"Isolated from continental land masses for 18 million years, Yemen’s Socotra Island showcases an alien-like landscape with unusual plants and animals, such as the blood dragon tree, pictured, and desert rose. Its high degree of biodiversity has earned it the name the “Galápagos of the Indian Ocean.”

Slumdog Millionaire

So who is this Danny Boyle guy? Trainspotting was amazing, gut-wrenching...I felt the same about Slumdog Millionaire. 28 Days Later was one of the freakiest movies I've ever seen. The plots are creative in these films, but it was the quality of the directing that grabbed me. I have GOT to watch everything he's ever done.

When I grow up, I want to be Studs Terkel

Historian Studs Terkel...love this guy. I've written about him before. I stumbled on this essay he wrote for NPR's 'This I Believe'...

"My own beliefs, my personal beliefs, came into being during the most traumatic moment in American history: the Great American Depression of the 1930s. I was 17 at the time, and I saw on the sidewalks pots and pans and bedsteads and mattresses. A family had just been evicted and there was an individual cry of despair, multiplied by millions. But that community had a number of people on that very block who were electricians and plumbers and carpenters and they appeared that same evening, the evening of the eviction, and moved these household goods back into the flat where they had been. They turned on the gas; they fixed the plumbing. It was a community in action accomplishing something.

And this is my belief, too: that it's the community in action that accomplishes more than any individual does, no matter how strong he may be.

Einstein once observed that Westerners have a feeling the individual loses his freedom if he joins, say, a union or any group. Precisely the opposite's the case. The individual discovers his strength as an individual because he has, along the way, discovered others share his feelings -- he is not alone, and thus a community is formed. You might call it the prescient community or the prophetic community. It's always been there.

And I must say, it has always paid its dues, too. The community of the '30s and '40s and the Depression, fighting for rights of laborers and the rights of women and the rights of all people who are different from the majority, always paid their dues. But it was their presence as well as their prescience that made for whatever progress we have made.

And that's what Tom Paine meant when he said: "Freedom has been hunted around the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, all it wants, is the liberty of appearing. In such a situation, man becomes what he ought to be."

Still quoting Tom Paine: "He sees his species not with the inhuman idea of a natural enemy" -- you're either with us or against us, no. "He sees his species as kindred."

And that happens to be my belief, and I'll put it into three words: community in action."

The person who authorized all the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib is the president

Really sickening. I'm so done with Bush. I remember being so MAD at those guards who humiliated the prisoners the way they did. Come to find out, they were just pawns...obeying orders. Unbelievable.

Article below is from this site: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/the-architects.html

"Last week, we reached some closure on a burning and controversial question that has occupied many for many years now. That is the simple question of who was responsible for the abuse, torture, rape and murder of prisoners in American custody in the war on terror, most indelibly captured by the photographic images of Abu Ghraib. The Senate's bipartisan report, issued with no dissents, reiterates and adds factual context to what we already know. And there is no equivocation in the report.

The person who authorized all the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib, the man who gave the green light to the abuses in that prison, is the president of the United States, George W. Bush.

Again: there is no longer any reasonable factual debate about this (hence to near total silence of the Republican right), and the Senate report finally holds the president responsible in bipartisan fashion:

The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of “a few bad apples” acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.

Those ghastly pctures of naked, hooded prisoners? Bush approved nudity and hooding of prisoners. Hypothermia? Sleep deprivation? Bush signed a memo removing the most baseline protections for all human beings under the Geneva Conventions. Waterboarding? Bush knew full well. As did Rice and Tenet and Powell and that poseur in defense of human rights, Paul Wolfowitz. But even before the memo, before any prisoners were captured, the Bush administration was working on how to torture them:

In December 2001, more than a month before the President signed his memorandum, the Department of Defense (DoD) General Counsel’s Office had already solicited information on detainee “exploitation” from the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), an agency whose expertise was in training American personnel to withstand interrogation techniques considered illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

Let's be absolutely clear what this means: When we saw an image of Lynndie England pulling a naked prisoner around on a leash, we assumed at the time that she improvised this, or was some kind of "bad apple." This is and was a conscious lie to the Congress, and to the American people, and to the world. The person who authorized the use of nudity and leashes on prisoners was not Lynndie England or any of the other grunts thrown to the wolves. The man who authorized the technique shown below is the president of the United States:



The report itself is not that long and I highly recommend reading it all closely. It is the most sobering indictment of high government officials in the U.S. since Watergate. And, in the gravity of crimes, it is a far more profound violation of the law and the constitution and the security of the United States than Watergate ever was. Bush's crimes are far greater than Nixon's - because war crimes are far graver than burglaries. And there is no statute of limitations for war crimes."

