Loopy-Loopy dialogue #45823

Loopy: "I'm going upstairs to knit."

Me: "I'm coming too—I'm just getting some ice cream. Oh, wait, I have to change the laundry...well, I'll be up in a little bit."

(various clatterings and shufflings as we pursue these separate activities....I hear Loopy over by the laundry machines...)

Me: "Oh, are you changing the laundry? That's so sweet of you!"

Loopy: (gleeful & mischievous) "No! I'm adding more laundry!"

Me: "Hey!"

Loopy: (even gleefuler & mischievouser) "And now I'm running away! Ha! Ha! Ha!" (sound of feet rapidly pitter-pattering upstairs)

You see? You see what I have to put up with?

Who can be mad at someone so adorable?

Hmph.

Check it out....

...this guy is knitting!

He looks like kind of a traditional guy. Is there such a thing as traditional Turkish knitting? I'll wait for Franklin to escape from his work crunch and enlighten us, since apparently he is reading all about the history of knitting.

This guy (in the picture) should be the poster child for "men who knit." Hee hee.

What? No, I didn't get anything done today. Shut up and leave me alone.

a snail's pace is still a pace

In other news, I am continuing to try to work at home. I concluded that all the ways of tricking myself into working (leaving the house etc) ultimately wear out. I just have to be able to work. So I'm practicing.

Tuesday I stayed home and managed to stay "on track" all day. My technique was simple: when I felt the compulsion to go "off track" (check email, eat chocolate, play with flickr, flip through catalogs, etc.) I just stopped and stood still.

To be honest, it was very uncomfortable. It was like a war in my head. But ultimately I was able to resist the compulsive feelings and then keep moving forward.

There was a lot of standing still, and when I got to the end of the day I felt that I hadn't gotten very far. But when I looked back I realized I had actually accomplished quite a bit. There was actually a fair amount of working in between bouts of standing still.

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Check out this person's photos... she apparently loves snails... I will never look at a snail the same way again! Here is a small synopsis of her "Snail Love Story":

			(some time later)
Mr & Mrs Snail have a fight	Mrs. Snail storms off	Mr. Snail contemplates suicide		Reunited & happily ever after

new template

It isn't quite what I'd like yet, but the links aren't on the bottom anymore.

More changes to come.

More reasons to love Flickr

Caption contest!

photo by Donald Houston of Florida & Russia

hee hee

And my most recent "fave:"

photo by Muhammad G in Ontario

Click on the photos to see more from each photographer.

flickr addiction continues

This guy's work reminds me a little of Franklin's*... but Franklin's is warmer and more affectionate. The guy I linked to... people are part of the imagery in every picture, but it's somehow a cold gaze; there's no connection with them on a human level—not like with Franklin where you feel like he regards his folk dancers or nuns holding hands or children or Lollapalooza spectators with something like affection, some recognition of the common human condition, tho Franklin might not put it in such grandiose terms.

It's funny, looking at Franklin's work & other folks' Flickr stuff, I am struck by how studiously I avoid getting people in my photos... I think of people as obstructions, problems, and irritably wait for them to get out of my shots... but a lot of photographers do a lot of very beautiful work taking photos of people, or taking photos of famous buildings etc. that include human beings relating to the buildings or landscape.

For example, look at these two photos, taken in the same place—a mosque called Ulu Camii in Bursa, Turkey. The photo at left is by someone named Kalloosh (see also her photo here); the one on the right is mine. It's not just that she's looking at the floor & I'm looking at the ceiling. She's looking at the human level, the emotions and the feeling of the place; I'm arranging arches in the frame, and the only human in it is an accident (my friend John is just too goddamn tall!)

Funny, eh.

Did I mention I wasted an entire day yesterday uploading photos from our 2001 Turkey trip? Check them out, arranged all pretty in my brand-new Turkey photoset, if you like.

And you though I was speaking hyperbolically when I said "addiction."

