Forever A Fangirl

Millennium Park Crown Fountain Fun

EDIT****** The album is done and it's quite good---> please GO now and see it. Thanks! Up 'till 5 a.m. again in the pursuit of...not blogging about politics. Check out my very-much-under-construction photo album on the grand opening of Millennium Park Chicago, 2004. EDIT****** The album is done and it's quite good---> please GO now and see it. Thanks! I'll get some titles for the pics up after I get some sleep. Enjoy!

Democratic National Convention: Final Day (Four)

The Next President of The United States unless evil forces prevail again.

Missed the first fifteen minutes, but unless it was someone not mouthing the Dems party line, it's safe to say that I didn't miss too much.

Nothing against the Democrats Party line. No, it's ok. Enough. He's better than Bush, right? Or couldn't be as bad as Bush? He's the anti-Bush. That's what I hear people saying, anyway. Except they are both middle-aged white guys of privilege, though I hear Kerry really made his big money by marriage--both times! (way to go John!)
His aunt sent him and his sibs to private schools in Europe--father was a career military guy--they couldn't have been that rich. But, the story goes, the first Mrs. John Kerry has no money worries and that isn't due to John's big alimony checks. Teresa Heinz (think ketchup and widow to fortune) Kerry inherited so massive a fortune that she consulted with representatives of her pet causes about how to give her money away. The environment was one of the causes and Kerry was an Senate environmental committee (must have been one of the times he and Al Gore worked together), and the rest is history (or will be. Maybe. If the stars are aligned correctly).

So, Kerry has money, went to Yale, became a soldier/hero and then tireless public servant and Bush is born into wealth and becomes a frat boy.

Random Thoughts:

1. Kerry's dismission of Dubya's, "God is on our side (and our side is the right side)," versus Abe Lincoln's thoughts:"...I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side." was spot on.
I'm not really fond of the invocation of GOD, but I realize it plays well in Peoria.

2. The music wasn't bad tonight. Willy "Yes I do still smoke pot but make no apologies for it or for growin' my hair down to my ass" Nelson was good with the nice gospel back-up. And who couldn't love Carole King's (sc)reaching for the high notes in her self-penned "You've Got A Friend?" I kept waiting for a surprise appearance by James Taylor to give her a hand, but he was a no-show.

3. "I don't wear my faith on my sleeve... " said Kerry, nor did he wear his middle of the road views on abortion on his sleeve or anywhere else for that matter. No one mentioned reproductive rights at the convention--in a way I'm glad of that--it's pretty well understood that if he wins, abortion rights should at least slow in their erosion, though as Sen. Nancy Pelosi noted, the Congress needs to win back it's Democratic majority for the Dems to really have some teeth. Abortions rights hould be a non-issue--if the right wing nut-jobs would jsut the feck over it already. Abortion has been around a really long time. It's legal and safe right now in this country. Let's keep it that way.
Kerry has been quoted previously, intoning a lawyerly way, "I'm a Catholic and abortion is not (part of my belief system). However, I believe in separation of church and state." This implies that he's not going to get in the way of those that would keep Row Vs. Wade from getting further nibbled at.
I would like that in writing though (sorry, John), before I exhale on that issue which if I could vote*, would be a decisive factor in who I voted for.
Kerry did however, choose to put forth that he's worked in the past and will continue to work to protect women from violence, especially that of a domestic nature (where was he when I needed him in the early-mid eighties?) as he did while practicing law for the state of Massachusetts.

Kerry went over his platform--pretty much as all the speakers of the past four days have. He will unite not divide, build a stronger America by providing tax incentives to keep American jobs from being exported overseas. He'll help America's farmers because "he knows that America's farmers feed America." *Gag* for the grammar-school level of phrasing of this declaration, though others mentioned here are pretty simplistic, too. (Just once, I'd like to see someone running for or in public office, over-estimate the IQ of the average American.)
Kerry declared that he shall beef up Intelligence and the military (but won't send a bunch more guys into Iraq--he'll make nice with all the countries we've pissed off, and they'll send their guys to Iraq instead), appoint a Defense Secretary who isn't the feared and despised Rumsfeld, save our seniors by letting them freely buy drugs from whereever, while kicking the the health insurance companies in the nutz, forcing them make drugs less costly(!?). He's going to make nice with the rest of the world and he won't ever take us into a war unless we really need to go. Veterans--same story pretty much as seniors, different tune though--he'll make sure they get a comprehensive health care plan when they exit the service. Oh, and us regular folk will have an opportunity to have the same health care plan as the Senate. That sounds neat. I wonder what kind of co-payments they have?

Kerry says he wants the middle class to be better off by saying "screw you" to the wealthier, taking back the Bush tax cut for the rich and giving it to the middle class. (Can he do that?) That sounds pretty cool.
He going to leave no child behind--but really mean it by funding the program, something Bush failed to do. And all those early intervention programs are gonna get more money, too. Yay. He's also going to make college affordable for everyone. Goody, just in time for my youngest son!
A-n-d he's going to do all this while at the same time reducing the deficit by half during his first term.

The number one reason he should be president though, is... because he signed up for 'Nam twice, asking to be put in battle (some would wonder if his head is screwed on straight) and because he was cool "under fire" (an oft-repeated phrase throughout the convention) he won't make a mess of things globally (like Bush has).
They brought a bunch of his crew mates from his two tours in Vietnam up onstage to physically illustrate this--after having paid special attention in informative mini-interviews, to the black guy (the reverend from earlier in the convention) and the guy that Kerry plucked out of the river after the guy's was somehow ejected from the boat during a gunfight with the enemy.

Max Cleland (sp) wheeled himself out too, to "testify" in re: Kerry. Cleland lost three limbs in 'nam and after being defeated by a Republican after one term in the Senate, has thrown himself behind Kerry.

Symbols for Kerry's target groups were everywhere over the past four days. Minorities, women, soldiers, seniors, union people, teachers. And family--represented by both his, and his running mate's picture-perfect broods.

I just hope what he says is more than the rhetoric that the current resident of the White House spouted and is sure to spout at full speed now.
I really hope if elected, that Kerry tries as hard as he did in Vietnam to do his duty to his country.

*I am a permanent resident, not an American citizen.

The Democratic National Convention: Day Three

John & Elizabeth Edwards

Didn't see it all--taped it (quaint, huh? no TiVo) so I can watch the good parts. This is what I think about what I've seen in about an hour of the primetime convention programming for Day 3 on C-Span:

Dennis Kucinich: Never had seen him speak before. Unexpectedly, he's quite charismatic and either he or his speech writers know how to add poetic elements to his message without being heavy-handed. I liked him even though he had a funny caterpillar-like thing just barely on his upper lip--couldn't tell if it was five o'clock shadow or him trying to grow a mustache. He had a cowlick on the side of his head that was quite distracting, too. Shoulda let the make-up people give you a quick hit with some hairspray, Dennis. (And always remember the lesson of the Nixon-Kennedy debates--5 o'clock shadow can make you lose an election.)

Rev. Al Sharpton:
Not seen him speak more than a sound bite before(!) He surprised me with how toned-down he seemed from the Sharpton picture I had in my head. All the speakers are harping on (or reinforcing) the theme that the Dems are uniters, not dividers and together we can save humanity... blah, blah, blah. Al's speech just barely went beyond most of the what the white speakers (that I've seen in primetime C-Span on Night I and Night II ) have said, by mostly staying focused on "the race issue". It was with a an extremely light touch however, not the "Bombastic Al" that I'd heard of a number of times.

After Al, I had to go to my son's outdoor choral performance at the bandshell at the community center ("music in the park" stuff).
When I came back about 2 (long) hours later, our veep-to-be was on camera and engaged in what seemed to be the second half of his speech.

Initially, I saw and heard about 10-15 minutes of John Edwards, and watched the 5 minute ending--a "goodbye walk" that he did with his family (which as you may know, includes three very telegenic children. I'll get to his wife in a sec.) for his admirers.
This was the first time too, that I've heard Edwards say more than a sound bite, so I rewound the tape to the beginning of his speech, which included his young adult daughter, then wife, introducing him.

There was warm fuzziness to spare, as Edwards came out --the crowds were relentless in their cheering. He, to his credit didn't do the "clutching heart" gesture (which means I'm touched). It's getting a little annoying. It's not like he did something really cool like win an Academy Award or something.

So Edwards was okay--not the light-my-fire sort of fellow that I'd anticipated from what I've heard/read.

Kucinich was a better speaker and seemed more likable than Edwards--who was fine--but I dunno, too perfect looking?

Edwards's wife is very brave and I don't say this because I know about her 16 y.o. son's death in a car wreck (it's in the bio, folks).
Nope, she's brave because she's a super-size woman (loosely defined as at least over 250 lbs, depending on height--and beyond) and she's consented to be not only a politician's wife, but one on the national stage. Kudos to her for all her achievements, including giving birth in her late forties, but even more so for walking out on that stage in front of thousands of people at the convention and millions via video, all the while holding her head high.

