Politics - Suppression of Free Speech In The Bush Regime

This is simply ridiculous.

(CBS News) KENSINGTON, Md. A 74-year-old retired mathematician who sells anti-Bush buttons at a Maryland farmers' market has become a symbol of free speech to some people. Others say Alan McConnell is a nuisance.

He's 74, for cryin' out loud. They arrested him because he's potentially dangerous? Oh, please. What's he going to do, throw up on the cops?

I'm decades younger than Mr. McConnell, and I can assure you my ability to pose a potential threat to anyone is severely limited by the bad knees, poor vision, carpal tunnel, torn rotator cuff muscles, and bad back. We don't need brownshirts to police us, it seems. Our fellow citizens and elected officials are more than happy to step up to the plate.

Stupid fucks.

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Environment - Lord Mayor of Sydney Speaks

And very harshly, too. Time for a wake-up call, people!

"Sydney is a city eating its own environment. Urban sprawl is devouring parklands and market gardens; sewage and litter foul waterways, and air pollution from cars is so bad health alerts will soon be sent to asthma sufferers."

"And it could get worse, says the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore."

Can you imagine our pandering American politicians daring to speak that way?

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Environment - Water Wars

Image courtesy of Auntie Beeb.

This charming map is yours by courtesy of the International Water Management Institute, IWMI. It shows exactly how fucked we are going to be very soon.

Auntie Beeb explains, among other things:

Economic water scarcity occurs due to a lack of investment and is characterised by poor infrastructure and unequal distribution of water.

Physical scarcity occurs when the water resources cannot meet the demands of the population. Arid regions are most associated with physical water scarcity. But the IWMI says there is an alarming trend in artificially-created scarcity - even in areas where water is apparently abundant.

This is largely due to overuse; agriculture uses up to 70 times more water to produce food than is used in drinking and other domestic purposes, including cooking, washing and bathing

. Not too much longer, I'd say. Damn, I wish it would rain this year, but chances are we'll have a downpour that washes entire homes away.

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Environment - Looming Water Crisis

Just in case you, like many others, were hoping desalinization was a viable solution to our water woes, let Auntie Beeb disabuse you of that notion.

"Desalinating the sea is an expensive, energy intensive and greenhouse gas emitting way to get water," said Jamie Pittock, director of WWF's global freshwater programme.

"It may have a place in the world's future freshwater supplies but regions still have cheaper, better and complementary ways to supply water that are less risky to the environment."

The report called for greater emphasis on managing existing supplies before the go-ahead was given to major water projects.

In light of the simultaneously looming energy crisis, desalinization looks even less appealing as an alternative, eh? Get used to the recycled shit, folks. Build watertowers for rain catchment, conserve water assiduously, and for mercy's sake STOP BREEDING!!! Water is a finite resource, and your little darlings may well perish when the supplies run out. Isn't it better to spare them that indignity? Freeze your goddamn reproductive bits, and if the world survives the next 20 years, you can have your mini-mes then. Otherwise, you're condemning your sprog to a short and horrible life.

This has been your Rant du Jour.

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Health - The Right To End One's Life

Image from here.

It's time for the interfering idiots of the world to step back and butt out of women's uteri and peoples' births, deaths, marriages, and sexual preferences. Really. I would really like to see the Bill Frists of this world publicly shamed and euthanasia become fully legal and accepted. What's the use of criminalizing the taking of one's own life? I can understand the state having an interest in preventing people from taking the lives of others - a privilege which most states prefer to arrogate unto themselves. But death is just as much a part of the continuum we call life as birth, sickness, reproduction, breathing. For the state or any body to impose their ideas upon a vastly overcrowded, growing, and threatened human population is simply ridiculous.

Bugger off and let me die with a smile on my lips as I drink my favorite tasty concoction of cyanide almond chocolate. And while you're about it, read this. I'd like to die in the comfort of my own home, thanks, and barring that, at least in a familiar place where I can feel comfortable. I don't much care what happens to the earthly remains afterwards. Wild animals, compost heap, crematorium, it's all the same to me.

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Health - Baby Food

I don't have much interest in babies, but having always loathed that abominable pureed shit that the little shits are fed, I just had to post this.

Spoon-feeding babies pureed food is unnatural and unnecessary, a childcare expert has warned.

Gill Rapley, deputy director of Unicef's UK Baby Friendly Initiative said feeding babies in this way could cause health problems later in life.

She said children should be fed only with breast or formula milk for six months, then weaned onto solids to improve control over how much they ate.

Seriously, folks. That crap doesn't even smell like food. Let the kids work their way up from cooked veggies to raw, to rice and oatmeal and salads and whatever else their hearts desire. I have to agree with the woman. In most traditional societies, babies are breast-fed and once weaned, they eat what the rest of the family eats, with the exception of when they're teething or ill, when they're usually fed gruel or porridge of some sort. I see this "special baby food" garbage as just another ploy to make work for women, and then make them feel guilty or inadequate about it. Kids have survived eating worms and bugs and dirt for centuries. Real food won't hurt them.

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Health - Twins and Reproduction

Interesting. I would've attributed the lower incidence of reproduction in women with a male twin to other, unscientific reasons. Apparently, there are good scientific explanations.

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Health - Natural Cure For Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Auntie Beeb reports on research from Denmark and Germany that indicates that rose hips might help fight rheumatoid arthritis.

To my great delight, it seems to be effective against osteoarthritis also:

It is already available at high-street chemists as it is widely used by patients with osteo-arthritis, a less debilitating condition caused by general wear and tear.

Researchers are unclear as to why exactly rose-hip has this effect, but the supplement appears to have both anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.

Now, then: where do we get this miracle stuff? I'll report back when I find out more.

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War - Iraq

Weren't Bush and the rest of his war dogs recently howling about the great success of the Anbar model, wherein they had armed and trained Sunni militias in that city, who were now working cheek-by-jowl with their American counterparts to stop Al Qaeda?

From Abu Aardvark comes this story about those victories:

Sitar Abu Risha, head of the Anbar Salvation Council, has allegedly fled Iraq with $75 million that the Americans had given him to fight al-Qaeda

This makes total sense to me, of course. Abu Risha has probably never had his hands on so much money in his entire life, and never will again. Anyone with a grain of sense and no morals would do exactly what he did - keep the cash and flee the hellhole that Iraq has become.

I despair of our leaders.

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Caturday!

Our own children have all taken Ugly and Boring pills. So we must avail ourselves of whatever I Can Has Cheezburger has to offer. I like this offering.

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Cats - Late Delayed Friday Pathetic Maxx Post

Maxxie understands. He doesn't hate me for being a tardytard. Do you, Darlin?



Good lord, how we all miss that sweet, sweet boy. G'night, Maxxie, wherever you are. (And if I have my wish, it's on a meteor somewhere outside this galaxy, explorin'.

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HEALTHY, CONFIDENT & OPTIMISTIC

I just came back from seeing SiCKO. What a swirl of intense emotions I felt during that film!

Shame ... I just wanted to yell SHAME SHAME SHAME in all of our "leaders" faces. A small country like Cuba can take care of its citizens. What's up with us?

I felt shame about myself because we in the U.S. are not like the French ... we don't march in the streets ... occasionally, yes. But do our leaders fear us? No. Isn't it healthy for leaders to fear the citizenry? Instead of the other way around?