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* Didja check out Franklin's new website? It rocks—go look at it! I insist!

antidote II

Last night we went to see Roll Bounce, which I totally loved.

The whole visual feast of seventies style was as absorbing and entrancing as any fantasy about elves or Jedi, and I'm always a sucker for a heartwarming story.

What I think I liked best about it was how it seemed to recall (maybe not accurately) a certain moment of childhood—a sort of "last carefree summer" kind of thing—right before you really start to get a clue about life, but just when you're starting to pay attention & the whole world seems wide open with possibilities.

As I laughed hysterically at all the silly jokes, Loopy kept leaning over and saying to me, "This is right up your alley!" I meant to ask her afterward what exactly she meant by that—because they were silly jokes? kids' jokes? "it's a Black thing" jokes?—but anyway I had a great time & to my surprise, so did everyone else.

Afterward we went to the Sow's Ear in Verona, a wonderful cafe & knitting store that has late-night Friday knitting nights 'til 11 pm once or twice a month. More incentive for our out-of-town knitting friends to visit! (Franklin? Faustus?) It has a great selection of yarn & books, a cozy cafe area downstairs with nice big tables, and an upstairs seating area that's more like a living room with big soft couches (and of course, bright reading/knitting lamps).

Non-knitters like me enjoy the books (bought two!) and the delicious smoothies, coffee drinks, sandwiches and baked goods. Check out their website, which has the cute name www.knitandsip.com, for more pix & directions etc.

Loopy worked on the second of the cute baby hats we're making for the cousins this year ("we," ha ha). Meanwhile Ang started a top-down hat in a lovely soft lavender yarn; it was kicking her butt in the beginning but then she got going and it really looked good. (I'm certain that my judicious quotation of key lines from Roll Bounce ("unless you fall, you don't know how great it feels to get back up again") is what inspired her to persevere and succeed.)

Anyway, what inspired me to post today (as if I need any inspiration to screw around and procrastinate) is that in the car we were talking about U2 (inspired by a random iPod selection of "An Cat Dubh," from their very first album, Boy), and then today I came across a whole article about their first visit to Minneapolis, back in 1981.

It's a fun read—great to remember the old U2 when they were "just kids" as the article says about fifty times. Read it here. No, seriously—it's really enjoyable, takes ya back.

(The caption to the picture at right is, "After posing for this photo at [the Minneapolis venue], U2 returned home to play at their junior high graduation ceremony." *sigh* I really miss the city. Any city. Madisonian humor is a lot more of a blunt instrument).

All of this was so much fun that I totally forgot about the three upsetting things that happened yesterday. *sigh* Back to life, back to reality...in other words, time to call Mom...

antidote

My latest find on flickr: if this adorable kid doesn't make you smile, nothing will.

lots o stuff

My email today informs me that

1) Now the drugged-up "helper" that has been cheating Mom has also cheated a coworker. Mom sees the problem but maintains a state of denial. I'm supposed to intervene.

2) Dad has started wandering around at odd hours & Mom is convinced he's going to end up lost in the desert. I'm supposed to have a solution or helpful idea.

3) Everyone in the socialist organization to which I belong has their knickers in a twist and is convinced that everyone else is out to get them. I would like them to calm down.

I don't know what to do about any of these things and all three at once is rather a lot for one day.

Since my head was spinning I thought that posting here might help. It did. I see that #3 is not important, and the only immediate action required for #2 is a supportive phone call to Mom. I do have to deal with #1 though. But one is less than three.

So thanks for being there.

OK, I lied.

About not screwing around today, that is. Loopy's right. I can't get shit done at home.

Well, I've gotten a couple other things done, but then I got an email that said Kate Lingley had added me as a Flickr contact! Cool! So I added her and then I found Nadine's Flickr account, and then discovered there's a "pool" for people from my college (which, you know, is Harvard, who am I fooling?). So now I have a pool and three contacts! All very exciting.

You too can visit their Flickr sites - Kate, Frank, and Nadine - check out their cool pix and hey, maybe you'll find someone else you know.

