A song, etc.

Some Days I See The Point by Billy Bragg 
Never saw a meaningful tv advert, I don’t think shopping is a metaphor for life
Don’t waste my time at the gym in the morning, try to keep trim by living my life
Wanna feel the wind blowing in my hair,
Wanna hear the waves crashing on the beach
I’m not [...]

Waiting for the great leap forward.

Tonight.  Me.  Mrs. Agitator.  The Liberal-In-Training.  Orchestra seats.
And Billy Bragg. 
One more check mark on the Life List.
Here’s hoping he’ll snap me out of this funk.

A brief editorial comment.

From Leonard Pitts, in today’s Miami Herald.
Shout Against the Coluters of the World.
I  already know what’s going to happen after I write this column.
Someone is going to say, why did you waste space condemning the latest drivel from the mouth of Ann Coulter? Don’t you know she says these outrageous things only to promote her [...]

A little victory.

Today, I’ll take it.
NEW YORK (Reuters) Oct. 15 – A U.S. soldier who said his Christian beliefs compelled him to love his enemies, not kill them, has been granted conscientious objector status and honorably discharged, a civil liberties group said on Tuesday.
Capt. Peter Brown – who served in Iraq for more than a year [...]

Meanwhile, back in Darfur…

NAIROBI, Kenya (NYT) Oct. 16 — African Union and United Nations officials are looking into reports of a new massacre in Darfur, in which witnesses described government troops and their allied militias killing more than 30 civilians, slitting the throats of several men praying at a mosque and shooting a 5-year-old boy in the back as [...]

Cheesing off the Chinese.

WASHINGTON (AP) Oct. 16 – The White House vigorously defended President Bush’s plan to meet with the Dalai Lama Tuesday, brushing aside China’s warning that it would damage relations between Washington and  Beijing.
Both Bush and members of Congress — who are presenting him with the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday — are stirring [...]

An inconvenient genocide.

ISTANBUL (Washington Post via Boston Globe) Oct. 15 – The commander of Turkey’s armed forces warned that US-Turkish military relations will be irreparably damaged if the US House of Representatives approves a resolution accusing his country of genocide for the mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago, according to an interview published yesterday.
“If this [...]

What I heard at Meeting today.

Warning: Discussion of an issue related to religion follows.  Friends of Christopher Hitchens and other anti-religionists should move now to another post.  Thanks.
A Friend rose at Meeting late in the hour this morning, and once again I had the eerie feeling that some Friends are psychic.
This Friend said that today, her prayer for the morning [...]

“Where have you gone, Paul Wellstone?”

In case you missed this, from Common Dreams.
I especially like this last part:
Be sure of this: there are a lot of Paul Wellstone’s out there – tough, progressive, independent thinkers, risk-takers, tired of the elite rich interests stacking the deck and lining their own pockets. And there are millions more just like them waiting, just [...]

Your weekly dose of outrage from Darfur, 10/14/07.

(New York Times) Oct. 14 – If anyone needed proof that Darfur has degenerated into a peacekeeper’s nightmare, 30 truckloads of armed men forcefully delivered it two weekends ago.
They stormed a small African Union garrison in a dusty village, Haskanita, and massacred 10 African peacekeepers, looted their equipment and torched their base. The attack [...]

The war at home, cont., v. 3.

More on our local lunacy: 
-  NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) Oct. 12 – The mother of a 14-year-old who authorities say had a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices in his bedroom for a possible school attack was charged Friday with buying her son three weapons.
Michele Cossey, 46, bought her home-schooled son, Dillon, a .22-caliber [...]

(Birthday) drums around the corner.

Happy birthday to Art Blakey, born October 11, 1919…
…who shares a birthdate with litbrit, one of my favorite bloggers, who was definitely NOT born in 1919.  Be-bop on over to her place and say howdy.  She’s a peach, that one.

Are YOU funding genocide?

Watch.  Then click here, please

The war at home, cont., v. 2.

They were warned, and it appears they did nothing.
[Yesterday], Asa Coon, wearing a Marilyn Manson shirt, black jeans and black nail polish, opened fire with two revolvers on Wednesday, wounding two students and two teachers at SuccessTech Academy in downtown Cleveland. Coon, 14, had a history of mental problems and was known for cursing at [...]

Straight, no chaser.

Happy birthday to Thelonious Monk, born October 10, 1917.
He taught me to love jazz.

The war at home, cont.

Here we go, again:
CLEVELAND (AP) Oct. 10 – A 14-year-old suspended student opened fire in a downtown high school Wednesday before killing himself, and five people were taken to hospitals, authorities said. After the shooting, shaken teens called their parents on cell phones, most to reassure but in at least one case with terrifying news: [...]

Being there IS being a man.

I get sooooo tired of stuff like this…
From Time magazine – Does being more of a father make you less of a man? To a group of committed dads assembled one night in a New Jersey diner, the answer is obvious. Sort of. Paul Haley, 38, a father of two, says women look at him [...]

Your weekly double helping of outrage from Darfur, 10/08/07.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) Oct. 8 – Worsening violence in Darfur risks spreading the conflict further in Sudan and shows the need for advanced equipment a planned U.N. peacekeeping force does not yet have, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said the situation had deteriorated in the western Sudanese region [...]

Seeing a little Light.

Be forewarned, members of the “reality-based community”: the following is another “Quaker thing” post.  Skip it if you’re not interested, rather than leaving me comments about how “deranged” I am for being a believer.  We’ll stay friendly that way.  Namaste.
See?  I’m feeling cynical lately.   This week wore me out.  The students are starting to test [...]

A dream, deferred.

For now, anyway. 
The Phillies’ bats went dead, their pitching was only so-so, the manager was his usual bungling, Robomanager self, and so this magical season ends.  With a whimper. 
The Fightin’s have a lot of work to do this off-season, because an awful lot of what happened this year to get them into the playoffs happened [...]