I mostly felt envy. Envy for those people that do not have to worry about health care costs. You might ask me: "You have insurance, surely you don't have to worry?" Yes, I do. What if I was hit with something catastrophic? I'd lose my house. No doubt. For the last 3 years, my dental bills have been several thousand dollars over what my dental plan covers. Knee replacement surgery? Not sure. I'm afraid to ask.

I live in fear.

It's kind of like the fear of rape. What would it be like to live in a whole world ... not just my little part of the world ... no, the whole world ... what would it be like if we eradicated rape?

What would it be like to have free universal health care?

In this country people used to talk about "conflict of interest" ... isn't the whole system of who will be given insurance ... what health treatments will be paid for ... dictated by health insurance companies ... isn't that a conflict of interest?

I really recommend this film. I was dragging my feet ... I wanted to see it ... but I kept thinking "I'm a poster child for free universal health care. I had a root canal with no anesthesia because I had no insurance and went to a neighborhood clinic. I had an operation under someone else's name because I had no insurance. I didn't get physical therapy when I should have because of lack of insurance. I was sick for a whole year in my twenties because I didn't have insurance ... etc." But I got a lot out of it. Determination to get going and do something. Also, the movie is not just about health care .... it's about a whole way of life. Please see it.

A former member of Parliament talks in SiCKO about people being afraid and demoralized ... that some people in government want citizens to feel that way. "People who are healthy, confident, and optimistic are much harder to rule."

'nuff said.

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Consumer Alert - Yet Another Recall

I hate to say it, but the effect of so many different scares and alerts and recalls has been a general psychic numbing. I almost don't care anymore. Except that would let the fnords win, wouldn't it? Or those who have fnorded us, rather.

China-made vehicle tires. Go see the whole story. Brands to avoid, according to the article:

The tires were sold under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS for use as spares on sport utility vehicles, vans and trucks, the newspaper said.

This is what happens when you let spoiled greedy brats who don't believe in government because it keeps them from grabbing everyone's toys, take over the government.

By the hammer of Grabthar, if everybody who goes to the polls next year does not vote Democratic, there had better be a damned good reason why. And "another 9/11" ain't gonna cut it.

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War - The Victims We Don't Have To See

Image from Dear Kitty

So sad, this story. This young man - a Reservist - who answered when duty called him, at the age of 20 is now, at the age of 24, blind, paralysed from the neck down, and unable to communicate. His parents have gone through all their money, taking care of him. His father has returned to the workforce, after retiring from the army. Joseph Briseno, Jr., might easily live another thirty, maybe even fifty years. Blind, paralyzed, and helpless.

The next time some warmongering idiot shrieks in your general vicinity, take your printout of this, and the other 18,000 sad stories of the crippled, wounded, dead and maimed, and stuff them down his fucking gob.

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Politics - Palmer Derailed As EEOC Head

I don't know much about David Palmer. However, I'm sorry to say that the actions of the Bush/Cheney administration, and its talent for picking some really sorry specimens of bipedal life for admission to its lying, evil little cabal have filled me with such cynicism that I almost don't feel a need to investigate further.

Suffice it to say that Salon reports that Palmer's nomination to EEOC is faltering. Couldn't happen to a more deserving person, I'm sure.

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Women's Rights - Gender and Science

Imagine that.

Studies that support traditional roles for women get swarmed on by the media, while more nuanced research just can't seem to generate any noise

says J. Goodrich, here. I can't believe it. Imagine that! You'd think these people had an agenda, or something.

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Politics - The Abu G Show

Gonzo won a prize for his tapdancing in April. Given his recent show of fancy footwork in further hearings, one wonders, what's he now? A dead duck?

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Women's Rights - Banaz Mahmod

Where's the honour in this killing, pray tell? This pretty young girl, forced into a marriage with someone she didn't love, found someone she could love, three years later, and her father - her own father and her uncle and the scumsucking bottomfeeder of an ex-husband - raped and beat her, and garotted her with a bootlace. Stuffed her body in a suitcase. Bragged about the murder in jail. What kind of sick fucks would do this to a girl barely out of adolescence? Related to them by blood?

And this did not happen in the backwaters of the putative Kurdistan, or some other third-world country. It happened in London. Let's hope the magistrate throws the book at the bastards.

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Environment - Global Warming

If you haven't already, toodle on down to this place to assess your carbon footprint and develop your very own personal conservation plan. Especially if you have spawned, as you can otherwise bet your spawn won't have much of a world to inherit.

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Politics - California's Republican Party

Okay, this is now officially a non-issue, I'm sure, since the offenders have probably been fired or, more likely, slipped into other well-paid positions with little fanfare. But the headline sure did take my breath away.

Two Top California Republicans Are Aliens

By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun

I'll admit, I wasn't thinking so much of their immigration status as of intergalactic journeys ...

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Politics - Kicking Ass and Taking Names

It's really heartening, after nearly six years of protosimian hooting and hollering and shutting down thoughtful debate with howls of "partisanship, treason, lack of patriotism," et cetera ad infinitum ad nauseam, to finally see how much the mood has changed. Here, for instance, chickenhawk Rethuglican Rep Michael Turner of Ohio, who has never seen a day's military service, attempts to impugn the scholarship and analysis of one Lawrence Korb, military analyst at the Center for American Progress. It was very satisfying to watch Korb put the boot in with a calm, detached professionalism that makes the polidiotician look even more of a fool than he had succeeded in portraying himself.

I mean, look at that oily, smarmy, smug face. Wouldn't you just love to whap your dick right across it? Okay, maybe not, you'd probly catch something nasty.

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Books - Pottermania

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I read it. Borrowed it from Smoke (of course) Thursday, finished it the same night. Not exactly a strenuous read.

What, you might ask, does this do to the Ambitious Reading Plan? Well, I had decided before I ever formulated the plan that it was to be a guide, not a straightjacket. We (Ms. Manitoba and I) often come across a book or ten that is just begging to be read immediately, and just isn't on the Scheduled Reading List for this year.

Well, fuckit, I say. Are we to be ruled by our own plots and schemes? Never! We devised it simply to make our lives easier, not to get caught up in nerve-wracking, guilt-tripping, obsessive-compulsive pavement-crack-counting neuroses. So I read Harry Potter. Now back to the other 94 on the list.

I'll be putting my most current reviews up on Tuesday, probably, as I prefer to do it at the very end of the month, just in case I manage to finish some weighty tome or the other at midnight on the last day of the allotted time period. And, oh, yes, an updated reading list.

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Sicko

We were supposed to go see the movie last night, but after the week of stress from hell, I just wanted to lie on the warm, dry soil of the garden and admire the scabiosas. Pincushion flowers in the common parlance, and though it's hard to see on the lighter cream and pink flowers, the deep burgundy ones make that instant "aha!" in the brain - long white stamens topping the dark petals stand out in vivid detail.

So I lay in the garden instead, and behold, what did my mailbox bring me this morning?

The Sicko Health Care Card, that's what. Check it out. Michael Moore has effectively changed the tenor of the conversation as of now. Tell me what you think.


Be sure to check out the link, there's lots of useful information there!

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Was it a Sony battery?

