons in defiance
- he was incensed and humiliated by treatment
- he viewed inspectors as possible spies
justification for war?
- no nuclear infrastructure left
- human rights abuses? not an option - no authorization for intervention

containment v. pre-emptive war
containment - USSR - Truman and USA - patience, resolve and kindness
Korean War - UN legitimacy valued by USA - approval of armed action
even in Gulf War first - Mid East alliance wouldn't have lasted with capture of Saddam Hussein in 90s.
pre-emptive war - no signs of impending Iraqi attack.

there should be action, not war, on terrorism.
"to obtain democracy through occupation is proving difficult . . ."

He made many more insightful comments that I didn't get down. Ah well.

courtesy of Radmila

:
I want everyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want and I will answer it. Then, I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.

Worth taking

I took this and I don't like my answers. But that's just me - I strongly recommend it to you; it is very quick and easy:

Moral Sense Test - through Primate Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Harvard University.

Ouch

From Ann Telnaes site:

Hans Blix is coming to town tomorrow

and I'm trying to get tickets. They are free, but you still have to have tickets to get in. I'd like to see him, but we'll see how it works out. The topic of his talk is the search for weapons of mass destruction. What a surprise!

edit: I don't know how I got tickets, because apparently they ran out this morning. God must want me to hear Hans Blix, or maybe some spirit out in the blogosphere wants me to. I was able to find an e-mail address through a blog entry that led me to my current ticket source, who is helping to set up the event. Whoo hoo! Blogs are useful, after all! The tickets are free, but I am paying for our courier service to pick them up for me. It's worth it not to have to drive and park at UT.

Another reason why Jackie Chan rocks!

Jackie Chan named U. N. Goodwill Ambassador:
"The Hong Kong action film star will help fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and discrimination against people affected by it, and advance the causes of children, particularly those who suffer through armed conflict, said Rodney Hatfield, UNICEF's representative in Cambodia."

Huh?

from IMDB news:
"Peter Jackson To Direct Harrowing Rape Story?

Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has shocked Hollywood by tentatively agreeing to take over the harrowing tale of a teenage rape and murder victim after director Lynne Ramsay walked out. The Oscar-winning New Zealand-based movie maker, who will film King Kong later this year, is negotiating with producers to make Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones his next project. The story is narrated by the dead girl from heaven as she follows her family's attempts to deal with her gruesome death and the efforts of a detective to solve the case."

I never saw that coming. I wonder if it will really go. I just can't imagine how such a film would be. The book was so small and personal, and Jackson's so epic. Well, Heavenly Creatures isn't, but still.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't

AlterNet: War on Iraq: News Log: Monday must reads

An overview of today's articles about our unfortunate situation in Iraq:

"The Bush administration may have opt for its usual flip-flop on that one, however, since it literally can't afford the occupation as it stands. The Rumsfeld "light is better" Doctrine has turned out to be wildly off the mark, both in its estimates of the number of troops and type of equipment required to occupy Iraq. Not only is the Pentagon in desperate need of more feet on the ground, the soldiers themselves are furious at the Pentagon for not providing them with the heavy armor required to protect themselves. "

I am not a regular Daily Kos reader, but I found this through TMW:
Karen Hughes: Pro-Choice=Pro-Terrorist

Apparently Karen Hughes had this comment to make about the Pro-Choice march yesterday:
"the fundamental issue between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life."

Except for the lives of anyone on Death Row. Not that I'm against the death penalty (I'm really on the fence about it), I just think if you are going to make such a blanket statement, you need to back it up with your actions.

MoJo Blog update

Since I don't get the paper, I didn't realize this, but Will Tacy writes here:
"As we reported yesterday, that employee, Tami Silicio, was prompty fired by the contractor. But now, the Air Force has released about 361 photos strikingly like Silicio's. As in the case described by Cohn, they were all taken at Dover Air Force Base. And, like in 1983, they were on the front page of just about every major U.S. newspaper today."(emphasis mine)

I've tried accessing The Memory Hole to see the pics Tacy is talking about, but it isn't working for me. Hopefully you'll have better luck.

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

. . . especially a stormy weekend before my birthday.

I saw Mindy Smith last night at a very crowded concert. She was great, although I couldn't hear the first part of the concert because apparently, people like to socialize at free concerts. Towards the end, Mel and I gave up our horrible seats on a fencepost to stand (in a crowd actually listening to the artist!) where we could see and hear her. So the only song I really missed was "Jolene", because we were able to hear "Come to Jesus" and "Falling". She sang a version of Gershwin's "Summertime", saying, "He's still the shit." Guess who was the only one who hooted for that? Yeah, I'm a nerd.

