test blog 3

A question in comments reminded me of a little adventure we had, some 10 years ago. We were going to rent a car for the day, to drive up to Connecticut, to visit an old friend. Peter is the surviving partner of a friend of mine who died of AIDS. He lived in a 350-year-old house in Connecticut, with two little dogs (terriers of some type, but I can't remember the breed). We didn't know Peter well, it was just a connection we all wanted to make. The rental car place in our neighbourhood used the parking lot of an adjacent gas station. In that parking lot, we saw a little dog, curled up on the asphalt. By itself. I don't remember if we talked to it or just looked at it, but we forced ourselves to drive away. We got no more than a few blocks away before I started to cry. This dog's entire life changed because I was PMS. I was overcome with sadness over the dog. We had to go back. The dog was still at the gas station. It turned out to be female, and friendly, and very young...

Earlier this week, video of Keith Olbermann's on-air essay "This Hole In The Ground" was making the internet rounds. I avoided it, along with most 9/11 tributes, preferring my own personal memories. At Allan's suggestion, I watched it today. It's excellent. You can see it at Truthout or at the always-dependable Crooks and Liars , where there is also a transcript. If you haven't seen it yet, do watch. Running time 8:45.

I just finished Barbara Ehrenreich's Bait And Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream , and I highly recommend it. In a nice bit of reading coincidence, it reinforced what I encountered in another recent, excellent read, Jared Diamond's Collapse . More on that in a moment. In Bait And Switch , with her usual keen eye, sharp wit and thorough research, Ehrenreich exposes the world of the crumbling middle class: the unemployed professional. These are people who "did everything right" - got an education, worked long hours, bought into the demands and expectations of corporate culture - and were discarded like so much disposable packaging. Downsized, reorganized, outsourced; pushed out because they're too old (over 40), or their salaries are too high, or they can no longer "compete" (survive) in the increasingly grueling world of 60-hour work-weeks and 4-hour round-trip commutes. It's a short, highly accessible book about an ever-widening probl...

The NYPD has reversed its decision. From United for Peace and Justice : WE WON! In a stunning turn of events, the NYC Police Department has reversed its previous decision to deny us the right to march near the United Nations on Sept. 19th. When the NYPD told us there would be no marches in the vicinity of the UN that day, we announced that we would march anyway, even if it meant we went to jail. We have just learned that we are being given a permit for a march and rally that morning to call for an end to the war in Iraq. As President Bush makes his way to the UN for his speech to the General Assembly, we will be gathering at 6th Avenue and 37th Street in Manhattan between 9 and 9:30 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. we will begin our march, heading north on 6th Avenue and then east on 47th Street. We will end at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on 47th Street between 2nd and 1st Avenue, across from the UN with a rally from 11 a.m. to 12 noon; Bush will be speaking at the UN sometime between 11:30 and 11:45...

Before the United States invaded Iraq, it was common to hear protestors and dissenters say that this unprovoked act of aggression was "unprecedented". This disturbed me, because, although the protestors' hearts were in the right place, their knowledge of US history was sadly incomplete. Far from being unprecedented, the US's invasion of Iraq was very much in keeping with the country's past foreign policy. Substitute "Remember The Maine" or the Gulf of Tonkin for Weapons of Mass Destruction, and many points line up. (Those are only two examples; there are many more.) These days history moves more swiftly. With the last invasion only three years behind us - Iraq still occupied, people still being killed, billions still being wasted - the powers that control the US are moving on to the next invasion, based on another lie, of another country that poses no near-term threat to the US. In this month's issue of Harper's Daniel Ellsberg has an idea ho...

Anti-war protestors in New York City were denied a permit to march anywhere the United Nations while the Resident is in town on Tuesday, September 19. But they are marching anyway . We Are Marching -- Permit or No Permit On Tuesday, Sept. 19, President Bush will be speaking at the United Nations as part of an election-year public-relations push on his disastrous Iraq War. The New York City Police Department has refused to grant a permit to United for Peace and Justice to march anywhere near the United Nations. Based on feedback from our member groups and supporters, we have come to a decision: We are marching anyway. Permit or no permit, we will stand up against this immoral war and for our right to dissent. While the Bush Administration has pursued its belligerent policy of preemptive war abroad, attacking a country that posed no danger to us, our Constitutional rights have been steadily eroded here at home, with peaceful protesters treated as security threats. In New York City, the N...

U.S. readers, your tax dollars at work: Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday. The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne. "If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press." The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved. A public relations problem. Yes. (Thanks to Reds...