Associated Press reports today:

Cheney to Get Battery for Heart Device
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 28, 2007
(07-28) 09:35 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday had minor surgery to receive a new battery for an implanted device that monitors his heart rhythms, his spokeswoman said.

and then Digital Journal reports:

Toshiba has announced it is recalling more Sony batteries due to risk of fire, igniting a fury of questions about the safety of Sony-made batteries again.

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The Shooting of Old Men

I heard this on the radio coming home from work ... the BBC is reporting that many families in Iraq get a half hour of electricity per day. A half hour!

Meanwhile the L.A. Times is reporting this:

U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports
The daily length of time that residents have power has dropped. The figure is considered a key indicator of quality of life.

By Noam N. Levey and Alexandra Zavis, Times Staff Writers
July 27, 2007

WASHINGTON — washington — As the Bush administration struggles to convince lawmakers that its Iraq war strategy is working, it has stopped reporting to Congress a key quality-of-life indicator in Baghdad: how long the power stays on.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only "an hour or two a day" of electricity. That's down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year.

But that piece of data has not been sent to lawmakers for months because the State Department, which prepares a weekly "status report" for Congress on conditions in Iraq, stopped estimating in May how many hours of electricity Baghdad residents typically receive each day.

Instead, the department now reports on the electricity generated nationwide, a measurement that does not indicate how much power Iraqis in Baghdad or elsewhere actually receive.

and this is at a time when the average daily temperature in Baghdad is
108 degrees F so no air conditioners!

Democracy Now has this quote on their website. It’s from an elderly resident in the town of Husseiniya north of Baghdad:

“Even Israel hasn't done anything like this. Israel did not do what America has done to us."

Then there’s this item from the Washington Post about foreign workers being tricked into going to Iraq to work on the building of the new U.S. embassy:

Foreign Workers Abused at Embassy, Panel Told

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 27, 2007; Page A15

Two American civilian contractors who worked on a massive U.S. Embassy construction project in Baghdad told Congress yesterday that foreign laborers were deceptively recruited and trafficked to Iraq to toil at the site, where they experienced physical abuse and substandard working conditions.

State Department officials disputed the charges, telling a House committee that inspections had not substantiated the worst reported abuses.

The accounts were delivered at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on allegations of waste, fraud and abuse in the construction of a huge new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad at a cost of nearly $600 million. The embassy, slated to be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, is being built by a Kuwaiti firm, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., which was awarded the contract after no U.S. company would meet the terms, the committee was told.

First Kuwaiti's labor practices are under investigation by the Justice Department, which is looking into allegations that foreign employees were brought into Iraq under false pretenses and were unable to leave because the company had confiscated their passports.

Okay ... am I the only one that thinks that building a big ole honkin’ embassy, “...slated to be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world”, in *Baghdad* .... let me repeat ... in Baghdad ... does no one else think this is CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY ????!!#$#%%$##.

Why don’t they just paint a big old target on it? My mind is sizzling from being overly boggled.

To lighten things up a bit so we can all think a tad more clearly post-boggle:

Jon Stewart reported on Monday's Daily Show that during President Bush's colonoscopy, "for a couple of hours on Saturday morning [... uncomfortable gulping followed by long pause ... followed by unsuccessful attempts to get the words out...] Dick Cheney was the president."

"Did you feel it?" Stewart asked. "You might have, I don't know, had a vague feeling as you were making your coffee on Saturday morning that you'd failed everyone who'd ever loved you."

Stewart then began reporting breathlessly on the events of the "Cheney presidency," saying, "The race was on. Could Dick Cheney start a new war in under two hours?" He also turned back to Bush at times, explaining, "The president had five polyps removed from his lower intestines, and here's the interesting part. They were removed for political reasons. Apparently these polyps were not loyal Bushies."

"Senior presidential historian Samantha Kearns Bee" then came on to declare that "the Cheney presidency" would be remembered for "his executive order decriminalizing the shooting of old men."

Now, folks, Ms. Manitoba is a jaded old bird ... nearly 58 ... seen a lot ... has been called a doubting thomas many times ... but the news just gets freakier and freakier. Awful is what it is.

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Bush & Cheney=Dementors

Yes, dear reader, I have been caught up in the Harry Potter craze. Well, in my own small way. I bought the latest book and I'm enjoying book three ... I'm only up to book three and NO, I did not wait in line for the latest book. That's where I fail as an American consumer. Just popped into my local independent bookstore (dressed as a middle aged slightly butch female worker ... not as Miss Pomfrey or Professor Dumbledore), walked up to the display, pulled a book down, and paid for it.

I am thoroughly enjoying book three. Confession: It is *not* on my reading plan. But it feels like a summery kind of book ... so I'm reading it.

It is awfully odd (remember, don't get even, get odd) to be in sync with millions of other people. To actually also love something that is popular. I also loved Water for Elephants which is on so many book group lists these days. Awfully odd. I mean ... when I vote for a candidate or a proposition usually it's the kiss of death. I'm usually voting with the minority. Of course, that hasn't been true in the last two presidential elections. "What?" you say. Yes, I voted for the majority in those elections ... those elections were stolen. Not kidding. I really believe that.

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Politics - Actions You Can Take

After that flood of decidedly unpositive news (see my most recent posts), I meandered over to Ntodd's digs. He's always good for a Quakerish, peace-lovin kick in the pants. And sure nuff, the boy come through. If you haven't joined the campaign yet, perhaps now's the time. I know Cynthia's real good about this, but a letter (or two) per day from the rest of us might just cause the Powers That Be to sit up and listen for a change. Don't ya think? Here's something constructive we can do, now. And it costs maybe $0.40-some cents per day. Worth it to end this war and start impeachment.

And impeach we must, for no future President or Vice-President of this land must ever have these dictatorial powers that they can exercise over a hapless people who have gotten fat and lazy and slept through the past six years of violating the Constitution.

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Iraq - Today's Toll

Holy quacking duckshit. I can't imagine what it must be like to get up every morning and hear that 20 of your friends, or your parents' friends, or your own relatives and neighbours died that day. And Auntie Beeb reports that 60 or so were wounded, many with severe burns. Unsurprisingly, the victims were mostly women and children. Who else would be at a marketplace?

Meanwhile, the NYT reports that the schmucks in charge are planning to stay in Iraq till 2009. I'd tell 'em to bite me, but Vampire Dick would be sure to oblige. Motherfuckers. Stop the war now, goddammit.

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Politics - Tap Dancers In The Executive Branch

Wow, journalists actually doing their job? Who knew?

This must be the second time in as many days that some talking head has actually asked a tough question. Hold me someone, I think I'm gonna faint. Call the papers. No, scratch that. Call the TV ... no, scratch that. Call the blogosphere!

That anorexic painted harpy yonder is one Frances Fragos Townsend, National Security Advisor, or, more accurately, National Security Spinmeisterin. Yesterday, Chris Wallace actually did a pitbull on her, asking her some tough questions and refusing to let up:

MR. WALLACE: Two years ago, President Bush said that we were beating al Qaeda. Let's take a look.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: (From videotape.) We have put the enemy on the run, and now they spend their days avoiding capture.

MR. WALLACE: But the new National Intelligence Estimate out this week says things have changed. Quote, we assess the group has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capabilities, including a safe haven in the Pakistan federally administered tribal areas, operational lieutenants and its leadership. As we a result, we judge that the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment."

