Forever A Fangirl

Late to the show

Hello people!

We have another bright, sunny day--which generally means my temperment is the same.

Was going to check-in here last night but Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith ran really late for a 7:45 p.m. show. There were about a billion previews for the summer blockbuster wanna-bes. War of the Worlds was about the only one to tweak my interest--but it does star Tom Cruise--I'd have to overlook that. "Revenge of the Sith," like a friend who had seen it said, "didn't suck," but I'm not enough of a fan-girl to overlook the dreadful script, wooden acting, and bad direction.
Yes, the last 30 minutes were good but that doesn't say much for the rest.
And as a aesthetically-oriented person I could throttle Lucas for inserting so many screen wipes--they just looked bad...grrr.
As an aside, the first comment my younger son made was that this movie made him want to see the others again. I said sure--but no Episode II for me.

--Cyn

Dismaying News For Fans Of "The Bean"

"When I created Cloud Gate, I was asked to make something that would last for a thousand years," he said in a faxed statement. "In that context, I hope that this brief period will not seem significant." ~ Anish Kapoor

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/lake/chi-0505260152may26,1,34349.story

Can't rush a perfect Bean

The Cloud Gate sculpture sits partially covered Wednesday afternoon in Millennium Park.
(Tribune Photo by John Lee) Many more "Bean" scenes here:
http://cyncity.typepad.com/photos/cyn_city_millenium_park_c/
 

With work at snail's pace, sculpture under wraps for much of the summer

By Charles Sheehan
Tribune staff reporter

   May 26, 2005

Cloud Gate, the massive bean-shaped sculpture that the city had hoped to unveil Memorial Day weekend in Millennium Park, may not be completed until the end of the summer, park officials said Wednesday.

It became clear about two weeks ago that buffing out seams between 168 polished, stainless steel plates that make up the 110-ton sculpture was far more labor-intensive than originally had been thought, said park officials.

Most of the sculpture, affectionately called "The Bean," will remain obscured from view for several months. The northern end of the piece will be uncovered and the tent covering the rest of the sculpture will be removed gradually as additional sections are polished.

"It is our goal that the entire project will be completed by the end of the summer or possibly sooner," said Lyle Hill, president of MTH Industries, which is polishing and sanding the steel plates. "However, it is difficult to gauge an accurate completion date since this is such an extremely demanding project."

The cost of the extended work, which is being funded with private and corporate donations, is not known, said Robert A. Wislow, chairman and CEO of U.S. Equities, the firm retained by Millennium Park Inc. to manage the project.

The Bean became a hit with the public when it was briefly exposed, even before the seams had been polished. In January, the sculpture was covered in a tent for the polishing.

Planners on Wednesday were trying to put a positive spin on news that the Bean, the crown jewel of Millennium Park, will not be completed as Chicago's tourist season kicks into high gear.

By Friday, about 20 percent of the sculpture will be visible as workers reconfigure the tent.

Visitors will be able to touch the northern portion and kiosks will be built near the west side of the Bean so that people can watch as the work is completed, Wislow said.

Plexiglas and clear plastic windows on the north side of the tent will allow visitors to peer inside, he said.

"It may prove to be more interesting this summer to some people who will get to see how this unprecedented piece of artwork is being created," Wislow said. "There are going to be people using harnesses and hanging down to do some of the work. Others will be below, on their backs polishing the underside. It's something that most people will never get to see in their lifetime."

The draw of Cloud Gate, even obscured by scaffolding and canvas, was evident Wednesday as dozens of people stood at its northern end and gaped at the city skyline reflected in polished steel.

City officials also were trying to see the good in what has become the latest component of Millennium Park to fall behind schedule.

Millennium Park was supposed to open in 2000 at a cost of $150 million. It opened four years late at more than triple that cost.

Backers had initially said the project would pay for itself with proceeds coming from the Millennium Parking garage, though that has not happened.

The expected contribution from city funds has ballooned from $120 million, to $270 million. About $100 million has been raised through a special taxing fund.

The city views the new delay for the Bean as relatively minor.

"We're disappointed that it's not going to be fully unveiled, but at the same time, visitors are going to be able to see it partially exposed and they get to experience the process as Cloud Gate is completed," said Karen Ryan, spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

It is hoped that the rest of Millennium Park, along with scheduled concerts and other events, will prove to be enough of a draw that tourism will not be affected, she said.