I just found the cutest website:
Who is that with Jeremy?

Damn it.

I just read in Tom's blog that the worker who had taken the picture of flag-draped coffins printed in the Seattle Times yesterday has been fired.

Just peachy. Go here to read more about it.

Happy Earth Day!

This is a day that is close to my heart (and my birthday). When I was in high school, I was the lone Earth Day nerd. I made banners and stamped people's hands with my Mary Englebreit "Hurt not the Earth" stamp. Senior year I had a group of people help me with the banner. I think that banner is in a closet at my parents' house. So here's how I celebrate it now - by telling you to go to this site and figure out how you can help the environment in any way.

Here are the little things I do:

- take cloth bags to the grocery store
- recycle plastic bags/plastic/glass/paper/aluminum
- buy gas in the early morning or mid-evening
- carpool (when possible)
- drive a fuel-efficient car
- conserve gas by running errands in one trip
- keep the water off when I brush my teeth
- give old clothing/CDs/books/videos/other such items to Goodwill instead of throwing them out
- buy organic food when possible/cost-permitting
- always cut plastic six-pack rings (I've even done it to ones I've found on the street)

That just gives you an example on small things you can do to help the Earth. Go to the site and check it out, and enjoy your day today.

It's that time again

The Webby Awards: People's Voice
I don't know what I think of their choices for nominees. I swear last year you could write in a vote. That's not an option now.

The flag-draped coffins they don't want you to see

From MoJo blog:
"Take a look at the photo running . . . in today's Seattle Times and you begin to understand why the Pentagon doesn't want us to see images of coffins coming home. The photo, stark and moving, shows flag-draped coffins containing the bodies of fallen troops being secured inside a cargo plane at Kuwait International Airport."

Here is the article they're talking about.

Neat interview with Mindy Smith

I think I'm going to have to buy her album, especially if I'm able to catch her Thursday night. This interview shows her as a really down-to-earth kind of person, whose father happens to be a minister. Very interesting!

not Pope Alexander

I realize that I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind weeks ago and never wrote about it here. I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I mean, Jim Carrey! Ugh! I loved it, though. The music is wonderful, the lighting fits the picture, the acting is great, the writing amazingly good, blah blah blah. I love the surprises they throw at you and adore the order (disorder?) of the film. You think you've got it all figured out, but you don't. It is definitely the best mainstream film I've seen so far for 2004.

Sidenote - I guiltily admit I want to see 13 Going on 30. Jennifer Garner has become one of my favorite current actresses through her work in Alias. I like her enough that I went to see Daredevil when it was out. I'm sure this movie will be better than Daredevil. It doesn't take much.

I started this in response to a comment on The Weblog:

Adam K - I only saw "Shattered Glass", so I'm far from an expert on Stephen Glass. I did take away from the film that it is harder and harder for journalism to stay "serious". Our media has become so sensationalized that Stephen Glass could provide TNR with stories full of lies until one person decided to research an article.

Even with this aspect of our culture, though, I find your last line confusing. If you want to simplify it like that, so that fiction is "lies", and non-fiction "truth", I think a large part of the reading population would disagree. I guess I can only speak for myself though. I choose to read fiction because the world becomes too much. Because I am surrounded by liars and cheats in the world (well, my political spectrum anyway), I prefer to retreat to a world of fiction. I don't find such escape in non-fiction. Non-fiction does interest me, but the stuff I choose to read tends to get me riled up. Of course, some fiction does that for me too.

I don't think you should be so quick to dismiss fiction as passe because it is "lies". I have found truths in certain works of fiction that never would have struck me in non-fiction.

Thanks to a Gauche

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the sentence on your blog along with these instructions.

Here's what I've got:

"Nor had it escaped Phoebe's notice that she'd been started on the very instrument that had eluded her mother."
-- What She Saw in Roger Mancuso, Gunter Hopstock, (et al.): a Novel, Lucinda Rosenfeld

The actual title of the novel is really freakin' long, so I shortened it.

Come to Jesus

As a larger than usual number of people have been coming to my page looking for the lyrics to Mindy Smith's song, Come to Jesus, I made a link on the sidebar to my earlier entry about the song. I think today, I've had about 12 people looking for the lyrics. Good for Mindy Smith! It's an awesome song, and I hope it's getting lots of airplay. She'll be in Austin this week, and I'm hoping to catch her free concert at Shady Grove. Yesterday I went to CMT's site to check out the video, and they also have the video for Jolene.