Ms. Townsend, why was al Qaeda getting weaker two years ago, and now it's getting stronger?

MS. TOWNSEND: Well, I think we have to step back for a moment, Chris, and understand what the NIE says in the paragraph just before the one you read is that the U.S. worldwide global counterterrorism operations have constrained al Qaeda's ability to attack, and al Qaeda believes the homeland is now a more difficult target to attack.

He continued in that vein for several minutes, putting poor ol' Fran's fanny on the hotseat. Hey, it's a start. Video and transcript here.

Yes, it is a sad day when we have to be grateful that the Fourth Estate does its job, however anemically, but considering the last 6 years of a lickspittle press, I, for one, am grateful.

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Politics - Impeach Gonezales, Too!

Arlen Specter has, for the first time I can remember, raised the issue of impeaching Abu G.

"Now we have a very remarkable turn of events: we now have the announcement that the administration will preclude the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from bringing a contempt citation," he said. "The president in that manner can stymie Congressional oversight...if that is to happen, the president can run the government as he chooses."

Specter then suggested the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor because he said the President had a conflict of interest. He went on to also offer the alternative that the Senate could try a contempt charge of its own, or consider the model of the impeachment of Alcee Hastings, a former federal judge who now serves as a Democratic Congressman from Florida.

Now, several "moderate" republicans - and even the "not-so-moderate" lot - are in the habit of publicly stating their support for some perfectly reasonable proposition or other that has been raised by their Democratic counterparts and has significant public support -- only to vote against any such legislation later.

Don't let the bastards get away with it. Write Specter, call his office, write letters to your editor. Gonezales is responsible for the horrible situation at the Justice Department. Gonezales is responsible for the Justice Department's failure to lay down the law to this lawless misadministration. With Gonezales gone and, perhaps, Patrick Fitzgerald in charge, an Augean-stables cleaning can occur and the country can begin to regain the trust that those who serve the people and the law will once again administer said law even-handedly and fairly.

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Environment - Ecological Disaster Looms In Xinjiang Province

Oh, dear. I'm really sorry to hear this, but the glaciers in Xinjiang province, which supply most of the water to that arid region, are melting faster than previously predicted.

In the most alarming example, the largest glacier in Xinjiang, located 3,545 metres above sea level in the Tianshan mountains, split in two in 1993 and has since been melting extremely quickly, according to Wang.

Another researcher with the academy, Hu Wenkang, said the shrinking glaciers would have a major impact on Xinjiang, one of China's most arid regions, and beyond.

Brace yourself. Here come the water wars.

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Environment - Climate Change Affects Po River

AFP reports that rising sea levels, reduced snow in the Alps, and reduced rainfall are threatening the beautiful Po River of Italy, and will

render the last 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the river useless because of saltwater intrusion, the experts predicted at a meeting in Parma on Monday.

About one-third of Italy's food production depends on freshwater from the Po River basin, according to Coldiretti, Italy's main farmers organisation.

Farmers will have to switch to less thirsty crops and improved irrigation techniques. Residents have also been asked to reduce their water usage.

I've always held that the breeding rate for humans would eventually kill us all as we outbreed the resources in this Petri dish we call our home. Those people who have had more than two children over the past few decades will have the pleasure of a ringside seat as the environmental catastrophe grows, and their children, and their children's children kill each other for water, food, and other scarce resources.

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Environment - Dead Zone In The Gulf of Mexico Growing

The Associated Press reports that researchers are predicting that this summer, the dead zone off Louisiana's coast will grow to the largest size recorded.

The forecast, released today by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is based on a federal estimate of nitrogen from the Mississippi River watershed to the Gulf of Mexico. It discounts the effect large storms or hurricanes might have.

The "dead zone" in the northern Gulf, at the end of the Mississippi River system, is the second-largest area of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world. Low oxygen, or hypoxia, can be caused by pollution from sources including farm fertilizer, soil erosion and discharge from sewage treatment plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

I wonder why the estimate discounts the effect of large storms or hurricanes, given that the area is so prone to such disasters? Is there a positive effect? A negative effect? No effect at all? Must research further.

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Politics - The Torture Never Stops

Yes, I did go looking for news of ol' squashface here. In case you didn't already know, Rep. Bob Allen is a rabidly homophobic, misogynistic, lying, perverted piece of hypocritical buttfluff. You can tell just by looking at him, although it helps to have independent confirmation. Allen, who was McCain's Florida campaign manager, is known for his vigorous defense of heterosexual marriage and his equally vigorous denunciation of the Homosexual Lifestyle Choice. And, despite the fact that he represents a fairly bigoted narrow-minded section of the electorate, Allen does not expect his sexual peccadillo to affect his chances of re-election.

On another, altogether snarkier note, you can see from the above pic why Rep. Allen would have to pay to give someone else a blow job.

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Politics - Looks Like Somebody

Needs a little, uh, Pampering:



Whassa matter Dood? Didja crap yourself when you had to tell Mrs. Lorena Bobbit aka Wendy The Wifebot? 'S OK, hon, we'll just change the dirty diaper.

According to The Nation,

Vitter, in yet another delicious slice of religious right hypocrisy, is one of the most outspoken social conservatives in the Senate. He co-sponsored legislation to federally finance abstinence-only education and called a ban on gay marriage the most important issue in the country today. He also told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that "infidelity, divorce, and deadbeat dads contribute to the breakdown of traditional families."

Gotta love those Republican Fambly Valyoos. The same David Vitter who inveighs against people of the same sex who love each other pays prostitutes to change his dirty diapers.

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Politics - Republicans And Sex Crimes

Okay, is there some kind of vast rightwing conspiracy afoot to shoot the Republican party in its collective ass, or what? Note that paragon of virtue above. What can be said about this sick motherfucker who is

A former South Dakota lawmaker charged with rape and other sex crimes against two girls in foster care at his home pleaded not guilty today in Hughes County Circuit Court.

Ted Klaudt of Walker was earlier indicted on four counts of second-degree rape alleged to have occurred in Pierre when he was in the Legislature.

At least one of the alleged offenses involving one girl occurred when she was a page during a lawmaking session.

Klaudt faces similar charges in Corson County and will be arraigned on those counts July 20.

Additional information, including the affidavits of the involved parties, may be viewed here. Unbelievable. According to blogger Chad at CleanCutKid, old LardBucket Klaudt co-sponsored, and is a major supporter of, a bill banning all abortions. Gotta love those Republican Fambly Valyooos.

On the plus side, at least you won't have to be a master sniper to hit Klaudt in the ass. That's a generous target there. Hope his prison boyfriend thinks so too.

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Impeach NOW!

When the president, the vice-president, and the resident toadies and harpies all thumb their noses at the constitution and the Legislature in unison, it's time to use the powers granted by the constitution for the purposes that were intended. Nancy Pelosi, put impeachment back on the table. You are enabling a monster by refusing to consider it. Each day, three, four, or five more soldiers, and god alone knows how many civilians die in Iraq. Each day another ten or fifteen Americans come home wounded in body, mind, and soul, while uncounted numbers of Iraqi children, women, men, elderly, sick or disabled, find themselves worse off, short of food, water, medicine, electricity, hospital services, sleep. We cannot continue to tolerate and enable such villains. Impeach Cheney and Bush NOW. No more excuses. The social fabric of the nation is being ripped to shreds.