There's a lot of fat folks out here--to belabour the obvious. Elizabeth Edwards is one of them--in the extreme.
I have never seen a prominent pol with a super-size wife. Have you?
This is as striking as if she were of another race--but then it wouldn't ever be okay to make a negative comment about her, would it. Think people will take the high road and not make a big deal about her weight? Silly question, huh?

Elizabeth Edwards

I have no reason to doubt that she has a warm heart, but she's got steel in her veins, and I think she'll make a good match with Teresa Heinz Kerry, who has already dubbed the mother of two young children, "earth mother." Takes one to know one. I am so looking forward to having two earthy women in the White house (or near, in Elizabeth's case--at least for now).

--Signing off

Democratic National Convention: Day Two

Barack Obama, Senate candidate, Illinois

Even though most folks believe that the DNC is nothing more than a self-congratulatory rally of the dyed-in-the wool Dems, and it's mostly a snooze, it does have the side benefit of giving the voters a preview of who may be in the Cabinet if Kerry does win or even on our Presidential tickets of the future.

Keynote speaker Barack Obama, a young-ish, charismatic, and smart person of mixed race, is right now running unopposed on the Dem ticket for State senator here in Illinois (his former opponent, teevee actress Jeri Ryan's ex Jack, dropped out when his kinky sexual proclivities were made public due to the Chicago Tribune's willingness to go to court for Ryan's divorce records).
I think Obama has a good chance whenever the time happens that a non-Caucasian is seriously considered for the slot of Prez. So the convention is a good way to "introduce" him to the party/potential voters. (And he's got the Jesse Jackson seal of approval judging from the big grin on his face at the end of Obama's speech.)
Obama's Keynote Speech to the DNC
Of course, it's always kinda fun too when the camera goes panning wildly around to find Bono (from U2) and wife, Kelsey Grammer looking bored, and Hillary and Chelsea drinking from champagne glasses.

Democratic National Convention: Day One Or, Tipper Slips Us Some Nip

"I'll be candid with you. I had hoped to be back here this week under different circumstances, running for re-election. But you know the old saying: you win some, you lose some. And then there's that little-known third category." AL GORE

Anyone watch it? EDIT: Stole two talking points from my brother--I'd noticed Tipper's "nip slip", but forgot to mention it.
I hear now, that Jimmy Carter (who I missed) was quite eloquent. They must have had him speak before the national broadcast(?) That's kinda cheap.

I had it "on." for a couple of hours. By on I mean I was in and out and when I was in the same room as the teevee, my back was to it while I worked at the computer. But I was listening and twisting around when it sounded like it might get interesting.

Thoughts about what I saw or heard on Day One of The Democratic Convention:

1. After about 20 minutes, the delegates dancing for? on? camera(s) to golden oldies/mainstream inspirational music looked silly.
The ones sitting there staring into space, waiting for something to happen, looked silly too.

2. Al Gore, if he'd shown the light-hearted demeanor he showed as the first big name speaker tonight --would've won the 2000 election.
The man told at least 3 jokes (maybe more) in rapid succession from the moment he stepped to the podium (after the huge swell of cheering died down)--almost all making light of his "losing" the 2000 election. He looked great. Tipper looked great--and she flashed ala Janet Jackson (okay, I exaggerate) some nip, too!
Grrr, I hate the Supreme Court and the Republican's, thieving, conniving, and oh, don't get me started.

3. Hillary Clinton will never be president--all her charm is in one place--Bill Clinton. She is bloodless. Zero warmth. End of story.

4. It made me cringe when the "Nine Female Senators" were shown walking alongside one another like sorta frumpy, (mostly) middle-aged Charlie's Angels. They gave pre-recorded mini speeches on their support of Kerry, then trotted them out on stage in an effort to show how far we've come. Last time I noticed there's 100 Senate seats. Nine women fill them? NINE!!!??? Let's see, women make up 51% of the population so...heh. I suck at math but even I know enough to wonder: Are we ever gonna catch up with the guys? Do we even want to, given what one must give up to attain higher office?

5. Glenn Close reads very nicely.

6. It was cool to see a black preacher who'd been a crewmate under Kerry, passionately "testify," as Hillary put it afterward, to how he'd trust Kerry with his life as he vividly described a bloody gun battle they were in together, whilst saving soldiers in Vietnam.

7. Jesse Jackson, seated next to Chelsea and her (met in) college bf of several years, looked very unhappy.

8. Hearing them play the song no one evar wants to hear again--the Clintonesque, "Don't Stop (Thinkin' About Tomorrow)" by Fleetwood Mac, was cringe-inducing.

9. Where did the bags under Bill Clinton's eyes go? Surgery? Botox? Inquiring minds need to know.

10. Has Dianne Fienstein (Dem. Senator-- CA) had work done? She's doesn't look a day older then, well maybe a day, but she's hardly aged since she took over as mayor of San Francisco 25 years ago, when Mayor George Moscone and City Councilman Harvey Milk were murdered by the Twinkie killer.

11. There are way too many senior citizen delegates. Do we really want grandma and gramps having that much control over who our next prez is? I'm keeping an eye on those old folks in the next few days. I think it may be a vast gray-haired conspiracy to control the outcome of the Presidential election.

12. CSpan is an excellent source for coverage--they have no commentators to tell you what you should be thinking about and what you are seeing and hearing.

Bush Vs. Kerry: The Musical

This is actually very well done and quite amusing.

Courtesy of My Brother

Rig My Election, Please

Rig My Election, Please

Just how far will desperate Republicans go to trick America into another BushCo victory?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, July 21, 2004

How about another "imminent" terrorist threat? Pretty much a given, really. Followed, of course, by another. And then another. And then another and another until every other day the newscast features a thick-necked, panicky Tom Ridge saying yes, oh my God yes, we now have definitive proof that terrorists are more or less sort of maybe planning to strike the U.S. maybe very soon and disrupt our shopping and screw with our TV reception and blot out the sun. We just don't know, you know, where, or when, or how, or what the hell to do about it. P.S.: Vote Republican.

"If you don't like the weather in Chicago, wait fifteen minutes, it will change."

Ok, so now it's dropped 25 degrees in a couple hours. Gotta love this place. As the old cliché goes, "If you don't like the weather in Chicago, wait fifteen minutes, it will change."

So two things today.
I accompanied my spouse to his individual therapy session and helped the therapist figure what she should do with him, right in front of him. I am NOT kidding.
I told her I wanted to help but it felt really odd discussing him as if he weren't in the room. This is what I meant about the level of quality one may encounter when seeking professional assistance.
There was basic getting-to-know-the-client steps that she by-passed and went straight to me for the scoop on. Heh. I'm not going to do her job for her or his therapy for him, but I gave her plenty of info that she would have worked to have found out otherwise.
On the plus side, he is working with a "movement therapist" and he likes her. She mixes an Asian philosophy/holistic healing/clinical psychology approach and it sounds good to me. He says he's just going to stay with her (and the shrink for meds, of course.) It's kinda weird that the first one recommended he call the second one. Maybe she felt over her head, right off. I dunno. He says he wants to work on his personal stuff and then in time, we can hopefully work together as a couple with him having new "tools" in hand.

The Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa

The other major event of my day was getting to the charity store and finding about 30 boxes of books stacked higher than I am tall, for me to sort through.
They were from a dead guy's basement, and boy, what story they told. Apparently he self-published a book about Greek culture, because there was 200 copies of the same book, sealed up in eight boxes. The rest of the books were all about the origin and growth of various cultures and races from around the world. The mind-blowing thing was that he took a #3 pencil to many of the books and defaced them by heavily underlining, circling & making comments and and arrows....on almost every page. The upside is out of the 500 or so books, about half so far are unlined--guessing he didn't read 'em (or they took away his pencils. Ooh, bad me). I found the book I'm currently listening to on CD--heavily marked but readable, so that was neat (he had the Al Franken "Rush Limbaugh..." book written prior to "Liars," too). I'll keep those but (hopefully) I have a bunch of books to post. I am totally wiped out right now, though. It'll have to wait until tomorrow.

'Nite All,

--Cyn
P.S. We (spouse, younger son, & I) watched Monty Python And The Holy Grail tonight. It was a good time. :D

Opening weekend, Crown Fountain, Chicago.

I'm Melting

It's been really--not exaggerating--like a steam sauna here. It's not such a big deal for me, except I think of the old people and babies who shouldn't be breathing vast quantities of H2O with their O2.

My day (so far) has been very child-centered with Chris in final extra-early rehearsals for an outdoor show next week.
Then he's got 5 weeks off from choral music, which I think he's looking forward to.
I am looking forward to a break in the back-and-forthing.