We were right

And here's proof:

AlterNet: War on Iraq: News Log: Woodward book exposes Bush

"The book, which will be available in bookstores next week, offers damning proof that the hawks in the White House led by Dick Cheney were determined to topple Saddam from the earliest days of the presidency, and were not willing to change course even after the 9/11 attacks proved Al Qaeda to be the greater threat."

I hate that I already knew that to be the case. I don't understand how Bush is getting away with all this. His administration has done amazingly crooked things. The American people hear about it and do nothing. He still has a relatively high approval rate! Ack!

Don't forget to buy some baked goods tomorrow: MoveOn's Bake Sales for Democracy.

AlterNet: Personal Voices: Setting the Record Straight

I don't know what to think about this piece by Michael Moore. He always seems to go a bit too far for my taste. Overall, though, this piece makes some extremely good points. I think Michael Moore is an extreme progressive liberal, where I tend to to be more progressive liberal lite. He's much more in your face than I could ever be. But I did enjoy TV Nation when I was in high school. That was some good stuff.

Lengthy entry on MoJo Blog

The entry is about how Bush refuses to apologize, how Americans are polarized in their opinions of Bush, and more:

"I prefer to believe that the millions of reasonable Americans outside the progressive community -- Americans who voted for Bush in 2000, or supported the attack on Afghanistan, or believe that toppling Saddam Hussein was a worthy goal -- can recognize that the war in Iraq was ill-conceived, and that the occupation has been ill-managed. I prefer to believe that even supporters of Bush admit that this administration have put more a few feet wrong."

This entry is worth checking out. So go do it, already.

FAIR ACTION ALERT: CNN to Al Jazeera: Why Report Civilian Deaths?

Apparently CNN had the opportunity to interview Al Jazeera's editor-in-chief, wherein he was asked about the relevance of the civilian deaths as compared to the story of the insurgents.

Why wouldn't innocent civilians being killed be a story? FAIR argues, "Especially in light of official U.S. denials of civilian deaths, video footage of women and children killed by the U.S. military is evidence that needs to be seen."

Here's the kicker:

"independent journalists reporting from Fallujah have described a scene consistent with the one broadcast by Al Jazeera. Rahul Mahajan, a U.S. journalist in Fallujah, estimated that of the 600 Iraqis killed in Fallujah, 200 were women and 100 young children, with many of the adult male casualties also non-combatants. He reported witnessing "a young woman, 18 years old, shot in the head" and "a young boy with massive internal bleeding" at a clinic (CommonDreams.org, 4/12/04). Mahajan recounted that during the "cease-fire," "Americans were attacking with heavy artillery but primarily with snipers"-- with ambulances among the targets. The sniper activity was also reported by U.S. journalist Dahr Jamail (NewStandardNews.net, 4/11/04): "Fallujah residents say Marines are opening fire randomly on unarmed civilians and have attacked clearly marked ambulances."

"When reports from the ground are describing hundreds of civilians being killed by U.S. forces, CNN should be looking to Al Jazeera's footage to see if it corroborates those accounts-- not badgering Al Jazeera's editor about why he doesn't suppress that footage."

Go to FAIR's alert page to let CNN know what you think.

FAIR is the group that works for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting.

Walking back to my office after picking up lunch, I smelled a floral scent that reminded me of The Sarah P. Duke Gardens in North Carolina. I spent a lovely afternoon there when I was in NC for an Americorps build. It is a gorgeous, quiet place. The gardens are quite expansive and various. I'm so glad I got to see them during my short time in that area.

In honor of the day, I link to an episode of Frontline that showed in February: tax me if you can: gimme shelter: the great american tax dodge | PBS. I heard the IRS is going to go after more corporations for audits, while they have previously focused more on individuals. We'll see. . .

Notes:

I added a link to Robert Everest's page this morning. When I lived in Minneapolis, my friend Renae and I would go to Maria's Cafe on Saturday for great Colombian food and hear him play. Thinking of his music and Maria's food make me a tad homesick for Minnesota.

I removed my link to the Right Christians. Although I think it is a worthy organization, you must now pay $5 a month to join in, read blog entries, etc.

I might be joining the group blog, University without condition, where a blog discussion on short stories and other short works will occur. I'm going to link to them no matter what, cuz they link to me!