Over There/"In Memoriam, Part I"

Is this guy right? Do Americans no longer care about the Iraq war and who gets killed or maimed ( physically/emotionally)??
Because he had me nodding by the third sentence, "Most of the time, we don't even notice anymore."
You should at least care.You should at least "notice." This is your country. These are your people. You are financing this awful situation.
You should at least care.

Op-Ed, NYTImes
May 30, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/dxdzc

Over There

    By KEVIN C. JONES  

Carmichael, Calif.

ON this Memorial Day, more than two years after the invasion of Iraq, American troops are still fighting and dying. Their deaths have become a staple of the evening news, a permanent column on the front page. Most of the time, we don't even notice anymore. Until death touches someone we know, or someone we used to be.

On the morning of Jan. 26, while I rush my daughters through their bowls of cereal, brush their hair and get them ready for school, I learn that a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter has crashed in western Iraq, killing 31 men. Twenty-six of them are part of my old unit: Company C, First Battalion, Third Marine Regiment, stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay.

Later, at work, I struggle to explain how surreal it is to learn that marines from the infantry company I served with in the Persian Gulf war have been killed in this one. I sit at my desk, processing insurance claims, surrounded by gray cubicle walls instead of sandbags and dirt, behind a computer instead of a machine gun, thinking about the business card from the recruiter tucked in my wallet. He says there's a slot for me in a reserve unit if I want it, and that I'd get a chance to go overseas again, to be part of something larger and greater than myself. To go to the war. I think about what my daughters would say if I told them that I'm leaving, and that I might not come back. I wonder how to justify it to myself if I don't go.

My co-worker looks over at me from his desk and says, "Did you know any of them?"

No, I didn't know them.

What I know is the base where they lived. The way they ran up K.T., Kansas Tower, this giant hill in the middle of the base, gasping all the way to the top. I know the view from the apex, overlooking the vivid blue of Kaneohe Bay, a rainbow in the background. I know how good a cool breeze felt when they reached the top, after running past the flight line, beyond the beach where their leg muscles burned and their feet sank into soft, warm sand. I know what drives a marine, at the end of his endurance, choking back vomit as the battalion runs in a huge formation, to suddenly break ranks and run to the man carrying the Colors, the battalion flag, and take it from him, sprinting around 800 marines in a giant circle before returning it and dropping back in line. I know what they smelled like when they were sweating out the beer they drank the night before.

But I didn't know them.

I know what they felt like when they were released on liberty at 1600 on a Friday afternoon. How much time it took to iron their clothes and clean up for a night out. I know how many guys can be squeezed into a subcompact car, piling on top of each other for a ride down to Waikiki Beach and Kalakaua Avenue. I know what it's like to spend an entire paycheck in 48 hours, buying drinks for impossibly beautiful women from all over the world who all seem to be in the same bar on the same night.

I know the feeling of being thousands of miles from home, afraid because war is coming soon, and then a girl smiles and, for a moment, everything is O.K. I know how a woman like that can make the toughest marine feel 16 again, kissing a girl for the first time. I know how to get all the way across the island back to the base from Waikiki, or Honolulu, with no money and only the other guys in my platoon to help me. I know what it is to become brothers with men you never would have met in the civilian world, and to remember them for years after they're gone.

But I didn't know them.

I know what it feels like to patrol for days without sleep in Molokai, and at Schofield Barracks and Camp Pendleton; in Okinawa, and the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. I know the industrial claustrophobia of being on a ship, packed in with 40 other marines in a space the size of a studio apartment. The smells, the jokes, the way the surface of the helicopter flight deck cuts into your palms when you do push-ups. I know what it's like to comfort marines when their wives or girlfriends leave them with only a note and a bogus explanation and they want answers, but there aren't any.

But I didn't know them.

I know what it's like to ride in a CH-53 helicopter. The way it shimmies as it thunders over the terrain below, a crouched panther waiting to strike, marines in the back, heads bowed, trying to catch some sleep, never knowing when they might get another chance to rest. Marines dreaming of their families, of home.

No, I didn't know the marines who died, but I miss them just the same. I go to work each day, safe in my cubicle, checking the news for word of the war dead, looking for friends and thinking about that recruiter's card in my wallet.

Kevin C. Jones served as a marine from 1990 to 1994.