Earlier, we swam (quickly and purposefully on my part).
Got schedules screwed up and I ended up idling in the car, air conditioner cranked, waiting for Chris to finish rehearsal until I figured what was up.
Did some resaling--only found shorts for dad (he never buys himself clothes, nor has my mother ever for him--yes, he'd go bare-assed if it weren't for his children--mainly me)--no books which I figured as I hit the jackpot on Monday and there's a flow to this (trust me). Went to the P.O., too. No big lines . Yippeee!

My spouse worked tonight and my son's rehearsals were until 6 pm, so afterward Chris and I ate at what I call an "old-people's" restaurant. Non-chain, family-type place FILLED with old folks. One would think that there would be at least some thrifty-type menu items for people on fixed incomes or oh, the solidly middle class, but it was pricey. I had read a while back and am now starting to believe that many seniors are doing quite well financially vs. some of us "younger" folk.
Anyway, I had a pita chicken concoction that came with matzo-ball soup--just a big ol' matzo ball sitting in chicken broth in a bowl. There were a ton of fries too. And a basket of bread on the table. Guess no-one's worried about carbs at the joint.
Brought home half of my meal--as there's no point to overeating in terms of discomfort.
Went to the library (The 6th Best Library
Of It's Size In The Nation, proclaims a big red, white, and blue banner at the entrance. Geez, those librarians are competitive).
All I am really reading right now is non-fiction.
I'm actually listening on CD to Al Franken reading his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them --and it's very informative and funny. I've liked Al for...a long time--going back to his Saturday (when it didn't suck too much) Night Live days.
So I didn't get a book--I got a fave flick of mine, Galaxy Quest. (Even though I'm hetero, I have the biggest crush on Sigourney Weaver ) and the film Iris, about English writer Iris Murdoch. It has Dame Judy Dench and Kate Winslet playing the older and younger Iris respectively.
I kinda have a crush on Kate, too. Oh yeah, Chris was quoting lines from Monty Python & The Holy Grail and he's only seen it once (yeah I know, bad mom) so I brought it home, too.
For music--we really have a well-stocked and current library--tons of materials--I found Van Lear Rose. Loretta Lynn paired up with Jack White of the White Stripes--he produced and did some back up and it's a real ass-kicker--a stripped down sound but really rockin'. Reminds me of Pasty Cline in places and for the record, I dislike extreme country music. I'm absolutely buying this CD, though.

TTFN,

--Cyn

Necrophilia should be the subtext of all the issues discussed at the forthcoming Democratic convention. ~ Studs

As The Nation Eds. explain just below, they solicited diverse views on what the Democratic Platform should focus on. It's quite past my bedtime right now, so I shall go back and finish reading tomorrow in order to more fully comment on some of the views, but Studs was the first writer that made me chuckle at the outset.
As a "if-I had-a-card-I'd-carry-it" liberal, I love what Studs has to say to us all.
Humour: It's the key to winning people's hearts and minds.

The Nation

A People's Democratic Platform
[from the August 2, 2004 issue]

The Democratic Party platform to be presented at the upcoming convention has been tailored to suit the positions of the presidential nominee and to raise as few contentious issues as possible. That may be good strategy as defined by political pollsters and strategists, but to our mind it represents a missed opportunity to put forward and debate some fresh, possibly unconventional ideas. So we've asked a disparate group of people--ranging from retired newsman Walter Cronkite to hip-hop activist Bakari Kitwana--what plank each of them would like to propose. Their answers were by turns provocative, quirky and unexpected. We offer them in the hope that voters will be stirred to come up with their own "planks" and then try to turn them into reality. --The Editors
Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel is the author, most recently, of Hope Dies Last.

Necrophilia should be the subtext of all the issues discussed at the forthcoming Democratic convention. Are we a life-affirming society or one that perversely courts death? We are the only industrialized country that does not have national health insurance (my small bottle of prescription tablets and my tube of nasal spray set me back $114.35), as well as the only such nation that insists on the death penalty.

Of course, the matters of our loony Iraq maladventure, environmental rape, outsourcing and mass firings, the USA Patriot Act and the Enronism of Dubya's buddy boys should be brought forth. However, what must be made most clear is the overarching assault upon our native intelligence and our innate sense of decency, all adding up to an unprecedented menace to our general well-being.

Oh, one more thing: the perversion of the American language. The word "liberal" has assumed a dark meaning, thanks in no small part to the kept boys and girls of the mainstream media. I suggest that the chair of the gathering should immediately read to the delegates the dictionary definition of "liberal": (1) expressing social and political policies that favor progress and reform; (2) following policies that favor the freedom of individuals to act or express themselves in a manner of their own choosing--in short, a reaffirmation of FDR's New Deal.

The assemblage should impel the presumptive nominee for the presidency to abandon his mummyesque role and, instead of denying that he is a liberal, proudly affirm it.

We all have pet causes. This is one of mine. Common sense. One day it shall rule!
Eric Schlosser
Eric Schlosser is the author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness.

The United States must declare an end to the war on drugs. This war has filled the nation's prisons with poor drug addicts and small-time drug dealers. It has created a multibillion-dollar black market, enriched organized-crime groups and promoted the corruption of government officials throughout the world. And it has not stemmed the widespread use of illegal drugs. By any rational measure, this war has been a total failure...

In a nation where pharmaceutical companies advertise powerful antidepressants on public billboards and where alcohol companies run amusing beer ads during the Super Bowl, the idea of a "drug-free society" is absurd. Like the rest of American society, our drug policy would greatly benefit from less punishment and more compassion.

Always In The Pub, That's Me

The Job Predictor says...

Cyn, your ideal job is as The Local, always in the pub whenever you walk in. Edit: I ran it again using my little girl name of Cindy and I came up as a "Rabbit Slayer."
Now that's more like it! :D

Pinched from Stupid Angry Canajun

Bill O' Reilly Is A Rude, Angry Man

Last night, I went to a (free) "meet-up" which featured Al Franken, the film "Outfoxed", really good food and good people (including NOW). :) There was a ton of info. disseminated--kind of a smörgåsbord of resources, causes and mini-causes, for people to choose from.

Common Cause, MoveOn.org, and a bunch of other organizations have launched a campaign to take on Fox Television for pretending partisan news is "fair and balanced." They've posted a really horrifying but funny video clip highlighting Bill O'Reilly's hypocrisy as well as a complaint to the FTC at:

http://cdn.moveon.org/data/ShutUp_Final_BbandLo.mov
Check it out.
The challenges to Fox's partisanship are mounting. It's crucial that we voice our disgust with Fox's deceptive advertising now.
Courtesy of MoveOn.org
***************************************************************************

Bill O'Reilly would be worth be hating if he weren't such a sad, pathetic, ANGRY man. But apparently lots of "Americans" watch the FOX television network ::shudder::, one of Rupert Murdoch's many jewels in his media crown.
On a related note:
Kudos to Canada for not allowing FOX a license to present FOX propaganda 24-hours a day.
Canada, unreasonably I suppose, is trying to preserve some Canadian-type programming (and thus culture) on the airwaves which has been effectively overrun by "American-ness" for decades.
So Canada said to FOX Broastcasting, Sure you may buy a license but you must air 35% Canadian programming. NO way, said FOX.

Al Jazeera however, was just granted a license.
This tells me one thing.
Canada likes them A-rabs better 'n us Murricuns. ::sniffle::
****************************************************************************************
Spot any anti-Canadian sentiment in the Wall Street Journal opinion piece below?

REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece
Fox and Gophers
July 19, 2004; Page A10

(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

When it comes to Canadian identity, Fox News Channel is apparently a threat. Al-Jazeera, on the other hand, is just another point of view enriching Canadian culture. That's the message sent last week when the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) granted the Qatar-based, anti-American al-Jazeera a Canadian license. Fox has wanted into Canada since 1999 but has so far been shut out -- except in Ottawa, at the Canadian Parliament, which requested and got a Fox feed last August.

The official justification for this double news standard is that al-Jazeera doesn't compete with any local Canadian-owned company. More than 100,000 Italian-Canadians petitioned in favor of a license for Italy's RAI International, for example, but on the same day that al-Jazeera got the green light RAI was sent packing because it would compete with Canadian-owned Telelatino.

Then there are the sensitivities of Canada's culture police. A large chunk of Canada's political establishment truly believes that, left unfettered, the Canadian market would be overrun by American culture, as if it isn't already. A few years back the CRTC told Fox it could enter Canada, as long as its 24-hour programming had 35% Canadian content. That may have implied a little too much televised gopher hunting on Baffin Island, so Fox stayed home.

What doesn't seem to matter to Ottawa's information gate-keepers are the wishes of Canadian viewers. Canada's cable industry estimates that up to one million Canadian households grab U.S. signals illegally, and the Fox network has received thousands of calls and e-mails requesting the news channel. Yet Canadians are stuck with CNN, which was grandfathered under Canadian law.