I'm definitely gonna upgrade so I can put up a bunch more photos. Yippee!

Help!

I am ripping my hair out over this. Yes, I know, it's 1 pm, I'm wasting my day. OK, this is it, I'm not doing anything else blogular today. But I wanted to put percent bars in my right-hand column, showing my progress on all the stuff I have to do, just to make myself feel better. And I can't get the damn thing to show up.

I need to go exercise. I'm clearly losing my mind.

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As the "down at the bottom" votes mount up, are there any suggestions for fixing this problem? I've tried making both the columns and their contents narrower and narrower but it doesn't seem to help.

despite all the flickr-ing

I have actually gotten some work done recently.

Yes, really! There has been a definite improvement in the amount of time I've spent actually working. I've even made perceptible progress. Maybe I should get the progress bars Loopy has for her knitting, & use them to keep track of all the stuff I have to do to get my teaching certification (a year late, in case you're counting). On second thought maybe not.

The whole Buddhism/meditation thing has been really helpful. I keep meaning to post about that, but whenever I'm thinking clearly enough to post about meditation, that means I'm thinking clearly enough to know I have more important stuff to do than post about meditation.

Soon, though. I promise.

flickr is cool...

Among other pointless activities, I've been screwing around on Flickr today, posting comments on the photos of friends (i.e., Franklin) and strangers. There's a lot of cool stuff on there　& it's organized creatively...I encourage you to check it out.

Among other things, there are some photos of the places we saw in Japan that are much better than my photos!

Here's one for Loopy... your friend the Big Buddha at night—just a few hours after we were there before dinner.

And, here's one of the lanterns at Kasuga Taisha that I tried (unsuccessfully) to photograph.

In fact, speaking of my lack of success with the lanterns, if you click through to the lantern photo, you'll see that I posted a comment asking how she got such a great photo.

The photographer actually went & looked at my photos and then posted a comment in response, with useful suggestions! How cool is that? This made me love Flickr.

I'm even considering upgrading to a pro account so I can upload zillions of photos (2 GB/month instead of 20MB!). It's only $24.95 per year... (of course, maybe I should get something accomplished in real life, first!)

Anyway, if you look at nothing else, just click through to this guy's "Green Set." I particularly like the page I linked to, with all the thumbnails (a few of which are shown below, hopefully without infringing on his copyright? anyone know?)...but the individual photos are amazing, too.

*sigh* gorgeous!

purty pictures

Since I haven't been posting much I put up a few photos of our trip to Scotland in 2003 for your viewing pleasure... there are only 6 photos, just some of my faves from the time on the Shetland Islands.

Enjoy.

ha?

Q: What is George Bush's position on Roe vs. Wade?

A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

"and free abortions for all..."

Loopy and I were really scratching our heads over Bush's speech. Did you hear it?

A choice quote: "the government will also provide accounts of up to $5000 which these evacuess can draw upon for job training and education to help them get a good job..." here I paused the playback in amazement..."and for childcare expenses during their job search." Here my head exploded.

They're also going to provide federal land for building low-income housing. And he said the words "overtime" (with the verb "pay" rather than "cut") and "labor union locals" (with the verb "help" rather than "destroy").

Here's a transcript of our commentary.

Me: "It's like Cuba secretly took over but they don't want anyone to know."

Loopy: "No, he's done something really horrible that he doesn't want us to know about. He's shot Putin or something."

Me: "That would be a good thing."

Loopy: "Maybe he's clubbed baby...seals...no...baby French people."

(we listen; further marvels unfold)

Me: "This is like... I don't know... the twilight zone or something."

Loopy: "He's nuked Russia and we're all going to be vaporized in about four hours."

(we listen some more)

Loopy: "He's sold Laura into slavery."

Me: "Naw, I think Castro has pictures of him fucking the White House dog."

Loopy: "I can't wait to see what The Onion does with this."

(we listen. at the phrase 'labor union locals,' I pause the playback again).