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Limericks and Lime Rickeys

Image from The Economist

At Maru's, held by Undeniable Liberal for the benefit of Willard "Mitt" Romney. My little contribution to the cause:

There once was a fellow named Mitt
A sanctimonious sack of shit
A pathetic flip-flopper
A typical GOP'er
Devoid of rectitude and wit

I think we should all contribute, what do you think?

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Nobody for President ... Hooray !!!

Yep. That's my favorite choice for president ... NOBODY. I'm stealing this idea from one of my heroes -- Wavy Gravy.

I went up to Mendocino to pick up my daughter today. She was at Camp Winnarainbow ... it's a circus arts camp ... and more. Run by hippies and lefties ... and their children ... and now grandchildren ... and former campers. It was a beautiful day. It was about a 2 1/2 - 3 hr trip from Oakland. The weather was just right. In previous years, it has been hot hot hot. So, I was grateful.

One of the founders of the camp and the M.C. of the Big Show is Wavy Gravy. They put on this Big Show at the end of each camp session. Performers are all the campers and counselors. You might have eaten a Ben & Jerry's ice cream named after Wavy Gravy. I love the guy. He's been in the progressive movement for a long time. He's gentle, smart, and funny.

"Wavy Gravy is the illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Teresa." - Paul Krassner

Wavy Gravy said that Camp Winnarainbow's motto is: Toward the fun.

Wouldn't it be great if all our employers and leaders had that as a motto?

The Big Show starts with the Parade of the Stilt Walkers ... and all other performers. My daughter rolled in on her unicycle along with other unicyclists.

Right after the puppet show ... during a short intermission ... one of the puppeters said to Wavy: "My puppet's tongue fell out and I lost it." Wavy replied: "That's show business."

One more thing ... do any of you have teenagers? I could kiss Wavy Gravy's feet. My daughter came home with this lovely saying plus attitude:
"Thanks for everything. I have no complaints whatsoever."
She's said it several times to me. And it makes me laugh every time. (Shhhhh ... don't tell anyone .... I think she's one of the biggest complainers I've ever met. That's why this tickles me so much.)
Okay ... I'm not delusional ... I know this will fade ... but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Here's a few more tidbits about Monsieur Wavy Gravy from Wikipedia:

During the first Woodstock Festival Wavy Gravy and fellow members of the Hog Farm Collective were put in charge of security, which was remarkably low-key: The backstage password was "I forgot," typical of the good-natured whimsy of the era.

Wavy called his rather unorthodox group the "Please Force," a reference to their non-intrusive tactics at keeping order ("Please don't do that, please do this instead"). When asked by the press — who were the first to inform him that he and the rest of the Hog Farm were handling security — what kind of tools he intended to use to maintain order at the event, his instant response was "Cream pies and seltzer bottles..."

Just across the road from the Hog Farm, Wavy Gravy has established the store "Nobody's Business," reminiscent of his "Nobody for President" campaign -- as in "who's in Washington right now working to make the world a safer place? Nobody!", "Nobody's Perfect," "Nobody Keeps All Promises," "Nobody Should Have That Much Power," etc. (His late pet pig was also named Nobody).

And that's why I love the guy.

And here's a photo I took as I was leaving the camp:

Look at that purple !!!! Now, what was I saying about that lesbian mob ... Purple Throb in the Necessarium. Yes. Life would be so much more boring without the color purple.

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Politics - The Messadministration of Dick "Dick" Bush

Cheney and Bush have ruined everything they laid their hands on in this country. Every day, it seems, there is a fresh outrage upon the body politic. Will no one rid us of this villainous pair? Nancy Pelosi, the people demand that you put impeachment back on the table.

The government is supposed to work for the people, not to promote a select group of people at the expense of the taxpayer! Yet we find that Sara Taylor's testimony under oath provides us with this example of cobag junketing:

John P. Walters, director of the drug control office, and his deputies traveled at taxpayer expense to about 20 events with vulnerable GOP members of Congress in the three months leading up to the elections.

In a letter to Taylor, Waxman also pointed to an e-mail by an official in the drug policy office describing President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, as being pleased that the office, along with the Commerce, Transportation and Agriculture departments, went "above and beyond" the call of duty in arranging appearances by Cabinet members at campaign events.

As Karl Rove's aide, we must assume that Sara Taylor knows whereof she speaks. It is an outrage that these machinations have been going on for six years and yet we can do nothing to stop them.

The drug control office has had a history of being nonpartisan, and a 1994 law bars the agency's officials from engaging in political activities even on their own time.*

Waxman's investigation is part of a broad effort by Congress to look into White House political involvement in federal agencies. So far, Democratic lawmakers have found evidence that:

• White House officials were involved with the firings of nine U.S. attorneys
Politicization of the Justice Department.
• that Rove deputies made presentations to officials at the General Services Administration and other agencies about Democrats targeted for defeat by the GOP in 2008.
Politicization of the General Services Administration department.
• Former surgeon general Richard H. Carmona testified last week that the White House routinely blocked him from speaking out on politically sensitive public health matters such as stem cell research and abstinence-only sex education. Carmona also said he was asked to make appearances to help Republican candidates and discouraged from travel that might help a liberal politician.
Politicization of the Surgeon General's office.

In addition, we have:

Politicization of NASA, whose scientists were forbidden to speak to the press or address gatherings of their peers without prior approval by nonscientist political appointees;

Politicization of FEMA;

Politicization of the military, firing any senior officer who does not agree with the administration and replacing them with pliable parrots;

Politicization of the courts, with the appointment of right-wing ideologue judges such as Alito and Roberts;

I've heard, but don't currently have links to, reports of politicization of other government offices, including NOAA and Interior. What would we do without Henry Waxman?
* Emphasis mine.

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Politics - The Horse Races

Things are not looking good for St. John McCain, I'm happy to say. Why the glee? Because that cranky old bastard, with his endless bloviating about the need for war, is giving cover to some terrible crimes against humanity being perpetrated by this Messadministration.

I'm sorry Edwards isn't doing better. I think he's a good candidate, certainly better than Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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Is hope helpful?

After posting that piece about elders and GOODNESS WILL PREVAIL, which I do believe, or most of me does, or I do most of the time ... but I just read something … this person mentioned that Thich Nhat Hanh sees hope as not entirely helpful, useful, or beneficial because it tends to take us too far into the future, rather than living in the present moment. I do know that there have been some times where hope really helped me. But I want to think about this. I’m going to think about whether there were times when it didn’t help and is there a reason for that? Or a pattern when it didn’t work and when it did? Maybe it doesn’t work when I become too attached to the hopefilled scenario that I’m creating in my brain/entire being? Or, maybe it doesn't help when it's too much like Hollywood fantasy? Maybe it works when I just look at the hopeful scenario as another option but don’t become attached to it? Therefore, if it doesn’t come about, I don’t plunge into that pit of despair. And, maybe it is helpful when I don't dwell on it like it's a fantasy, but rather, I move on and act on a useful plan that changes things.

Thinking on it …

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Gotta get my 23 hours of winks per day

Who says cats don't like to be tucked in?

This is Boomer. One of my three cats. They're all about a year old.