The darkest interpretation of all of this is that Canada's liberal political elites find al-Jazeera's view of the world more compatible than Fox's. The Arab network is always putting the worst face on U.S. policies, while Fox doesn't mind suggesting that it is rooting for America to win when it goes to war. We prefer to think better of our neighbors to the north, but it would be nice if they gave Americans the same benefit of the doubt that they give to our enemies.

Corrections & Amplifications:

The editorial above misstated the name of the agency that granted al-Jazeera a broadcast license in Canada. The correct name is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Millennium Park: Crown Fountain Reflecting Pool and Towers

Millenium Park Reflecting Pool 07.17.04...more to come

Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" a/k/a The Jelly Bean

Please see an update on Cloud Gate (in this blog) at: http://cyncity.typepad.com/cyn_city/2005/08/making_it_shine.html

Please see the  most recent update with photos of the finished Cloud Gate and more.                           

Five years in the planning, London-based artist Anish Kapoor brings Chicago's brand new Millennium Park, it's aesthetic centrepiece.

This thing is so, so, so coooool!
You must experience it to believe it. People smiling, puzzling, exclaiming--it provoked all kinds of response--but I heard not a negative word about it.
But it's not finished! It's to be covered up again after one week on view--until November--to finish the seams.
Can't wait until it "opens" permanently.Total fun-ness and right across the street from the Art Institute!

Heading Into "The Belly" Of The Beast

Find my spouse and kid (or not). I'm taking the shot.
A  major feature of Millennium Park is the 110-ton elliptical sculpture designed by the celebrated British artist Anish Kapoor, one of the most prolific and respected sculptors in the world. "Cloud Gate," the monumental sculpture located on SBC Plaza was named by the artist on June 29 when the final panel of the ellptical sculpture was installed.

The sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly-polished stainless steel "plates" that create an elliptically-arched, highly reflective work with Chicago's skyline and Millennium Park itself as a dramatic backdrop. Visitors will be able to fully experience the majestic nature of the work by literally walking through and around, as it was designed for public interaction. Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high.

Outside the bean. Find me!

Anish Kapoor revealed his chosen title for the elliptical stainless steel sculpture as Cloud Gate. As is his custom, Kapoor waited until the sculpture was fully assembled to reveal its name. Now on view, the polishing of Cloud Gate will be complete by the fall.

"What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline," says Kapoor. "So everything that’s white in this model would be ground, earth, and everything that isn’t white would be sky, so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work.

Inside ~ "The Belly Button"
I'm there. I'm wearing a short, white skirt and gray short sleeve v-neck top, if that helps.

"And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does in a way the same thing to one’s reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around.

"It's a multiple-layered experience of a kind of personal space that's opened up in the stone and the city space that's reflected on the exterior."

(the artist)

Outfoxed

I'm very excited about the showing of the Outfoxed film tomorrow evening. They (NOW, who has organized the gathering) emailed that the number of attendees is getting up around 100, as it's open invite and free ('cept bring something to share, in terms of eating or plasticware).
I've not been actively political--ever in my life. I can't vote and when I tried, I couldn't give up being a Canadian. (My brother took what I tease him and call "the cheap way out"--he became American--and if you are American you cannot be a duel citizen. BUT when he goes to other countries, in this case Canada, his status is as a duel citizen. He was a big wuss when he went to Europe and only copped to being Canadian. Sorry, I'm rambling. )
Though I've never been actively politically involved, the debacle of the 2000 presidential election pushed me toward action. I'm on Move.org's mailing list and they keep me apprised of things (though obviously there are plenty of other places to keep up with what's happening and I utilize them, too). I've donated a small bit of $ to the Kerry campaign as it's kosher for a permanent resident (that's me) to do so. I've done other stuff prior to the campaign--written (or emailed) and/or made phone calls to my Congressional representatives, my state Senators, signed petitions on-line. The only thing I can't do is vote, but I think all the other stuff I can do has/will affect changes. The Internet really has changed the face of the political process.
But, this will be my first meeting face-to-face with individuals who will mostly probably be Democrats and undecided/on-the-fence others.
There's just a ton of stuff one can do to be involved politically and it's been made so easy. I really hope that more than half the people in this country who are eligible to vote this November, exercise that great privilege and do so.

This is supposed to be a "hang-loose" type weekend, especially for my spouse, who simply never stops. This morning, he and Chris went out and bought Chris a new bike (it's been years and Chris has totally outgrown his old one).
Besides chores, which you all know never go away, I think we'll not do much. Tonight, while it's still light, I want to drive into Chicago and then if we can find a place to park, check out the brand new-unveiled-this weekend architectural landmark, Millennium Park, right there on Lake Michigan. Hope to get some good pics and barring that, just stroll around, maybe listen to the free outdoor symphony, watch the Saturday-night fireworks from Navy Pier, and who knows what else.

The So-Called Fat Epidemic

Been meaning to post something about the very plain-spoken, sensible researcher (and analyzer of so-called research) Professor Paul Campos. I've followed this man's writings for the last decade. This article, in the Q and A format, makes for easy skimming, allowing a glimpse of what this guy is saying and why you should put your preconceptions and misconceptions and just out-right prejudice against FAT away for a couple of minutes and READ:

Keep Yer Flab On
By Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet. Posted July 15, 2004.
The so-called fat epidemic is a product of upper-class white hysteria that demonizes everyone who does not fit a certain body type.

We're at war and the enemy is obesity – or so warn the doctors. U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona has declared obesity "the terror within because it is every bit as devastating as terrorism." It allegedly affects nine million children and two out of three adults, and claims the lives of 400,000 Americans every year.

It takes a brave man to speak out in favor of flab today – and that man is Paul Campos.

The Obesity Wars are nothing but a big lie about fat, says the author of a provocative new book titled "The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession With Health is Hazardous to Your Health." Campos argues that Americans are in fact only a mere 15 pounds heavier than we were 20 years ago. What have become more stringent in that duration are public health standards for ideal weight, which now define the vast majority of us as "overweight" or "obese" – and that includes Hollywood icons like Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

What's more, according to Campos, there is no documented relationship between weight loss and health. He claims that medical studies that link obesity to wide range of diseases, including heart disease and cancer, are misleading and often self-serving. The result is a cultural hysteria that uses a dangerous and pervasive myth to demonize all – especially poor people of color – who do not fit the shrinking standards of the ideal body weight.

Campos talked to AlterNet from his office at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Your central claim is that major epidemiological studies show little or no link between weight and health, be it risk for cancer or heart disease. That sounds kind of kooky to a lay person.

For the vast majority of people in the United States, their weight does not give you any meaningful information about their likely overall health. You can look at the roughly 75 percent of the population that has a Body Mass Index (a measure of your weight relative to your height) between 18.5 and 32 or so. That entire range, which represents about 80 pounds for an average height woman (5 ft. 4 in.), you will not see any significant variation in terms of risk (of contracting a disease).

So you're saying that there is no difference in terms of overall health between someone who would be considered "obese" with a BMI of 32 and someone who has the "normal" BMI of 20.

There are two points here. One is that for the vast majority of people, weight simply isn't going to tell you anything relevant about their health in and of itself. And second that among those groups that do show some meaningful correlations with health, we need to unpack the extent to which the weight is causal or merely a marker for other things, such as poor nutrition, socio-economic status, weight cycling brought on by dieting etc.

If a person with a BMI of 32 has a significantly increased health risk but is far less likely to have health insurance than someone with a BMI of 25, what is really relevant here? The BMI or health insurance?

So you do make a distinction between weight and a healthy lifestyle. Eating well and exercising is important to good health but it is not necessarily connected to weight loss.

Absolutely. The war on fat is based on the assumption that if people have a healthy lifestyle they'll be thin. Now we know that's not true. Now we don't know the extent to which it's not true – i.e. what percent of the population would be "overweight" or "obese" if they had a healthy lifestyle – but we know it's a very significant percent.

One of the things I've found exasperating about this issue is that many of the people who are making these claims are themselves "overweight" or "obese." So their own bodies literally embody a contradiction of their own claims.

Have we always made this connection between being thin and being healthy?

There is a long and complicated cultural history here, but here's the short version. In the first two decades of the twentieth century there was a strong aesthetic swing toward an ideal of thinness. The notion was first pushed forward by Christian Dior, the French fashion designer. It caught on and in the United States you saw the flapper phenomenon of the 1920s.

What happened essentially is that this cosmetic preference became transformed into a medical judgment through a complex process, where doctors began giving credence to this new cultural preference for thin-ness. The guy who played the biggest role is Louis Dublin, the head of actuarial statistics for Metropolitan Life Insurance in the 30s and 40s. He became absolutely convinced that people who were thin would have the best health, even though he had no data to back this up at all. But he constructed these height/weight tables and gave countless speeches to medical groups advocating that idea. The medical establishment then picked up on this notion and ran with it.