Must Love Dogs?

'What I haven't decided, yet, who are the biggest morons: the hysterical, sensation-seeking and ill-informed media, or the gutless, insecure-with-their-masculinity, microcephalic mental-midget losers who abuse animals, in this case one of America's icons: The American Pit Bull Terrier.' ~ Andrew Rosza

I cringed when I read it...a tiny woman in Seattle mauled by two pitbulls. She had to have surgery to attach her EARS, for crying out loud! ..... http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_091008WAB_woman_mauled_pit_bull_KS.6240e996.html

So what's the deal? Are these irresponsible pet owners who have created a monster through abuse or neglect? Or an unpredictable breed, a ticking bomb with teeth that could explode at any moment?

We have a pitbull named Ginger. She is the sweetest dog you've ever met. I'm not biased...I actually don't like dogs. Seriously. I don't. Granted, puppies are cute and I will politely pet my friends' dogs knowing how much THEY love them, but I am a dog avoider, through and through. I hate it when they jump on me, hate it when they sniff my crotch, hate it when they rub their wet dog nose all over me and worst of all, the TONGUE....if my friends really knew what I thought of dogs, some would disown me I'm afraid. So I pretend to this day to enjoy their dogs' company and put up with the annoying canine habits I despise. But Ginger...

She was part of an abandoned litter, most likely due to their breed. Most of the puppies died in a hot Texas desert but a compassionate Navy family saved two, Ginger and her brother. They were fed with droppers and nursed back to life and good health. Soon after, the family was relocated to Everett WA and were unable to keep the pups, again because of their breed. Their landlord provided the 'it's you or the dogs!' ultimatum and the family posted a desperate plea on Craig's List for homes. Ginger's bro found a home right away but it was down to the wire for her. If shuttled to the nearest animal shelter, she faced certain death - the Snohomish County shelter used to automatically kill pits upon arrival, regardless of health status and behavior. Maybe they still do.

Don had been parusing the CL posts for at least a week. He had his heart set on a pitbull puppy - they're smart, loyal, beautiful dogs and he assured me they were not a violent breed and that a handful of unfeeling, selfish dog owners had ruined America's perception of pits through several high profile cases souped-up by the media. At that time, I had a friend who is very active in the pit-rescue world and works tirelessly as an advocate, which also helped with my decision. So when Don found this post saying Ginger would be dropped at the local Murder Shack, we jumped on it and he drove to get her that night.

Adorable...no other word described our new family member. She was fairly docile for a puppy - even with my inexperience I could see that. I chalked it up to all the changes she had endured in her short life. She learned quickly and enjoyed the kids so much. Don took her to work with him every day so she wasn't alone and worked to train her on the canine basics.

Truthfully, my trepidation has never completely subsided. I'm very aware that any domesticated animal has the possibility of exhibiting unpredictable and sometimes dangerous behavior. Take my husband's run-in with death at the hands (paws) of a lovable Lab at five years old. It's an amazing story, really, and the attack ends with him waking up bloody and confused with the Lab kneeling several feet away, its head down, unmoving. He later told his mom that he saw an angel there, holding that dog's head down with its celestial hand of protection.

A violent Lab? Every breed has its misconceptions and prejudices. I notice my neighbors' faces when Ginger runs out the door occasionally. Or when friends with small children come over for the first time. I totally get it.

But Ginger had proved over and over that she is nothing but a dog who, more than eating or breathing, wants to please us... that she loves us with an unconditional doggie kind of love that makes her almost pee herself with glee everytime she sees us.

She's a keeper.

Martin Luther King

My sister Mandy put this together....love it...

The Girl Effect

I found this on my friend Janece's site - I love stuff that makes me think and this was some of that 'stuff':



For more information, visit GirlEffect.org