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Goodness Will Prevail

Sometimes I read something that renews my hope ...

From today's Globe and Mail:

JOHANNESBURG — The official order of business Wednesday was the introduction of The Elders: convened at the request of Nelson Mandela, a collection of former leaders that has begun to work together to advance the causes of peace and global justice.

Five Nobel Laureates and a handful of other eminences gathered on the stage in Johannesburg as Mr. Mandela announced that they would seek to fulfill the traditional role of elders in a village, providing wisdom and leadership and attempting to resolve conflicts, taking on everything from climate change to the fighting in Darfur.

To read the whole story ... and it's worth it ...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

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Politics AND Entertainment - Frank Zappa

I've been a Zappa fan since I first heard him, and I will always be grateful that I got to attend a concert and see/hear him live. He was a great musician, an entertainer, and more politically savvy than probably 99 per cent of the population. Anyway, lately I've been on a Zappa musical binge, and although there's a limit to how much of the doo-wop and pure instrumental jazz I can listen to, some of his rock music just, well, rocked. For all you Zappa fans out there, and especially for Smoke, I give you HotPlate Heaven In The Green Hotel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, lead vocals)
Ray White (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Ike Willis (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Bobby Martin (keyboards, saxophone, vocals)
Alan Zavod (keyboards)
Scott Thunes (bass)
Chad Wackerman (drums)

I used to have a job
An' I was doin' fairly well
Depression came along
An' everybody start to yell
"Where'd they go, them good ol' days,
An' all that crap we used to sell?"
Now I'm in Hot-Plate Heaven,
at the Green Hotel

Republicans is fine,
If you're a multi-millionaire
Democrats is fair,
If all you own is what you wear
Neither of 'em's REALLY right,
'Cause neither of 'em CARE
'Bout that Hot-Plate Heaven,
'Cause they ain't been there

They really oughta go
'N find out how the hall-way smell --
They'd benefit to know
'Bout what the bums in there could tell
(I guess we're only dreamin',
But I s'pose it's just as well
That's ALL you get to dream
Up in the Green Hotel)

Nature didn't put me here,
An' neither did my fate --
It musta been some evil ol'
Republican candidate!
He's over there in Washington,
But I wish he was in HELL
'Cause I'm in Hot-Plate Heaven
At the Green Hotel
Things is slightly better now;
They hope we will forget
The misery of 'TRICKLE DOWN',
An' jelly-bean etiquette
The Regal Presidential Style
Has simply not worn well,
But neither has my rags,
Up in the Green Hotel

I said the Green Hotel
I mean the Green Hotel
Been there once
The Green Hotel
We're goin' again
The Green Hotel
Neither has my rags,
Up in the Green Hotel
Hey, pass me the dog-food!

Someone should add lyrics for the Bush I and II years. Ain't gonna be me, though!

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Book List July 2007

Well, here's the updated list now:

A History of Malaysia - Barbara Watson Andaya & Leonard Andaya
A History of Modern Indonesia Since C. 1300 - M.C. Ricklefs
A History of Selangor - J.M. Gullick
A Point of Light - The Life of Family Planning Pioneer Constance Goh - Zhou Mei
A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
Abraham's Promise - Philip Jeyaretnam
Agnes Smedley - The Life and Times of an American Radical - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
Amerika - Franz Kafka
Armed Communist Movements in Southeast Asia - Ed. Lim Joo Jock & Vani S.
Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
Believer Book of Writers Talking To Writers - Vendela Vida
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
Captives of Shanghai - The Story of the President Harrison - David H. & Gretchen G. Grover
Chandranath - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Chinese Blue and White - Ann Frank
Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
Death and Justice - Mark Fuhrman
Dena-Paona - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Devdas - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis
Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Mackay
Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
Force 136 Story of A WWII Resistance Fighter - Tan Chong Tee
From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
Gaijin - James Clavell
Glory - Vladimir Nabokov
Heart Politics - Fran Peavey
How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
How To Write A Damn Good Novel - James Frey
Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie
In My Dreams - Kassandra Kane
In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
Jai Bhim - Terry Pilchik
Kempeitai - The Japanese Secret Service Then and Now - Richard Deacon
Kempeitai - Japan's Dreaded Military Police - Raymond Lamont-Brown
Labour Unrest in Malaya, 1934-1941 - The Rise of the Workers' Movement - Tai Yuen
Lest We Forget - Joyce E. Williams & Alice M. Coleman
Life As The River Flows - Women in the Malayan Anti-Colonial Struggle - Agnes Khoo
Living Hell - Story of a WWII Survivor at the Death Railway - Goh Chor Boon
Malay Folk Beliefs - An Integration of Disparate Elements - Mohd. Taib Osman
Malaya and Singapore During The Japanese Occupation - Ed. Paul Kratoska
Malaysia - R. Emerson
Maria - Leslie Netto
Modern Japan - A Historical Survey - Mikiso Hane
Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
My Brother Jack - George Johnston
Night Butterfly - Tan Guan Heng
Niskriti - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
No Cowardly Past - Dominic Puthucheary
Nonsense - Robert J. Gula
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
On the Beach - Nevil Shute
Orientalism - Edward W. Said
Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
Pandit Moshai - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Pearl S. Buck - A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
Plays, Vol. 2 - Bertholdt Brecht
Praxis - Faye Weldon
Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago - Peter Bellwood
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
Raffles - Maurice Collis
Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
Reality Isn't What It Used To Be - Walter Truett Anderson
Red Star Over Malaya - Resistance & Social Conflict During And After The Japanese Occupation, 1941-1946 - Cheah Boon Kheng
Rehearsal For War The Underground War Against The Japanese - Ban Kah Choon Yap Hong Kuan
Rethinking Raffles - Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied\
Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
Robert van Gulik - His Life, His Work - Jan Willem van de Wetering
Shanghai Refuge - A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
Shantung Compound - Langdon Gilkey
Shirin Fozdar, Asia's Foremost Feminist - Rose Ong
Silences - Tillie Olsen
Singapore - Journey Into Nationhood
Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George
Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
Singapore's People's Action Party - Its History, Organization and Leadership - Pang Cheng Liang
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas - Maya Angelou
Sinister Twilight - The Fall of Singapore - Noel Barber
Sisters in The Resistance - How Women Fought To Free France, 1940-1945 - Margaret Collins Weitz
Sisters and Strangers - Women in the Shanghai Cotton Mills, 1919-1949 - Emily Honig
Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
Southeast Asia In The Age of Commerce, 1450-1680 - Anthony Reid
Spices & Condiments - J.S. Pruthi
Stones From The River - Ursula Hegi
Strangers Always - A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
Streets of Georgetown, Penang - Khoo Su Nin
Syonan - My Story - The Japanese Occupation of Singapore - Mamoru Shinozaki
Taming the Wind of Desire - Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic Performance - Carol Laderman
The Age of Diminished Expectations - Krugman
The Argumentative Indian - Writings on Indian Histolry, Culture, and Identity - Amartya Sen
The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhury
The Book of Tea - Okakura Kakuzo
The Communist Struggle in Malaya - Gene Z. Hanrahan
The Courtship of Robert Browning & Elizabeth Barrett - Karlin
The Death of Woman Wang - Jonathan D. Spence
The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
The Fall of Shanghai - Noel Barber
The Family:They Fuck You Up - Granta
The Forgotten Army - India's Armed Struggle for Independence 1942-1945 - Peter Ward Fay
The Ginger Man - J.P. Donleavy
The Great Hedge of India - Roy Moxham
The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor
The Hollowing - Robert Holdstock
The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman D.S.O.
The Literature & The Story - Vivian Gornick
The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
The Mak Nyahs - Teh Yik Koon
The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki
The Malay Archipelago - Alfred Russell Wallace
The Malayan Union Controversy, 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
The Marquis A Tale of Syonan-to - E.J.H. Corner
The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
The Origins Of The Second World War In Asia And The Pacific - Akira Iriye
The Pacific War 1931-1945 - Saburo Ienaga
The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
The Plague - Albert Camus
The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
The Price of Peace - True Accounts of the Japanese Occupation - Ed. Foong Choon Hon
The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
The Scents of Eden - A History Of The Spice Trade - Charles Corn
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
The Singapore Council of Women and The Women's Movement - Phyllis Ghim Lian Chew
The Unabomber Manifesto -
The Vintage Book of Indian Writing 1947-1997 - Ed. Salman Rushdie & Elizabeth West
The War in Malaya - Lt. Gen. A.E. Percival
The World of the Shining Prince - Court Life in Ancient Japan - Ivan Morris
Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
Till Morning Comes - Han Suyin
Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
Understanding Media - Marshall McLuhan
War and Memory in Malaysia and Singapore - Ed. P. Lim Pui Huen & Diana Wong
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
Who Won The Malayan Emergency - Herbert Andrew
Why I Am Not A Muslim - ibn Warraq
Women in the Holocaust - Eds. Dalia Ofer & Lenore J. Weitzman
Women of China - Bobby Siu
Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Bardhan
Writers Workshop In A Book - Alan Cheuse and Lisa Alvarez
Writing Past Dark - Bonnie Friedman
You Shall Know Our Velocity - Dave Eggers
You'll Never Get Off The Island - Keith Wilson
Your Memory:A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley

Some of these have been read before, but I need to make notes for The Bobbed-Haired Girl project.

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Book Review June 2007

Daughters of a Coral Dawn - Katherine V. Forrest

Borrowed? No.

What possessed me to read this, I can't possibly imagine. I have a load of books by this author, all from a time when I was looking for books written by women, about women, preferably strong women. She's not a very good writer, but this was in the days before I discovered writers like Sandra Scoppetone, Sheri Tepper, and Sara Paretsky, and was looking for detective fiction to while away the time with. She is not a good writer at all, come to think of it. So why did I read this particular book? A thread over at Twisty Faster's turned into a discussion of feminist utopias in fiction, and this was one of the books mentioned in the thread. I thought it might provide good background for another project I'm working on. Suffice it to say that I've learned my lesson.

Recommended? Good Lord, no.

Reread? Perhaps I'll try again, if I get further on my project and get stuck.

Dictionary of Asian Mythology - David Leeming

Borrowed? No.

An excellent, handy little reference, very useful for looking up things that you kind of know, or ought to know, or vaguely remember, about myths and legends of China, India, and every country around and in between.

Recommended? Highly.

Reread? As needed.

Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster Bujold

Borrowed? No.

I've always liked Lois McMaster Bujold as a writer of science fiction. She has a certain sly humour and charm. This book was lightweight, a quick easy read, and thoroughly enjoyable. Yes, it was part of the "feminist utopias in fiction" project. The project doesn't have a name yet, and it's not in any way related to "The Bobbed-Haired Girl" project.

Recommended? Light reading, yes.

Reread? Probably not.

Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens

Borrowed? No.

Although it was slow to start, eventually, as all Dickensian dramas do, this book gripped me, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what happened next. As always, the bad guys get their comeuppance, and the good their just reward, and of course Dickens is exceedingly verbose, but it was some 800 pages of enjoyment. Verbose but talented. With what skill he describes each scene, each character, how well he delves, without heavy-handed framing, the depths and heights of emotion. Bit cloying in the approved manner of the time, at times, but nevertheless a good read. Most interesting of all is his description of America.

Recommended? Highly.

Reread? Not for a good while.

Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? No.

Reading another of this writer's works translated into English brought home to me the importance of a good translator. Regrettably, this translation was a bit too literal, and Bangla does not translate directly into English, so much of the beauty is lost, and the idiom is clumsy and ineffective. Nevertheless, as with all of SharatChandra's work, this novel deals with the mores of village life and the difference between the urbanized protagonist and his rural childhood companion, and the maze of relationships, customs, prejudices, and regulations that make up life in rural areas. The book would have been far more enjoyable in the hands of a skilled translator. I wish I could get a copy in the original!

Recommended? Only in the original, or in a better translation

Reread? Only in the original or a better translation

Pather Dabi - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? Nicki.

The translator of this work is excellent, and this is one of SharatChandra's finest novels. Loosely translated, Pather Dabi means "Right of Way." The novel chronicles the awakening of a young man to the injustices imposed by the society in which he is raised. In parts painful, in parts filled with pathos, excitement, rage, this is a novel to stir one's soul. The British did their best to suppress this work when it was first published. Read it and you'll see why.

Recommended? Highly.

Reread? Whenever I can.

Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith

Borrowed? Smokey again.

An amusing little work of detective fiction about the adventures of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, set in Botswana. I believe the first of those works is about to be turned into a film. The writing is good, the characters well drawn and textured, and the writer captures the sweetness of the native culture along with its suffering from change. Good pace, interesting occurrences. It left me wanting to visit Africa, notably Botswana.

Recommended? Yes, if you like detective fiction, light reading matter, and Africana.

Reread? Probably not. Once you've read a piece of detective fiction, you know how it ends, and then what's the point?

The Amber Spyglass - Phillip Pullman

Borrowed? K.B.

Oh, my. Phillip Pullman has written a fascinating trilogy, part science fiction, part fantasy, all thrilling. The writing was quite good, and although after the first book it became a little more predictable in parts, it was still a rollicking good read. It's being made into a film, and I saw the preview and felt as if I must read the book. The film is beautiful, if it all keeps the same high quality as the preview I saw. I can't wait for it to open. As for the books, I read all three volumes in a single night. So there.

Recommended? Yes, if you like science fiction, fantasy, or fast-paced adventure. Definitely light reading, though.

Reread? Maybe.

The Boss Dog - M.F.K. Fisher

Borrowed? Smoke, again.

I've always loved M.F.K. Fisher as a writer. There's a lyrical quality to her descriptions of scenes and people. Neither overly descriptive nor cloying, yet utterly sympathetic and very visual. This book, as you can tell from the title, is about a dog, and an excellent device was that dog as a way of describing the relationship between a woman and her two daughters and the time they spent living in France. As with all of Fisher's books, it was a veritable treasure of culinary and cultural information. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Recommended? Mais certainement.

Reread? Someday when I have some free time!

The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman

Borrowed? K.B.

This is the first book in Phillip Pullman's trilogy, and I think the most exciting. His portrait of the little girl who is the protagonist is very good, I think. An excellent writer with a vivid imagination, I blame him for my subsequent insomnia.

Recommended? Highly, for those in search of entertaining reading material.

Reread? Probably, but not for years.