 

Hey all

Hey all,

I've been in snarky frame of mind-- just seem to be dealing with lots of negatives (though I sailed through my visit with the shrink today. Think it was a new record of in and out--the actual visit maybe 3 1/2 minutes ). Trying to turn them into positives or failing that, just get through them. Mixed success.

Thought I'd say Aloha (the kid and I were just perusing the Frommer's books on Hawai'i that I ordered from Amazon). He wants to go to a release-the-giant-turtles-fest on July 4 on Oahu, but I'm afraid we'll not be there quite then. It sounds like fun times. I told him if he wants to go back, start saving. This is really hokey, but I believe it--if you have a wish that's humanly possible--work towards it. It may take a while but you'll get there (it can be any kind of goal, not only financial). Oh-oh. Mustn't let the optimist that still resides deep inside out for too long.

So have a nice three-day weekend a/k/a Memorial Day, those of you that have the time off--I suppose we should give a thought to those that have died as well as the ones that continue to fight in our name.

"It may look like war but it's peacekeeping."

"It may look like war but it's peacekeeping."
~Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye of Senegal, the force commander in Congo, of the largest and most robust of the 18 United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world.

http://tinyurl.com/c8wme

The Queen's Flower Girl Lies In Wait

Brynn Noble lies in front of the Queen as she leaves church with the Bishop of Edmonton

http://tinyurl.com/8ls69

When you are two years old, waiting patiently for the Queen can be a tiresome business. Brynn Noble had been given a flower to present to the Queen who was attending Sunday service in a mountain town in the Canadian Rockies.

As the smiling monarch walked slowly out of St Mary and St George's Anglican church in Jasper yesterday, Brynn decided enough was enough. She toddled into the Queen's path, and lay down.

The Queen, accompanied by the Rt Rev Victoria Matthews, the first female bishop to lead the Queen in a church service, was forced to step around her, while Prince Philip roared with laughter behind.

Unfazed, little Brynn continued to roll at the Queen's feet, before finally sticking her tongue out and scampering back to her parents, Maggie and Todd.

"We told her to wait for the Queen and she had hold of a flower for her," said her mother.

"But she decided to break free from the crowd and just lay down to wait. The Queen seemed to think it was very amusing."

Remarks by British MP Goerge Galloway to US Senate Committee

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction.                               I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda.                               I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001.                               I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning. Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

This is the first chance that I've had to fully read Goerge
Galloway's  remarks to to the US Senate on May 17. I know that British politics is not necessarily any less corrupt and foul-smelling than American, but certainly the succinct and powerful way British MP Galloway answers "charges" against him by members of the US Senate makes for a compelling counterpoint to much of the hot air generated by many of our representatives.

Remarks by British MP Goerge Galloway to US Senate Committee, May 17, 2005

"Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader. and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one - and neither has anyone on my behalf.

"Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice. I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice.

"Now I want to deal with the pages that relate to me in this dossier and I want to point out areas where there are - let's be charitable and say errors. Then I want to put this in the context where I believe it ought to be. On the very first page of your document about me you assert that I have had 'many meetings' with Saddam Hussein. This is false.

"I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, once in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as "many meetings" with Saddam Hussein.

"As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defence made of his.

"I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and Americans governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas. I used to demonstrate outside the Iraqi embassy when British and American officials were going in and doing commerce.

"You will see from the official parliamentary record, Hansard, from the 15th March 1990 onwards, voluminous evidence that I have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do and than any other member of the British or American governments do.

"Now you say in this document, you quote a source, you have the gall to quote a source, without ever having asked me whether the allegation from the source is true, that I am 'the owner of a company which has made substantial profits from trading in Iraqi oil'.

"Senator, I do not own any companies, beyond a small company whose entire purpose, whose sole purpose, is to receive the income from my journalistic earnings from my employer, Associated Newspapers, in London. I do not own a company that's been trading in Iraqi oil. And you have no business to carry a quotation, utterly unsubstantiated and false, implying otherwise.

"Now you have nothing on me, Senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad. If you had any of the letters against me that you had against Zhirinovsky, and even Pasqua, they would have been up there in your slideshow for the members of your committee today.

"The people who run Newsweek are not a bunch of Noam Chomskys with laptops."

http://tinyurl.com/8cfpc

This guy is right. But can clear-eyed common-sense win when "whining media bashers" control  America's political agenda(s)?