What happens in these kind of cultural processes is that cosmetic preferences get medicalized and then moralized. So it's not only that we like thinness because it is fashionable but it becomes that thinness is actually good for health. And what's more, if we're not thin, it's our fault and we're bad people. It becomes a moral good.

That process has been going on in the United States for about 75 years and it's produced the current moral hysteria.

And these standards for what constitutes thinness have become progressively more demanding as well. Even a decade ago, by cultural aesthetic standards, being 5 ft. 5 inches and 125 pounds was considered thin. Today, you'd have to be 110 pounds to qualify.

The goalpost is constantly being moved. What was considered thin 75 years ago would be considered fat today. Marilyn Monroe, for example, would have to play fat roles in Hollywood today.

The whole diet culture is a form of eating-disordered thinking – a form of anorexic ideation, to use the technical term. To be 5'5" and think that you'd be better off if you were 110 is a form of anorexic thinking. So when you get all this nonsense from these public health officials bombarding us with messages about how we're eating ourselves to death, what we're getting is the message of an anorexic culture being advertised to the nation as a whole.

Everybody is now supposed to have the obsessions that are typical of upper-class white people with strong control needs and perfectionist tendencies – and who project those tendencies on to their bodies.

Anti-Abortion Fanatics Should Be Pitied, Not Killed

...is what I told myself today when I had the unusual experience of being visually and emotionally assaulted by images of aborted fetuses whilst driving into the little town of Rolling Meadows, on my way to run errands and do volunteer work. When I first pulled onto the main road I saw a man with a placard which read: "Graphic Pictures Of Aborted Fetuses Ahead." I then made the turn and looked ahead...to a bunch of jammed up traffic. As I jogged the 'stang around the car jam, I saw two more placards, with a bunch of bloody stuff and what looked like a fetus. My impulse? To run the first motherfucker with a dead baby placard over with my car. (Factoid: the "full-term" fetuses are not pics from abortions; they are from miscarriages; fetuses do not look like baby dolls if they've been an aborted in the third trimester.) My second thought was to bring the Mustang to a screeching stop inches from the guy and get out, walk up to him, declare myself a murderer (I had an abortion in 1984) and tell him that I'm not adverse to killing again, all the while never severing eye contact with him. One less anti-abortion fanatic in the world. People that go this far to assault the senses/emotions of other human beings are sick twists. Unfortunately had I run over the person, I'd belong in that group, too. Instead, I'm going to my first political meeting on Sunday, which just happens to be hosted by NOW. I think I'll sign up as a card-carrying pro-choice person as until now, I've been searching for the local NOW chapter with no luck. I had been wavering about the meeting, the purpose of which is to screen "Outfoxed," a film that purports to uncover FOX new's (owned by the infamous Rupert Murdock) strong Republican bias. (I say purports, 'cause FOX News being horribly biased is really not any kind of new discovery.) My family and I were supposed to have been camping all weekend with my husband's extended family, but he's not feeling well of late (exhaustion has a good deal to do with it). Tonight we agreed to say f**k it with the camping and despised hiking. Yay! Wonder if the classless freaks of nature waving colour posters of dead babies know that it only reinforced my desire to follow through and join NOW? Heh.

Hello, God? It's Me, Dubya

Lord? Bush here. I'm confused. Why won't you crush Kerry and smite the heathens? Hello?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
....................................................
This is the first Morford column in months that I thought was funny/clever enough to share (the one I did share was kind of an obligatory one, as he was beginning to suck). It's edited in places by me so here's the url for the complete column.
....................................................
Are you there, God? It's me, George W. Come in, Almighty. Do you read me? ...
Look, I've done everything you asked. I've been good. Haven't I?

I take the message to the people, don't I? I spout that evangelical born-again crap in pisswater Podunk conservative churches across this burned-out fear-drunk nation like I was emceeing a freakin' rodeo in Crawford. And they eat it up, Lord. They eat that stuff up. Hell, I even believe a lot of that fire-breathin' Second Comin' evildoer-hatin' stuff myself.

And looky here! Look how much dough I induce those evangelical suckers to cough up into the coffers of the GOP (that's God's Own Party -- just for you, Lord!). Doesn't that cut me a little slack fer when I skip over the part where Jesus says "Blessed are the peacemakers?"

Or when he says to turn the other cheek? Or love thy enemies? Or when the Bible says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"? Or any of that other pointless pacifist hippie junk?

I mean, forgive me 'cuz I know your boy Jesus was great and all, but did he have the Carlyle Group breathing down his neck, screaming for more war profits? Did he have a million neat-o bombs at his instant disposal? Did he have Rummy scowling down his hawkish nose at him during naptime? No, he did not...
...
Heck, I even want to change the freakin' U.S. Constitution to prevent them icky gays from ever gettin' legally married and thus soiling the precious institution of uptight heterosexual man-woman Christian marriage counseling. I want to codify right-wing homophobia, Lord! Don't that count for somethin'?

...Remember, Lord, back in the '00 debates when they asked me to name my favorite philosopher, and I said, "Jesus"? Remember how cheesy and obnoxious and cop-outy that was, given how Jesus was actually the Original Liberal and given how everyone knows I haven't read a single "real" philosopher of any note since they made me stand up in Philosophy 1A back at Yale and read a passage from that pagan homo Plato guy when I could barely focus due to all the gin? Wasn't that good?

We bombed them nasty Iraqis in Your name, Lord! Afghanis, too! Hell, I've even gone so far as to tell anyone who'll listen that it was your very will that we invade those countries, that you were pretty much speaking to me, through me, when I told General Whatshisname to go ahead and bomb the living crap outta them evil evildoers and never you mind the women and babies you just git me some war on terror, beeyatch! Whoops, sorry.

Oh, I know what them liberals say, that your son Jesus Christ was a card-carrying pacifist, hated war and hated bloodletting and hated hate. But damn, your boy certainly didn't know about the price of crude, you know? I mean, a Christian's gotta do what a Christian's gotta do to fuel up the SUV and keep the Saudis happy and keep the Lockheed stock from steppin' in a financial cow pie, am I right, Lord? Can I get a "Hell yeah"? Whoops, sorry again.

Lord, I just don't understand. I know I'm not much of a businessman, or a leader, or a public speaker, or a humanitarian, or a foreign-policy expert, or a lover of nuance, or a deep thinker, or much of anything positive or life affirming that anyone can name, really. But I'm a darned nice guy. A "decent man." This is what everyone says. And I thought we had a deal...

Bowling For Columbine

I rented the film "Bowling For Columbine" and watched it tonight with my family. Much of the content was known to me prior to viewing the film--at least in a general sense, but Michael Moore added his unique approach to the subject and gave me a chance to see the situation involving guns in the USA from his and a broad spectrum of other's, perspectives.

Unlike Fahrenheit 9/11, which had me weeping five seperate times for short periods, "Columbine" knocked my socks off in one fell swoop, with footage from the Columbine (Colorado) High School library taken during the murder spree at the high school several years ago. It's truly horrifying to hear the cell phone conversation between a teacher locked up in the crowded library, frantically begging for help from the 911 emergency operator and to hear that "they" are coming closer and then to see a large cluster of kids surge away from the doors that the murderers are shooting their way in through. The children dive under tables as their executioners relentlessly pursue them. The tape of the carnage must only go on for a couple of minutes, but that was plenty long for me to be grief-stricken and sobbing.

Later in the film, Moore visits with two surviving Columbine massacre victims, one paralyzed for life. They both had 19 cent K-Mart bullets lodged in various parts of their bodies, where they will stay forever.
Both these kids were torn up so bad--at best they'll regain but a semblance of their former lives. And what if K-Mart hadn't made those non-hunting-type bullets available? What if we had gun control similar to developed western countries like Canada or the many countries in Europe or in Japan--with next to no murder rate?
Moore asked again and again throughout the movie, "What makes Americans so different that we can't seem to stop murdering one another?"
Charlton Heston ventured a guess (a flimsy excuse, really) " This country has a bloody history."
Yeah, and if he has it his way we'll have a bloody future as well.

Bushwhacked Twice In One Weekend!

Another WTF?! moment brought to you by our Commander and Thief.

US 'may delay vote if attacked'

Security is a major issue in the upcoming US elections (Yeah heh, sure it is--THE SECURITY OF BUSH'S JOB is a major issue.)
By Justin Webb
BBC Washington correspondent

The Bush administration is reported to be investigating the possibility of postponing the presidential election in the event of a terror attack. The White House will neither confirm or deny the report, which suggests Congress might be asked to grant the powers to the election commission.

It is not clear where the final decision would be taken in the event of a terror attack.

However, a senior Democrat in Congress has signalled her opposition.

Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said such a proposal would be "excessive based on what we know".

She also criticised the suggestion last week from Tom Ridge, the Homeland Security Secretary, that al-Qaeda was planning to disrupt the election.

That warning was based on old information, she added.