Me: "WHO IS THAT MAN????"
Loopy: "Where are we???? Who am I????? What's going on????"

(pause. we listen. finally he says something about the federal government taking firmer control)

Loopy: "Oh, that's it—more control!"

Me: "That's it, it's fascism. A nice populist plank is essential in any fascist platform."

Loopy: "Whew, I'm so relieved."

But here's how I knew that "invasion of the body snatchers" had really occurred:

As soon as Bush was done speaking, Wolf Blitzer came on & pointed out that he hadn't called for an independent investigation of the mistakes around Katrina. And I thought, "Jeez, can't they ever give the guy a break?"

Seriously though, the speech almost made me cry because I was imagining what it would be like to wake up one morning and actually have a government that cared about people, that provided for human needs.

I'm sure this will turn out to be more of the same... for example, all that talk of "making a favorable investment climate for businesses" translates, I'm sure, into lower wages and fewer benefits & protection for workers, fewer taxes to actually do any of the things he's talking about.

But just imagine, if one day some president went on TV and announced universal, free, high-quality healthcare. Can you imagine how many people would feel this giant dark cloud lift?

How many people would think, "Finally, Ma can go get that lump checked out," or call their Dad and say, "Hey, good news, you can get that rotten tooth pulled now!"

How many people would change jobs because—finally—they weren't chained to some shitty job because they couldn't afford to lose healthcare for the kids.

Really, try to imagine it. It's just stunning to really imagine what that would be like.

best experiences in Japan:Festival at Kasuga Taisha

Nara, the earliest permanent capital of Japan, is one of my favorite places in the world.

A 1300-year-old shrine called Kasuga Taisha (which I supposed could be translated as "Great Shrine of the Spring Sun") is one of my favorite places in Nara.

("shrine" is the translation for several different words used to designate a place of worship for Shintô, Japan's indigenous belief system).

Kasuga is famous for its 3000 lanterns, but even without them it would be a special place... it feels old and serene, and it's so beautiful.

I have strong memories of visiting there in 1988 with my parents. It was magical.

We approached the shrine by climbing hundreds of steps amid towering ancient trees. These particular trees often surround sacred places in Japan, and they never fail to create an awe-inspiring sense of grandeur—even of some ancient power or life force.

I remember wandering the grounds, of course taking pictures of the lanterns and continuing to feel a sense of awe but also of peace and relaxation.

Here are two photos I took on that visit (scanned in).

Stone lanterns line the steps that approach the shrine	Bronze lanterns hang from the eaves of the shrine buildings

Click on a photo to see a larger version. The large version will open in a new window; close that window to continue.

At that time we learned that the lanterns are all lit twice a year, and I wished that someday I'd have the chance to see that.

This time around, by pure coincidence, we were in the right area at the right time!

It was the festival of O-Bon, when the dead come back to visit. Families put out lights and incense to guide their ancestors home. People visit temples and shrines at night to enjoy the lights and also to pray, since at this time there is a special connection with the spirit world.

If you want to know more about the festival, this guy's site has some photos and info about O-Bon, including an extensive Q & A.

Kasuga Taisha with all its lanterns lit—it was just a magical sight. Charming, delightful, beautiful.

First we wandered the grounds for awhile (okay, we were lost), following winding paths lined with row upon row of stone lanterns.

Each little stone window was sealed with paper, and candles within cast a warm, flickering glow.

Stone lanterns (used flash)	Same lanterns (one step closer; no flash)

Click on a photo to see a larger version. The large version will open in a new window; close that window to continue.

I had a hard time photographing this—would have needed a tripod to do it properly—but use your imagination & maybe you can get the idea....

Then we joined the queue for the main building. Inside the gate, we came fairly quickly to the main worship hall...

Left: Main hall (honden) from a distance. Right: The vestibule (haiden) is as far as the public can approach. In the foreground are candles people have lit, and beyond that, a white cloth where people have thrown coins. Beyond that is the entrance to the inner sanctum, where only priests and miko may enter.