Maybe we should all focus on what's important. Newsweek's little item was seized and exploited by America's enemies in a way that was characteristically cynical, delusional and fascistic.

The people who seized upon this item, like the radical clerics in Afghanistan, are cynical in the way they manipulate episodes like this to whip up hatred and so magnify their own standing.

At the same time, they believe everything that could be alleged about America - and more. They've spent so many years inhabiting a delusional mental landscape filled with conspiracy theories and paranoia that you could drill deep into their minds without ever touching reality.

May 19, 2005

Bashing Newsweek

By DAVID BROOKS

 Maybe it won't be so bad being cut off from the blogosphere. I look around the Web these days and find that Newsweek's retracted atrocity story has sent everybody into cloud-cuckoo-land. Every faction up and down the political spectrum has used the magazine's blunder as a chance to open fire on its favorite targets, turning this into a fevered hunting season for the straw men.

Many of my friends on the right have decided that the Newsweek episode exposes the rotten core of the liberal media. Dennis Prager, who is intelligent 99 percent of the time, writes, "Newsweek is directly responsible for the deaths of innocents and for damaging America." Countless conservatives say the folks at Newsweek were quick to believe the atrocity tales because they share the left-wing, post-Vietnam mentality. On his influential blog, Austin Bay writes that the coastal media "presume the worst about the U.S. military - always make that presumption."

Excuse me, guys, but this is craziness. I used to write for Newsweek. I know Mike Isikoff and the editors. And I know about liberals in the media. The people who run Newsweek are not a bunch of Noam Chomskys with laptops. Not even close. Whatever might have been the cause of their mistakes, liberalism had nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, the left side of the blogosphere has erupted with fury over the possibility that American interrogators might not have flushed a Koran down the toilet. The Nation and leftish Web sites are in a frenzy to prove that the story is probably true even if Newsweek is retracting it.

This, too, is unhinged. Would it be illegal for more people on the left to actually be happy that a story slurring Americans may turn out to be unproven? Could there be a few more liberals willing to admit that prisoners routinely lie about their treatment? (Do we expect them to say their time in captivity wasn't so bad?)

Then I click my mouse over to the transcripts of administration statements and I can't believe what I'm seeing. We're in the middle of an ideological war against people who want to destroy us, and what have the most powerful people on earth become? Whining media bashers. They're attacking Newsweek while bending over backward to show sensitivity to the Afghans who just went on a murderous rampage.

Talk about the bigotry of low expectations.

Maybe we should all focus on what's important. Newsweek's little item was seized and exploited by America's enemies in a way that was characteristically cynical, delusional and fascistic.

Happy I Am

Today was a day much like any other day (that line was stolen). For me actually the "day" is only a couple of hours old and it's my day off--so, happy about that. When one works for herself--mostly from home the boundaries get blurred pretty quickly. Even my 12-y.o. assessed that I work full-time which probably is true but the bonus is I pick my own hours! Downside--I make a fraction of what I would if I'd stayed in the rat race. Oh well, guess trade-offs are a part of life. And one never knows what lies around the corner. I prefer to think it could be something good.
Speaking of a part of life, after six months deliberating, the Social Security Disabilty folks declared that a miracle did not occur and I am in fact still eligible for benefits.
And here I was all ready to appeal. Dang! So for now this "lifestyle" such as it is, shall continue.
It's a very odd thing because I live in a world unencumbered by having a boss when most people my age do in fact have to report to someone.
I wonder sometimes if I would've eventually adjusted to being an employee and I just can't picture it. (I've held about 30 jobs since I was a kid and only got fired once--for dropping a pizza--I was a lousy waitress.) I used to come home from work and just vent about everything--I have so little patience for ineptitude and most of us realize we are smarter or at least better informed about our job than our bosses, right?
Anyway, things have worked out in that since I got well enough I've been able to do a lot of parenting that I wouldn't have otherwise (don't have family nearby to act in my stead). I feel really fortunate that my youngest son has never been a latch-key child and as he moves into his teens, I'm even happier that he's not going to be rattling around in the house for hours after school (those are the hours most teens get in the most trouble).
So as Yoda would say, Happy I am!

I even bore myself.