The Democrats' unspoken fear is that the White House will play on the nerves of Americans as the election nears, and hope to gain support from a nation fearful of any change in course.

It is a difficult strategy for the Democrats to counter.

If they appeared complacent and the terrorists did strike, they would be politically destroyed.

And we hadn't yet caught our breath from another blatant diversionary tactic the Bushies tossed out on Friday:

Bush military records destroyed

Documents that could have decided a dispute over President George W Bush's days in the military 30 years ago have been destroyed, the Pentagon says. Microfilm containing the pertinent payroll records for the Texas-based Air National Guard had been damaged and could not be salvaged, it said.

Democrats have accused the president of ducking the draft call to Vietnam in favour of less dangerous duties.

The White House has released some records in a bid to refute the charges.

'No back-up copies'

The destroyed files included President Bush's pay records for two three-month periods in 1969 and 1972, a Department of Defence statement said.

"Searches for back-up paper copies of the missing records were unsuccessful," it added.

The 1969 period is not contentious for Mr Bush, as it is already known he was training to be a pilot at the time.

But in 1972 he moved to Alabama to work on a political campaign, and opponents say he failed to turn up for guard duties during this time.

'Beyond doubt'

The lost records might have thrown some light on whether he fulfilled his legal commitment.

Doubts were first raised nationally about Mr Bush's service during the 2000 presidential campaign and the issue has resurfaced as Mr Bush fights for re-election.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, has said Mr Bush must come clean on what he did.

A White House spokeswoman has said the documents already released prove beyond doubt that President Bush "fulfilled his duties in the National Guard at the time".

'Inadvertent destruction'

The microfilm containing the records apparently disintegrated as staff were trying to preserve it from decay.

The loss was announced by the Pentagon's Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review in letters responding to media demands for full access to Mr Bush's records.

"The Defence Finance and Accounting Service has advised of the inadvertent destruction of microfilm containing certain National Guard payroll records," said the letter, signed by the office's chief C Y Talbott.

It added that in 1996 and 1997 the microfilm records of "numerous service members" from the first quarter of 1969 and the third quarter of 1972 were ruined - Mr Bush's among them.

Mr Bush trained as a pilot while a member of the Texas and Alabama air national guard but never flew in combat.

He left the national guard in 1973 with an honourable discharge to attend Harvard Business School.

Stunning Images From Saturn's Probe or Cassini-Huygens Boldy Goes Where No Spacecraft (Of Ours) Has Gone Before

By Richard Black
BBC science correspondent
(I was raised on a diet of Star Trek. Space matter* gets me excited.)

The UV images show interior rings of red "dirt"

The Cassini-Huygens mission which reached Saturn last week has sent back startling images of the planet's famous rings viewed in ultraviolet light.
The pictures processed by University of Colorado researchers depict the famous feature in shades of turquoise and red.

The different colours are indications of the rings' varied composition.

Cassini scientists say the spacecraft's four-year tour of the Saturnian system may tell them how the rings formed and if they are just a temporary feature.

Space scientists refer to the rings by letter, listing the major regions (from the inside) D, C, B, A, F, G, E. Cassini-Huygens actually passed between F and G when it arrived at the planet on 1 July.

Images taken during that orbit insertion by Cassini's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph show up details the spacecraft's two main cameras cannot detect looking in the visible part of the spectrum.

The red indicates sparser ringlets believed to be made of particles that are "dirty" and possibly smaller than those in the denser, icier ringlets, which are shown in turquoise.

A faint stream of material appears to connect the F ring to Prometheus, the white blob at the bottom (Nasa/JPL/SSI)

The dirt probably contains silicates and organic material, scientists say. The ice is likely to be a mixture of water and other substances such as ammonia.

Some of this dirt seems to be the same material which dominates the surface of the outer moon Phoebe, adding weight to the theory that the rings formed from the demolition of a previous moon.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is living up to its billing, delighting researchers with the quality and abundance of data it is able to return to Earth.

The spacecraft has shown how the rings ripple and shimmy - in one image, the thin outer F-ring snakes across the Saturn sky like a newly cracked whip.

"We knew there was a pair of moons, one on each side, that were somehow interacting with the ring," says Professor Carl Murray from Queen Mary University of London.

"So I was sitting looking at the images, and I noticed that there appeared to be like a stream of material coming from the F-ring to the inner of the two moons, Prometheus," he says.

Outer rings, shown in turquoise, contain more ice

"That was confirmation of a theory that had been produced over four years ago; that's very satisfying."

Saturn's biggest moon, Titan, is believed to be the only body in the Solar System other than Earth with liquid on the surface.

Cassini has already been able to peer through its dense clouds, photographing a large crater, deposits of ice, and lines and circles of unknown origin.

The images of Titan and Phoebe are strangely reminiscent of photos of the Earth and our own Moon, taken decades ago by the earliest space missions.

They are so clear that you struggle to remember that they are coming from a distance of one-and-a-half-billion km.

* Space matter on celluloid, too. For a Really Good Time (in the USA), pencil in 4.22.05 to go to the movies.

Firefly Fan Art

Joys Of DIY

It was a rainy, busy day.
And odd.
Spouse was given the day off by his nice boss to install a new water heater. Our old one must've been the original and that means it was over 25 years old. We were practically rationing hot water, so the install was a necessity. Small problem though. Spouse is not a plumber, so until he went to a second Home Depot and talked to the Manager of Plumbing, we were waterless. :/ Ooh, how dependent we are, on our utilities.
Fortunately, we still have all those giant bottles of H2O around that the Dept. of Homeland Security told us to keep in case of of terrorist attack (hey, at least we didn't stock up on duct tape).
Then I realized the hose and sprayer for spouse's gardens were just outside and they had lots of water, so all was good. Spouse finally got the heater properly installed after about 7-8 hours of working on it. Oh, the joys of DIY!

While all the fun was going on, I printed out some of the pics from the 7/4 parade to give to people from the place I volunteer who were in the parade. When cruised over to the charity store, the mentally disabled man who was the Grand Marshall just happend to be next door at corporate and the CEO happened to stop in whilst folks were gathered 'round checking out the pics, so he took the
8X11 glossy over to give him and I'm told he was quite happy about it.
The other pic (the rest I had burned to disc) was of a co-worker of my son's in the parade with a client, and they framed and hung it in the front of the store. So lots of good vibes there.

TTFN,

--Cyn

Is Fahrenheit 9/11 Flawed?

Courtesy of The Onion

Coincidence? I Think Not

When I clicked open the NYTimes news email today, I found two stories that immediately struck me as inter-related--the decrease in people who read books and the increase in the availability of wi-fi access (and access to "portable" technology in general).

The commonality? Before we had high-tech gadgets, what did we do whilst we killed time on the train, bus, ferry, at the airport? Sometimes we engaged in conversation with a nearby passenger, but just as often we read a newspaper/magazine or book.
What is happening today? Take a look around you. Or maybe, at yourself.

A survey by the National Endowment for the Arts finds a precipitous downward trend in book consumption by Americans.
Fewer Noses Stuck in Books in America, Survey Finds

The survey, called "Reading at Risk," is based on data from "The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts," conducted by the Census Bureau in 2002. Among its findings are that fewer than half of Americans over 18 now read novels, short stories, plays or poetry; that the consumer pool for books of all kinds has diminished; and that the pace at which the nation is losing readers, especially young readers, is quickening. In addition it finds that the downward trend holds in virtually all demographic areas.

Destination Wi-Fi, by Rail, Bus or Boat
Now that wireless Internet access is common in coffee bars and restaurants, can trains and buses be far behind? A look at the first tests of Wi-Fi access for commuters.

In the United States, nearly six million people commute daily by public transportation, according to the Department of Transportation. Few operators offer wireless Internet access in their stations and terminals - much less on board - even though it is now routinely found in many airports, hotels and coffee shops. But trials and planning are under way in several countries to determine the technical feasibility of offering mobile Internet access, and whether commuters will ultimately pay for the privilege.

Providing Internet access on vessels and vehicles is not as simple as adding it to a fixed venue, like a restaurant or even a convention center. Boats, buses and trains have metal skins or hulls that block wireless signals. They move, often at average speeds of 20 to 100 miles per hour, requiring a system that can rapidly and seamlessly hand off a signal. And they could have large numbers of simultaneous users, many of whom are already working on laptops during the voyage.

However, one story made me hopeful:
Microsoft on the Trail of Google

Microsoft has updated its Web search engine and offered the first look at its effort to create an even more powerful one. Can it leap past Google and Yahoo?

It must be fun to walk through the Microsoft parking lot, reading the bumper stickers on the cars. Can you imagine what they must say? "Honk if you love monopolies." "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean we're not out to get you." "My other car is a Hummer, too."