After that we proceeded through courtyards and walkways...up stairs and down...past row upon row upon row of bronze lanterns, lit from within with flickering candles.

Bronze lanterns hanging from the eaves (with flash)	Same lanterns (no flash)

Click on a photo to see a larger version. The large version will open in a new window; close that window to continue.

Aside from the lanterns, and some tea light candles tucked into the corners of each stair step, it was pitch dark.

I stumbled along with the crowd, disoriented, just looking at the lights and taking pictures...so it all seems like a dream to me now.

All I remember clearly is the lanterns—everything else is a blur. Just like in these photos.

In another post I talked about how distressing the huge crowd was for Loopy.

But having acknowledged that, let me say that for me, even the unbelievably huge crowd didn't detract from the pleasure. Everyone was in a holiday spirit and so plainly enjoying themselves that it just added to the festival atmosphere.

Furthermore, we were guided at every turn by priests, miko, and boy scouts (!!) whose voices sang out in the dark with gentle admonitions like "please watch your footing here, it's a little slippery," and "please move along, other people are waiting."

Everyone was very orderly, moved along, etc., so for those of us without claustrophobia, it felt safe, easy, comfortable, and pleasant to be among them.

It was one of those times when you really appreciate that people in Japan obey the rules.

More than that, you appreciate how right they are that life is so much easier when everyone obeys the rules instead of having to be an individual, a rebel, do it their own way, etc. (That observation prompted a whole 'nother train of thought that I'll get to at some point, I hope).

The sense of collective delight was palpable—it wasn't just foreigners who were having a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I felt swept along in a sea of bobbing lights, disoriented but not afraid.

The sense of magic was also palpable...

In fact, it wasn't too hard to imagine that among all those bobbing lights, spirits might indeed be wending their way...

self-portrait: warped

Although I take lots of "normal" photos of flowers, buildings, friends, etc., I've always had a soft spot for photos that are just, well, weird. I tend to consider these photos rather juvenile & not very "good," i.e. not worth showing to others, but I entertain myself with them on the sly.

Recently I noticed that Loopy has this photo up in her office:

It's me, reflected in a mirrored wall in Munich (August 2001). Here's another—some other folks reflected in the same mirrored wall:

closeup of the guy's head—cool, no?

Anyway, I think it's funny that she likes it enough to put it up in her office. I guess its warped quirkiness reminds her of me. Hee hee. I'm making it (a piece of it) my blogger profile photo since I guess it is very me-ish (well, me minus sixty pounds, but let's not get into that).

It's funny, with photography, I feel like I'm not doing anything in particular, just recording what's there. Sure, I fiddle with the light and line up shots to have certain angles, lines, color, form etc., but most of the time, I tend to feel like anyone could do what I'm doing—like anyone else taking the same photo would take it in the same way.

So I was fascinated to go see my friend Miriam's show a couple months ago. I love her work, but what was really surprising to me was that she photographed subjects similar to what I often choose, but in a totally different way. Then again Franklin's photos, which I started enjoying a short time later, are also totally different from mine or Miriam's.

I realize this sounds sort of stupid that it took me 34 years to realize that I have my own style of taking photos. But since I realized it, it has increased my enjoyment to start noticing commonalities among my photos—to actually try to figure out what my style is.

One thing I've noticed is that I like to have long sweeping diagonal lines.

Other than that I haven't gotten very far. But I'll keep you posted.

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P.S. Miri has another show up now, tho I don't remember where (urg, bad friend), but when I find out I will tell you! She's awesome, you should really check out her work!

a kindred spirit

I've babbled a lot about Katrina but not mentioned Rehnquist. But I didn't need to, because Shamus said it all, and even included the brief Rehnquist wrote against Brown v Board. (Go read it! Now!)

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I can't help pointing out that Rehnquist actually sounds downright stupid. In response to Thurgood Marshall's moral argument against the majority limiting the rights of the minority, Rehnquist points out that the majority will always determine the rights of the minority (of everyone, in fact).