Jefferson Muzzles for 2004

I heard about this program on NPR this morning. On April 13, Jefferson's birthday, "awards" are given to those "who in the past year forgot or disregarded Mr. Jefferson's admonition that freedom of speech "cannot be limited without being lost."

This years recipients include CBS television, The United States Secret Service, and Baseball Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey, among others. They list the award-recipients and the reason why they deserve the muzzle.

Apparently, they get a T-shirt as an award. The man from the Jefferson Center who spoke on NPR said that one award-winner actually wanted a certificate to put in his den.

To listen to the NPR story, go to Censuring the Censors.

What I'm Watching Tonight

American Experience | Emma Goldman

Unfortunately, I don't know a whole lot about Emma Goldman, except she appears in Ragtime the musical (I haven't read the book) and she did some good work for women's rights. She will be featured on The American Experience tonight, so I hope to learn more about this controversial woman, once named "the most dangerous woman in America". It's on at 8pm CST on PBS (check your local listings).

Last night I was watching my soap (yeah, yeah) and I saw the best ad. It turned out to be for Girls Inc.. I can't find it online, but it is great. A girl is looking at a magazine and talking about how society tells her one thing and you need to tell her another. I'm disappointed I can't find it for you.

Come To Jesus
Mindy Smith

"Oh, my baby, when you're older
Maybe then you'll understand
You have angels that dance around your shoulders
'Cause at times in life you need a loving hand

Oh, my baby, when you're prayin'
Leave your burden by my door
You have Jesus standing by your bedside
To keep you calm, keep you safe,
Away from harm

Worry not, my daughters,
Worry not, my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms

Oh, my baby, when you're cryin'
Never hide your face from me
I've conquered hell and driven out the demons
I have come with a life to set you free

Worry not, my daughters,
Worry not, my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms

Oh, oh
Oh, oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh, my baby, when you're dying
Believe the healing of His hand
Here in Heaven, we will wait for your arrival
Here in Heaven, you will finally understand
Here in Heaven, we will wait for your arrival
Here in Heaven, you will finally understand

Worry not, my daughters,
Worry not, my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms"

(edited because the lyrics were incorrect)

I've heard this song more and more and could not understand what she was singing, except for picking up a few phrases here and there. It is a powerful, haunting song. You can listen to it on her site here. If you haven't heard it yet, you should. I don't know if she wrote it herself, but she sings it like she did.

I've been lax in my MoJo Blog-reading

so I just read these posts.

Yesterday's post is on the 10th anniversary of the beginning of massacres in Rwanda. The sentence that hit me the hardest (and which makes a somewhat obvious point about American/Western diplomacy) was:

"There was no interest from any of the capitals of the world to come and solve the problem, prevent it or stop it once it was in motion. We have a racist background in the white community, of saying our wars are complex, like in Yugoslavia, but black people in Africa killing each other is nothing more than tribalism."

Ouch. It's true.

The post before that covers "The Passion" and anti-semitism. Yeah, I know, it's been discussed before. But I found this passage frightening:

"What is clear, at least according to a new Pew poll, is that people who go see the movie are much more likely than the general population to think the Jews killed Jesus. Of the people who've seen "The Passion," 36 percent think that Jews were responsible for Christ's death. (Of the general population, 26 percent think so.) Then again, most of them -- 29 percent of all viewers -- held that opinion before seeing the film. Says the intro to the poll, "Generally, there is a correlation between seeing the movie, and expressing an intention to see it, with holding the view that Jews were responsible for Christ's death. This is especially the case among younger people."

Ack!

Condi's hair doesn't move

and her gap-toothed smile sorta freaked me out. She was reporting this stuff this morning, and she would smile as she claimed that America has a "multi-ethnic democracy that works", which was new to me. She would smile, then realize she was smiling and straighten her face out. I found this interesting to note. I only half-listened to her report to the commission, because I just couldn't believe her. I guess I'm closed-minded that way.

The Center for American Progress has this for your perusal: Claim vs. Fact: Condoleezza Rice's Opening Statement

I guess my WalMart boycott will never come to an end. . .

WalMart's in Washington - a link to the Center for American Progress' compilation of WalMart's growing lobby power. I was already boycotting WalMart because of their lousy treatment of their employees. It is sad to me because Sam Walton was a good Presbyterian, giving scholarships to seminarians and more. His legacy has ended, I guess:

"In 1998, the company threw off founder Sam Walton's antipathy towards influencing politics and began its campaign to take over Capitol Hill. According to the WSJ, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) traveled to Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., to offer advice on getting started: Increase your profile and open your wallet. As a result, "Made In America" is a thing of the past and anti-labor policies are the wave of Wal-Mart's future, with money paving the way to Washington."