But the lawyers' bumper stickers probably say, "You can't copyright an idea." Despite its admirable if largely unsuccessful recent efforts to pioneer product categories - wireless watches, wireless screens and so on - Microsoft's greatest hits have been clones of other people's successful work, including Windows (based on the Macintosh), Pocket PC (PalmPilot) and Internet Explorer (Netscape Navigator).

Last week, Microsoft identified the object of its latest obsession: Google, the No. 1 Internet search page. (Google, you may recall, is preparing for an initial stock offering with an estimated value of $25 billion. Nobody bats around numbers like that without attracting Microsoft's attention.)

For years, Microsoft's own Web search page, MSN Search, has finished a distant third place in the search-engine popularity wars (behind Google and Yahoo). The company's new plan is apparently to remake MSN Search in Google's image.

Why do I feel optimistic? Take a look at what comes up when one types "Cyn City" into Microsoft's updated search engine.

I am first in results, ahead of City National Corp! (whoever they are). Guess I should savor my 5 minutes, huh?

What Have I Been Doing?

This!

Birth Of Venus ~ Alexandre Cabanel

Yesterday was really hectic so today, besides chauffeuring Chris to his "safari simulation" class at the local college and doing a bit of house keeping, I've spent my time redesigning my web page. All I had to do was pick the templates, chose the art work and size it, and customize the colour scheme for the fonts and background, etc. Sounds so simple. I spent the longest time picking the art, as it was to be my banner so it needed to be horizontal. There were plenty of beautiful pieces, but they just weren't the right shape. I like what I settled on though--Birth Of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel.

Well, I need to get my Independence Day photos organized and put into an album on-line, as well as burning them to disc, so I shall sign off.

Catching Up

Independence Day Parade, Rolling Meadows, IL
I'll get the rest of the pics up soon.

So it's 12:40 and I'm here in front of the screen...

The weekend was super. Driving the Grand Marshall in the parade was weird & wonderful. The town is small-ish--pop. about 35,000 and though it's not my official town of residence, I do so much *stuff* there that it may as well be (sorta). It's small enough for example, that my car gets recognized and I've gotten to the point that I don't worry about seeing the police, 'cause they know it's just a middle-aged broad that knows enough to behave herself driving through suburban streets (let's not get into how fast I go when I escape the 'burbs).

So we were the first car in the parade--a couple of emergency vehicles were blaring directly in front of us. "Us" was me driving and the mentally disabled man who was the Parade Marshall, and an aide from the agency.
I did have fun watching the people watch the parade from my unique perspective. But, I was worried about the two guys sitting up on the top of the back seats falling off and worried too about hitting kids running in the streets to get candy.
Geez Louise, candy has become such a big deal--it seems to take precedence over the other good stuff in a parade.
Anyway, it was cool, but just the start of a full day. After I finished my chauffer gig, we went to my sis and bro-in-law's annual July 4 pool/barbeque party. All day long the weather had been iffy--will it or won't it rain?--but as the party progressed it seem solidly in the "no rain" category. After leaving the party, we went home for a few minutes (let dog out, change clothes, get bug spray) before heading to the fireworks. We choose a spot we hadn't gone to in several years and as is our tradition, brought sparklers to play with until the fireworks stated.
Great fun and family time from start to finish.

I don't garden but all of you that do have my admiration--it's work isn't it, but satisfying and relaxing, right?
Working with my photographs is a way I relax. I took a lot of pictures at the parade, including many of the various participants (bands, etc.) and I worked on all of them so I can burn them to CD and give them to the people that take care of the Grand Marshall.
I was surprised that they came out as well as they did. Most needed only a bit of cropping--some not even that. Unfortunately as I mentioned, it was an overcast day, esp. early on, so the "backdrop" of the sky is quite dark and I needed to lighten them too, and of course chop down the pixel count for on-line posting./end of good news

Things are still really bad with my oldest son. I believe most of his behaviour is a direct result of the stress of having a girlfriend that abuses amphetamines. I don't blame her. She was brought up and still lives with a woman obsessed with her own weight and who takes every opportunity to tell her (now) teen-age daughter what a fat pig the daughter is (the girl is tall and can't weigh more than 120 pounds).
As someone who has had actual weight problems I find this ludicrous, but I understand the psychology of it. Nevertheless, my son's gf needs to get off the (illegal) drugs and get help in dealing with her body image issues. Because being with her has sent my son from steadily improving to taking a giant step backward, I can't condone the relationship. He has confided that he knows it won't last, but he sure has let the relationship make a mess of his head. He went off on me last night while I was cleaning and after being called every swear word he could think of as well as being branded "a bad mother," I heaved the almost-empty plastic bottle of Windex at him. I made contact, too and I have to admit, I'm glad.
My husband (perhaps wisely) does not care to get involved-- but after a while, I can't handle Jim's rantings. I asked, then told him to leave me alone and when he wouldn't that's when the Windex bottle went flying. Again, the youngest was well out of sight, but the whole situation reminds me of the bad 'ol days. I really don't need or want fighting going on in my home and plenty has been done already to affect my younger son--that is my biggest concern. Right now, things are fine as Jim is at work, but when he walks in the door, I tense up. We are going to have to figure out a solution--kicking him out is fine--except having co-signed on his (now repossessed) car that monthly payments are being made on. It really is a matter of weighing what matters more--peace of mind or credit rating--because we simply can't swing taking on the extra car payment. Farking up our credit rating screws with my peace of mind--as would the creditors calling (I've been through all that more than once) so it's a trade-off but very soon there'll be no choice. The already-heated situation is escalating and something (or someone) will give soon.

Right now though, I need to get to work & volunteer, then I'm hoping for a stress-reducing swim.
I hope everyone is having a really good (or better) day/evening.

TTFN,

--Cyn

Independence Day Parade, Rolling Meadows, IL

Independence Day parade, Rolling Meadows, IL "David"-- a client and representative of Clearbrook Rehabilitation Center and Parade Grand Marshall--riding in back of my Mustang GT convertible. :D My son, Chris helped carry the Clearbrook banner and a flag. He said his feet hurt after the mile and a half long walk. I had a cramp in my calf from trying to keep the Mustang in first gear the whole way. :/ We both had a lot of fun though--a unique experience which I highly recommend should you get the opportunity.

My Cell Phone Induces Orgasm Also cooks perfect eggs, IMs with Jesus, will marry your ugly cousin. How about yours?

Though there's a bit of padding to this piece, overall he nails the inherent hilarity in our relationship with our cellphones.

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, July 2, 2004

Digital cameras in cell phones? Video capability? Built-in walkie-talkies? Four hundred distinct voice mailboxes, each with customizable polyphonic ring tones and a personalized greeting and special high-definition digital screen effects that light up and pulse and spin? Whatever.
You know what? We deserve a little bit more.

We need phones with features that fulfill real desires in the human animal. Phones that don't just claim they do it all, but actually do, and with lots of lube and laughter and excellent mortgage rates and minimal bloodletting or cleanup. Nokia, get on this. I am so not kidding.

Because cell phones today? Claim they do everything. Claim they scrub the ..damn sink. Claim they are so gloriously feature packed you couldn't possibly add another feature or they'd burst wide open in a screaming cataclysmic blinking gurgling mess. In other words, phones today lie their beeping asses off.

It's true. We all know cell phones are packed mostly with wild telecom hype, all beeps and chirps and bells and whistles, when the damn thing's really only truly good for locating your lost husband in the meat aisle of Costco or ordering Thai takeout on your way home ... or calling everyone in your address book from your seat in the back of the café because you're bored and jaded and you think it makes you sound important and besides you paid for all those ...damn minutes so dammit, you're gonna use 'em.

To which I say, big freakin' deal.

I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 today and it absolutely kicked ass.

I'd just finished Michael Moore's book, Dude, Where's My Country? (written one year ago), so I was primed for some of the film, but nothing could have prepared me for some of the visuals & dialog.

Love him or hate him, Michael Moore has some sound points. Indisputable points.

He loves this country and it's people and he makes that point very clearly.

But we've been duped by Bush and Company and we need to take America back. We start by getting that smirking fool out of the White House.
We, the people need to get off our asses and get involved in helping to bring about changes that will put us on the road to mending all the bridges Bush has burned.

Do you know that Shrub's dad, Geo H.W. Bush (#41 president) gets fully briefed by the CIA every bloody day? I had no idea as he himself when asked early in Shrub's presidency about whether he gives sonny-boy any advice, demurely stated that he "tries to hang back and let (Dubya) be. "
Yeah, right.
Few ex-presidents choose to continue with the briefings once they leave office, but not George the Elder. He's in a huge conflict-of-interest position with his work in the private sector (oil and other businesses) and no one is batting an eye.

There was so much in this film that is just so incredibly outrageous and we just sit and take it.

Michael Moore is barely in the film, BTW. When he's talking--the camera is usually trained on his subject and he's allowing him/her a wide berth to say what they need to.