But one can't use that as an argument for or against any particular constitutional right. That's like saying "the Senate should (or should not) pass this bill because if a majority of them vote for it it will become law."

In other words it sounds like Rehnquist answered a moral argument by pointing out how a democratic system (one based on 'majority rules' anyway) functions. Makes no sense.

Or maybe it's me that's stupid (I who am stupid?). I dunno. All's I know is, enough politics already.

What do you think?

We've heard from the pundits; now let's hear from loyal readers of this blog.

Read more about the Reichstag Fire, even if you thought you had a general idea of what it was (I thought so too but found the above-linked Wikipedia entry enlightening anyway).

You should see a blogpoll above. If you don't, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

I Cuban doctors

The latest on Katrina... Fidel Castro offered to send 1100 doctors and 26 tons of medical supplies (more here).

I've been thinking about Cuban doctors since this thing started.

For those who don't know (and how would you?), whenever there's a major health crisis in Latin America (and often enough, in Africa), the Cuban doctors arrive on the scene and save the day. Cuban and Cuban-trained doctors also are to be found throughout Latin America and Africa setting up clinics and working in the poorest areas where local doctors "fear to tread."

You can consider this a marvelous PR sleight-of-hand, a devious plot to instigate worldwide revolution, or the realization of a genuine spirit of socialism—or all of the above—but the fact is, Cuban doctors are pretty much the heroes of the world. (I wrote about them before here).

I wonder what would happen if they came here... that would be amazing, 1100 Cuban doctors. An army of doctors.

Not that anyone would ever let them come here--Americans might discover that folks can go to the doctor for free anytime in Cuba, and we might get the crazy idea that that's a good thing.

As for Castro himself... well, I'm not his #1 fan, but check out what he says here:

[Castro] would not comment on the U.S. government's response to the tragedy because "this is not the time to kick an adversary -- while he's down."

*sigh* ....I can't imagine Bush saying anything half so classy...can you? (Though my favorite Castro quote is still when he offered to send election observers in 2000).

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In other news, I saw my old student-teaching teacher today—not the mean one, the awesome one, from 2003—the one who got her start when, together with a few of her cousins, she was selected by her community in 1955 as someone who could survive being the first Black students to attend the formerly white high school. She has some tales to tell. She's a warrior & she tried to teach me how to be one, too. If only!

Anyway, I knew she had family in Mississippi, but turns out, she's got a ton of family in New Orleans—her Daddy's sister settled there and all the cousins and their children are there. But she hasn't heard from anyone, doesn't know if they're dead or alive, or where they are, or anything. I almost cried on the spot, thinking of all those terrible pictures and all those horrible stories and wondering if any of them were Miss Tenia's family.

Somehow it really does make it more "real" to have it be someone you know. Shouldn't be true but it is...

a random memory

Overheard, at the beach one summer:

Younger brother: "WHOA! Hey Trevor, check out this GIANT MOSQUITO!"

Older brother: "You moron—that's a dragonfly."

That cracked me up. Is it just as funny if you weren't there?

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Which reminds me... a photo from Mr. Itayama's garden in Hokkaido
(Mrs. Itayama is the intended recipient of the pi shawl...more about them another time)

dragonfly & hydrangeas

anger & fear

If you're not in the mood for this kind of introspection, skip down to the next post for some fun knitting pix

I was thinking this morning that anger can come from fear or it can come from compassion. Anger from fear makes your whole body clench up into a scrunched, hard fist—it makes everything hurt. Anger from compassion is different...or is it? What do you think?

I was also thinking about how fear is the root of so much suffering. Many times if I stop & ask myself, why am I thinking or acting like this? (when I don't like how I'm thinking or acting) it's because I'm acting in fear.

I might be afraid that something will happen that I don't want—that's the kind of fear we're used to thinking about—fear of death (fear of a tornado or plane crash), fear of pain (fear of rejection or disrespect).