The Subtle Knife - Phillip Pullman

Borrowed? K.B.

This is the final book in Pullman's excellent trilogy. I didn't like it quite as much as I liked the first, but it's still well written and well worth reading.

Recommended? Yes.

Reread? Maybe.

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Book List June 2007

Nothing like destroying your own posts because you're too tired to see straight. What's the matter with me, I wonder. Anyway, here's the original post on the book list, retitled June 2007. Does anyone believe I have a prayer of finishing all these books by 12/31/2007?

A History of Malaysia - Barbara Watson Andaya & Leonard Andaya
A History of Modern Indonesia Since C. 1300 - M.C. Ricklefs
A History of Selangor - J.M. Gullick
A Point of Light - The Life of Family Planning Pioneer Constance Goh - Zhou Mei
A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
Abraham's Promise - Philip Jeyaretnam
Agnes Smedley - The Life and Times of an American Radical - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
Amerika - Franz Kafka
Armed Communist Movements in Southeast Asia - Ed. Lim Joo Jock & Vani S.
Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
Believer Book of Writers Talking To Writers - Vendela Vida
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
Captives of Shanghai - The Story of the President Harrison - David H. & Gretchen G. Grover
Chandranath - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Chinese Blue and White - Ann Frank
Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
Daughters of a Coral Dawn - Katherine V. Forrest
Death and Justice - Mark Fuhrman
Dena-Paona - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Devdas - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis
Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster Bujold
Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Mackay
Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
Force 136 Story of A WWII Resistance Fighter - Tan Chong Tee
From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
Gaijin - James Clavell
Glory - Vladimir Nabokov
Heart Politics - Fran Peavey
How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
How To Write A Damn Good Novel - James Frey
Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie
In My Dreams - Kassandra Kane
In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
Jai Bhim - Terry Pilchik
Kempeitai - The Japanese Secret Service Then and Now - Richard Deacon
Kempeitai Japan's Dreaded Military Police - Raymond Lamont-Brown
Labour Unrest in Malaya, 1934-1941 The Rise of the Workers' Movement - Tai Yuen
Lest We Forget - Joyce E. Williams & Alice M. Coleman
Life As The River Flows Women in the Malayan Anti-Colonial Struggle - Agnes Khoo
Living Hell - Story of a WWII Survivor at the Death Railway - Goh Chor Boon
Malay Folk Beliefs - An Integration of Disparate Elements - Mohd. Taib Osman
Malaya and Singapore During The Japanese Occupation - Ed. Paul Kratoska
Malaysia - R. Emerson
Maria - Leslie Netto
Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens
Modern Japan - A Historical Survey - Mikiso Hane
Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
My Brother Jack - George Johnston
Night Butterfly - Tan Guan Heng
Niskriti - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
No Cowardly Past - Dominic Puthucheary
Nonsense - Robert J. Gula
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
On the Beach - Nevil Shute
Orientalism - Edward W. Said
Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Pandit Moshai - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Pather Dabi - SharatChandra Chattopadhyay
Pearl S. Buck - A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
Plays, Vol. 2 - Bertholdt Brecht
Praxis - Faye Weldon
Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago - Peter Bellwood
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
Raffles - Maurice Collis
Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
Reality Isn't What It Used To Be - Walter Truett Anderson
Red Star Over Malaya Resistance & Social Conflict During And After The Japanese Occupation, 1941-1946 - Cheah Boon Kheng
Rehearsal For War The Underground War Against The Japanese - Ban Kah Choon Yap Hong Kuan
Rethinking Raffles - Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied
Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
Robert van Gulik - His Life, His Work - Jan Willem van de Wetering
Shanghai Refuge A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
Shantung Compound - Langdon Gilkey
Shirin Fozdar, Asia's Foremost Feminist - Rose Ong
Silences - Tillie Olsen
Singapore - Journey Into Nationhood
Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George
Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
Singapore's People's Action Party - Its History, Organization and Leadership - Pang Cheng Liang
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas - Maya Angelou
Sinister Twilight The Fall of Singapore - Noel Barber
Sisters in The Resistance - How Women Fought To Free France, 1940-1945 - Margaret Collins Weitz
Sisters and Strangers - Women in the Shanghai Cotton Mills, 1919-1949 - Emily Honig
Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
Southeast Asia In The Age of Commerce 1450-1680 - Anthony Reid
Spices & Condiments - J.S. Pruthi
Stones From The River - Ursula Hegi
Strangers Always - A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
Streets of Georgetown, Penang - Khoo Su Nin
Syonan - My Story - The Japanese Occupation of Singapore - Mamoru Shinozaki
Taming the Wind of Desire - Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic Performance - Carol Laderman
Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith
The Age of Diminished Expectations - Krugman
The Amber Spyglass - Phillip Pullman
The Argumentative Indian - Writings on Indian Histolry, Culture, and Identity - Amartya Sen
The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhury
The Book of Tea - Okakura Kakuzo
The Boss Dog - M.F.K. Fisher
The Communist Struggle in Malaya - Gene Z. Hanrahan
The Courtship of Robert Browning & Elizabeth Barrett - Karlin
The Death of Woman Wang - Jonathan D. Spence
The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
The Fall of Shanghai - Noel Barber
The Family:They Fuck You Up - Granta
The Forgotten Army - India's Armed Struggle for Independence 1942-1945 - Peter Ward Fay
The Ginger Man - J.P. Donleavy
The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman
The Great Hedge of India - Roy Moxham
The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor
The Hollowing - Robert Holdstock
The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman D.S.O.
The Literature & The Story - Vivian Gornick
The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
The Mak Nyahs - Teh Yik Koon
The Makioka Sisters - Junichiro Tanizaki
The Malay Archipelago - Alfred Russell Wallace
The Malayan Union Controversy, 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
The Marquis A Tale of Syonan-to - E.J.H. Corner
The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
The Origins Of The Second World War In Asia And The Pacific - Akira Iriye
The Pacific War 1931-1945 - Saburo Ienaga
The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
The Plague - Albert Camus
The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
The Price of Peace - True Accounts of the Japanese Occupation - Ed. Foong Choon Hon
The Rise and Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
The Scents of Eden - A History Of The Spice Trade - Charles Corn
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
The Singapore Council of Women and The Women's Movement - Phyllis Ghim Lian Chew
The Subtle Knife - Phillip Pullman
The Unabomber Manifesto -
The Vintage Book of Indian Writing 1947-1997 - Ed. Salman Rushdie & Elizabeth West
The War in Malaya - Lt. Gen. A.E. Percival
The World of the Shining Prince - Court Life in Ancient Japan - Ivan Morris
Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
Till Morning Comes - Han Suyin
Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
Understanding Media - Marshall McLuhan
War and Memory in Malaysia and Singapore - Ed. P. Lim Pui Huen & Diana Wong
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
Who Won The Malayan Emergency - Herbert Andrew
Why I Am Not A Muslim - ibn Warraq
Women in the Holocaust - Eds. Dalia Ofer & Lenore J. Weitzman
Women of China - Bobby Siu
Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Bardhan
Writers Workshop In A Book - Alan Cheuse and Lisa Alvarez
Writing Past Dark - Bonnie Friedman
You Shall Know Our Velocity - Dave Eggers
You'll Never Get Off The Island - Keith Wilson
Your Memory:A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley

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