Just An Average Day

A friend on a bb that I visit, who has some farked-up situations on her hands, mentioned today that
"joy can be found (in each day)".
A good portion of my day was joyful, but there were some dark moments around dinner time.

The long and short of it is that my 21-y.o. flipped out. He'd done some annoying things earlier today that he does all the time (one--takes my bath towel--literally gone from the bathroom. The bathroom is very tiny so there's no room for spare clean towels in there. If one discovers whilst showering that her towel is gone, she must get clothed and venture to the LR to retrieve a new one from the cedar chest. Two--he also, for about the zillionth time, used all the the Capri Sun juice drink (Strawberry Kiwi flavour) and didn't throw a new carton of it--which is very handy--steps away--in to replace it. I wanted to have a cold Capri Sun as I was running out the door to catch the 2:40 showing of Fahrenheit 9/11. Anyway, I was telling my spouse over Chinese take-out that I was annoyed by these things and my son came in the house and walked in the room and said, What? And I said Nevermind--I just keep repeating myself. And he got belligerent and told me to something with f*ck in it.
For once, I'm glad that the youngest had rushed through his meal and was in his room with the door closed, glued to his new Yu-gi-oh game.

Arghhh! I'm mad at myself but I kept it under control even though he threw a wet towel in my face and I got my wrist smacked hard several times. Yeah, he got physical, so on to the better times today...

The movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was phenomenal. Since I've written of it already in another post today, I won't say much here. My almost 12-yr old son wanted to see it, so it was us two. We made a "see a movie a week" plan for the summer--the theatre gives a kid's pack drink, small candy, and super-small popcorn for free if he reads three books a week and makes note of them and I sign it. Good deal, huh?

I found out only when I checked for the playing times that F-9/11 is rated R! So I talked to him about it beforehand and told him that it had both gruesome, very funny moments, and very sad as well. (Chris cried once, as a dead soldier's last letter home was haltingly read by his grief-stricken mother. I cried in about 5 places, including that one.)

We hit the library after the film--he's doing a summer reading thingie--gets little prizes, then a T-shirt at the end. I should be doing the program too but erm, I'm not a joiner. :/ Since I'm all revved up about changing the world (ok, the country) I checked out the book-on-CD, Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them. I do so much bopping around in the car that getting a book on CD is a quick and dirty way to "read" it. Besides, it's nice to have someone read to me. ;)

I was very hungry by dinnertime, and the salad shrimp egg rolls were yummy, as was the crab Rangoon.
Since then, I've read the paper and am now going through all the computer stuff. Here is second in priority, atm.

I try to keep up with my blogger-friend's weblogs--I get to them all (I think) sooner or later, but by the time I get through writing mine--usually I'm needing to move on.

There'll be at least two parades for us this weekend--one to watch (for my younger son and spouse--I won't get up early enough to go, bad me) and one to be in (need to be there at the respectable hour of 12 noon) and fireworks and a pool party/barbecue, so it'll be full.
I plan on enjoying myself. Hope you all do, too!

Ciao, 8)
--Cyn

Museum Of Moving Images: Bookmark This Page!

Mrs. John F. Kennedy, speaking Spanish in a campaign commercial for her husband.

You must check out The Museum Of Moving Images online. And keep checking back to view the presidential candidate's new ads as the election comes down to the wire. Can anything be more frightening than the fixed, steely stare of Nancy Reagan? Tune in and find out.
Museum Of Moving Images

Showing Candidates, as They Praise Themselves and Bury Others
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: July 1, 2004
SOURCE

The scariest campaign ad in modern presidential history is not the "Willie Horton" commercial that George H. W. Bush used against Michael Dukakis in 1988 or Lyndon B. Johnson's legendary "Daisy" ad of 1964 that fanned fears about Barry Goldwater.

It is the one with Nancy Reagan, in a demure red suit and navy ruffled collar, staring frostily into the camera in a 1980 ad against Jimmy Carter.

"I deeply, deeply resent and am offended by the attacks that President Carter has made on my husband," she said in a tight, reproachful voice. "I would like Mr. Carter to explain to me why the inflation is as high as it is; why unemployment is as high as it is; I would like to have him explain the vacillating, weak foreign policy so that our friends overseas don't know what we're going to do, whether we're going to stand up for them, or whether we're not going to stand up for them."

Even the harshest of President Bush's ads this year criticizing Senator John Kerry's voting record on defense are not as chilling.

Wives are so often used to soften a candidate's profile that it is easy to forget that 24 years ago Mrs. Reagan was sometimes deployed as a Bob Dole-style attack dog. And it is that kind of amnesia that "The Living Room Candidate," an online exhibition on presidential campaign ads (movingimage.us), was designed to combat.

Created four years ago by the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, the updated 2004 version, which is scheduled to go online today, allows Internet users to browse through a far richer collection of TV and Web campaign ads from 1952 to the present.

It is a truism that political campaigns nowadays are fought and won on television, but it is also true that at this point in the campaign some of the most talked-about ads are being shown only in swing states like Ohio or Florida. The Web site allows New Yorkers and Californians to see how the other half are being wooed.

It also gives Internet users easy access to the current campaign's Web ads, which are more prevalent and troubling this election year than ever before. The Web site, for example, has the original version of a recent Bush Internet ad, "Coalition of the Wild-Eyed," which blended Democratic figures like Al Gore and Howard Dean with images of Hitler. After the Kerry campaign and others complained last week, the ad was re-edited by the Bush campaign to make it clearer that the Hitler images were taken from an anti-Bush ad posted on the Web site of MoveOn .org, the political advocacy group. (The Bush ad does not explain that the attack ad with Hitler's image was not adopted by either the Kerry campaign or MoveOn.org, but was posted only as one of hundreds of entries in an Internet contest seeking anti-Bush commercials.)

The Bush campaign Web site now includes only the amended version, but "The Living Room Candidate" allows viewers to link to it and compare it with the original.

"The Living Room Candidate" is more than just a helpful tool for news addicts and journalists. Campaign ads are "mini-movies," as David Schwartz, the museum's chief curator of film and a co-curator of "The Living Room Candidate," put it: they do not just deliver the message of the moment but also reflect the mood and tastes of their era.

A 1968 Nixon ad reveling in Democratic Party chaos, for instance, is a wordless montage of the Chicago convention, Vietnam and civil unrest, set to a daffily jaunty rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again." It is a strange, and strangely effective ad that Mr. Schwartz described as "very avant-garde" and stylistically close to a popular variety show of the time, "Laugh-In."

The ads for John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign are very much of their time, too — cinéma vérité-style glimpses of the candidate explaining his positions to admiring crowds. But one ad is more unusual: Jacqueline Kennedy asking viewers in Spanish to vote for her husband: "Que viva Kennedy!" Mrs. Kennedy's accent was quite good, but her voice was as breathy in Spanish as it was in English, and she seems quite stiff reading a cue card while standing in front of surprisingly ugly wallpaper.

The Web site has a search option, so that users can, for example, search for the word "sex" from 1952 to 2004. It does not come up, though Bob Dole did mention Paula Jones's "sexual harassment lawsuit" in a 1996 attack ad against Bill Clinton. (Like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," with its film of President Bush on the links encouraging reporters to "watch this drive," the ad uses a shot of President Clinton swinging a golf club to suggest dereliction of duty.)

This year's ads are far fiercer and more negative than those from 2000. Then, one Al Gore ad showed the vice president politely endorsing his opponent's views: "George Bush and I actually agree on accountability in education." And reflecting the spread of the Internet, MTV, cable TV news crawls and other attention-dividing forms of communication, today's ads cram much more information into ever shorter spaces. A seemingly soft and fuzzy Kerry ad titled "Optimists" uses split screens and quick cuts to flash a wide array of issues, from jobs and education to health care and national defense.

But it is remarkable how unoriginal so many of today's high-tech, tightly honed ads really are. Just as Hollywood cannot resist a remake — anything from "King Kong" to "The Parent Trap" — political ads also cannibalize the past.

A 2004 Bush ad called "Defense," specially made for Florida voters, shows a sepia-tinted battleground. As the narrator lists weapons that Mr. Kerry voted against — "Apache helicopters, C-130 Hercules and F-16 fighter jets, components of which are all built here in Florida" — tanks and missiles vanish through the magic of computer graphics. The ad ends with the image of a forlorn-looking soldier and a narrator's voice intoning, "Kerry even voted against body armor for our troops on the front line of the War on Terror."

In 1972, the Nixon campaign ran an ad about Senator George McGovern's proposed defense cuts. As a narrator warned — "He would cut the Marines by one-third, the Air Force by one-third. He'd cut Navy personnel by one-fourth" — a hand swept toy soldiers and miniature tanks and ships off the screen.

Talking Dogs: Funny Or Evil?

Who can resist dogs that speak English (albeit with a funny accent)?
Not me.
Via Anil (best links) Dash and he lifted from
the most excellent Dollarshort.org, I present for your amusement:

Talking Dogs