But sometimes I'm afraid of things being different from how I think they should be.

I think we're less accustomed to thinking about fear this way. But our set ideas about "how things should be" can seem so important—we take them as seriously as death and pain. It can be small things (I sorted my papers into three piles and if anyone messes them up I'll die) or bigger things (teachers should teach like this, and if I'm near someone who's not teaching that way, I can't stand it, I'll die).

Yes, this is kind of a paraphrase of Pema Chodron's From Fear to Fearlessness, for those of you who have read that. I've been listening to it in the car a lot and I'm just kind of assimilating it into my own language. For those who aren't familiar with it, I recommend it!

That's all for now.

On a more cheerful note...

Loopy posted about her pi shawl. So I formatted some photos & emailed them to her...

...but then I got so depressed with all this New Orleans stuff that I decided to put a couple here, by way of cheering this place up a bit. There's still a bunch more for her to post.

Here's the shawl on the 20th in Hokkaido:

A tantalizing glimpse... you'll have to wait for Loopy to reveal the whole thing.

Here's a closeup of Loopy knitting on the train... I like how her hand is blurry...


Ah knitting... a source of solace—even to us non-knitters—amid all the disasters of the world...

ok, just one more...

A friend sent me this well-written piece. Worth reading if it's the only one you read...The author talks a lot about the situation in New Orleans prior to Katrina...

For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world...a city of kindness and hospitality...

He also fills in a lot of the details that help contextualize the demonization of the victims & the stunning failure of most officials to do much of anything to help them.

It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear...There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department....Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and
incompetence.

I definitely urge folks to go read the whole piece. Here's the link again.

you're sick of hearing about all this, but

...two, ok, three—well, really four Katrina-related items.

#1.I don't know if more $$$ is needed or not, but you want to donate cash to non-holy-rollers, here's one option: the AFL-CIO's Union Community Fund has set up a special Hurricane Relief Fund (contributions are tax-deductible).

#2. Apparently, Venezuelan pres Hugo Chavez (you know, the one Pat Robertson wants assassinated) has offered to send a supply of cheap oil to help with the fuel crisis.

Apparently, the U.S. "has not decided whether to accept" this offer from the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Yeah, study that one a bit more, wouldja?

#3. A lot of folks are really pissed at Michael Marcavage, and rightly so. Franklin & his commenters rant beautifully on this topic.

No disrespect or disagreement, but I'm reserving my fury for two people who—unlike the pathetic, miserable Mr. Marcavage, whose surplus of bile will probably eat out his innards and save us the trouble of bothering about him—have both the responsibility and the capability of saving the lives of thousands of miserable people in New Orleans, and whose totally stupid, misplaced, ridiculous (I can't even think of enough adjectives here) responses are redolent with ignorant self-satisfied superiority, and certainly can be suspected of racism as well.

Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco: "Anytime ya got a buncha poor Black folks all together, you know yer gonna need some biiiiiig scary guns."

No food, no water, but here's what we got for ya: "They have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will," Blanco said.

FEMA head Mike Brown: "Maybe if we let those dumb n_____s sit in their own shit with their dead grandmas for a coupla days they'll evacuate next time we say evacuate, a-heh heh heh heh."

Commenting on the death toll, predicted into the thousands, Brown told CNN, "Unfortunately, that [high death toll] is going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings..." [Like YOU, asshole!]... Piling on the condescension, Brown continued, "[W]e've got to figure out some way to convince people that whenever warnings go out it's for their own good."

Extra irony:Brown's complete title is "Undersecretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security." His prior qualification for this job? Some other government posts and, prior to that, he was a lawyer.

It just kills me how all these folks keep saying that this is the best that could have been done. It's that typical American thing—it's us doing it, so it must be the best, because we're the best, QED.

If this had happened in Japan, you'd see some goddamn Emergency Preparedness.

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So if you were gonna go live in some other country because this one is too ridiculous, where would you go? I mean, realistically. Taking suggestions now...