I found this article through my weekly SojoMail from Sojourners. You can can go here to read a commentary on Christianity and dealing with WalMart.

"Wal-Mart is now busy trying to change its public image, but Wal-Mart needs more than a makeover. It needs accountability."

I don't really miss shopping at WalMart, as it always seemed to be too crowded, and didn't have much variety in music, movies, and more. I was glad when a new Target moved into my parents' neighborhood (Target is a little better than WalMart as far as labor relations go), because at least the people on the east side of town had a place to go rather than WalMart.

MoveOn Staffer Moves on to Kerry Campaign

Zach Exley is moving to the Kerry campaign and leaving MoveOn's PAC:

"Zack Exley will be the Kerry campaign's director of online communications and organizing. He was the MoveOn political action committee's special projects director, focusing on research and mobilizing MoveOn supporters, Eli Pariser, the PAC's executive director, said Wednesday."

Thoughts on the long-lasting effects of the Bush administration

Adam Kotsko asserts:

"Once Bush is gone, everyone will breathe a sigh of relief now that everything is "back to normal," not realizing that "normal" has been fundamentally shaped by people like Bush's advisors. With Bush gone, taxation will still be considered vaguely immoral, and progressive taxation "unfair." A substantial social wage will still be out of the question. Our public schools and universities will continue to deteriorate. Our addiction to cars will continue. The perfectly sensible policies of people like Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader -- and I really mean that; if you sit down and read what they're proposing, it's not a radical communist revolution by any means -- will continue to sound like pipe dreams."

I hate to admit he's right. Even when the Democrats win in November, there is NO WAY our nation can fully recover in four years from the destruction being done be this administration. When I say destruction, I include destruction of ideology, environment, diplomacy, homeland security, lives, employment numbers, etc. It is going to take our nation a while to get over all this that has been done to us.

The Known World wins the Pulitzer

I've blogged before about this awesome novel by Edward P. Jones. I just discovered he won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. If you haven't read it already, I hope this encourages you to check it out. It is well worth your time.

sidenote - I just finished American Woman by Susan Choi last week, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer. It is about a fascinating topic, but I had to skim. There were parts of it I really enjoyed, and parts I obviously didn't. I don't know if I'd recommend it.

Kurt Cobain, 10 years ago

I was never a big fan of Kurt Cobain, but I must admit Nirvana and his music had a large effect on current music. Nirvana, along with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and other such influential bands from the 90s, helped change the movement of rock and roll from the stagnant state it was in. I couldn't stand the way he sang, but I have to admit his influence on rock and roll history. The link above takes you to NPR's collection of stories on this anniversary of his death.

Sidenote: I remember junior year of high school, this one girl in my English class wrote dozens of elegies to Kurt, and asked me to read and judge them for her. I still don't understand why. Her poetry and my reading of it was our only connection. This anniversary makes me wonder where she is now.

There is nothing outside the blog

Or so Adam Kotsko asserts in this entry. His philosophy of the blog is convincing, but he ignores oral history. It could be said that written history was only created to be blogged, but I don't see how the same could be said for oral history. Basically, his blog entry made my head hurt.

Today I discovered kinja, which basically acts like an RSS feed, but doesn't freak out my computer. Earlier this week I downloaded Sharpreader so I could do the RSS thing, but I've had to restart my computer at least once a day since I did that. I haven't exactly figured out how kinja decides what order to show entries in. There doesn't seem much logic in it to me. I'm going to stick with it for a little while. It is in the beta stage, after all.

Your call to action for the day

Please act on this link. It is very important to our world today, especially coffee-drinkers everywhere.

I watched Shattered Glass last night

It's funny, when it came out, I had no desire at all to see it. Partly, I think, because of Hayden Christiansen's excerebrose performance in "SWII: Clones". It is a fascinating film, though. Disturbing, enthralling, submerging, and fascinating. It boggles the mind how people just believed so many of his fake stories. I loved the way the film told the story. I was even surprised at the ending (not him getting caught, I knew that would happen). I'm keeping the film to watch with the commentary, since one his editors is doing it along with the director. I haven't read much of The New Republic, but I bet I used it as a reference for papers in school.

The story that ruined him: Forbes.com: Lies, damn lies and fiction
Index of Glass' fraudulent works: a tissue of lies
Buy Glass' book from amazon: The Fabulist