I haven't anything at all to say...really. Life is mundane. I even bore myself.
The biggest event will come this week when my son moves "my" book dept. to a more strategic position in the store. It's dicey becuz I'm "just" a volunteer--he's management but the gist of it is he knows squat about books. So I'm hoping he's gleaned something about the layout of a store--he seems to have bit of an eye for it.
I'm no expert, but I am about 5 years in the book biz on a very small scale. (It's really too bad that one cannot make any money in books unless one's name is Barnes, Noble, or Borders. Heh.) Can't wait to see what becomes of my dept. (that's what they call it).
I just got a Science Fiction/Fantasy section up in honour of my dad as we had reams of Poul Anderson, Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and many more donated all at once. Between Friday and Sunday, I went through about 700-800 books--at least half just plain messed up garbage--and always too many books trying to convert one to religion. I'm very careful when I deep-six a bible that some of the more Christian-types don't see me do it. We get soooo many and in very poor condition--not rare or valuable--just worn out--so they get tossed just as any other book of that condition.
One thing I've learned from helping in resale is people will quite literally donate anything. I'll leave it to your imagination but if it pops into your head--it's probably been "donated." No wonder I wear surgical gloves.

I'm tired as I got up way too early today to drive north to get my hair highlighted. That went fine (I sometimes think hair stylists are better counselors than real counselors--until they tell me they are getting their info from Dr. Phil's latest tome. ) It cost $60 for the 'lights and a haircut--is that a good deal? I haven't set foot in a salon in at least 10 years so I hope I'm saving money by driving up there. I did get to leave my top down both ways, even though it was a bit brisk with temps in the fifties. Sun was out, tho'--had no choice.

I've got a ton of eBay people that are not-very-patiently waiting for feedback from me. Just in case anyone cares, feedback on a buyer is completely devoid of meaning (unless said buyer stiffs you or maybe nags you to death). A+++ my XXX. It's a crock and I'm saying this with a 100% rating as a seller. I have so often just not said anything when people email me begging for feedback, then I give the standard "Yahoo for them-- they paid!"-type feedback response. I want to tell them to get a friggin' life! As long as they get another point--that's all that matters in the artificial world of on-line selling. Bleh. I'm in it for the money--I can be artificial with the best of them.
Ok then, off to fun-land. I hope if you were wanting to sleep, that reading this about put you out.

Cheers and good health to all!

--Cyn
_________________

"The Happy Suicide Of Mental Capacity"

A commentary on "the latest" research about the dumbing down of America due to our love affair with/dependency on technology.

Smoke Pot, Not E-mail
        In which it is proven that excessive info lust makes you dumber than a happy pothead. Isn't that great?  
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, May 13, 2005

Didn't you already just know? Didn't you already sort of see it coming?

That is to say, didn't millions of us already sense, deeper down, despite all this mad orgasm of technology and despite all this incredible ability to stay in constant touch and despite how you can now travel almost nowhere in the world save for remote parts of the Amazon jungle where you cannot be tracked or e-mailed or faxed or called on the cell or FedExed a package from Amazon.com, don't you just know that we are, in fact, lowering our IQs and slaughtering brain cells like Karl Rove murders joy?

It's true. It has now been proven. A new study sponsored by Hewlett-Packard shows we are now being openly pummeled like Arctic baby seals by our own glorious and demonic tech creations, that when we indulge in huge relentless gobs of e-mail use and cell phone use and instant messaging and Blackberries, et al., that we are, in fact, enduring the ongoing death of brain cells, the happy suicide of mental capacity, a very noticeable drop-off of IQ points.

And, according to the study, this drop-off is even more pronounced than the happily incapacitated state we enjoy after smoking a large, happy joint. A spliff. Gangster. Kif. Ganja. Only without the dry mouth and the giddiness and the swoony sparkle and the smooth mellow bliss and the desperate right-now urge to lick a very large salty pizza and then have sex and take a nap.

Infomania makes us dumber. Slower. Dimmer. Make a note of it. Write it on a Post-it and stick it on your monitor right now and stare at it like a mantra and then vow to yank the cables out of your brain and get outside and play with the dog and read more big thick books full of polysyllabic words and complex sentence structures and then, oh yes, be sure to smoke more pot because hey, it sure as hell ain't as bad for you as e-mailing like a maniac all day.

Because this is the funny thing, the ironic thing, the thing that confounds us and makes us go no way that can't be true because just look! I am doing nine things at once! I can drive my bloated SUV and chat online and answer e-mails and type in my bitchin' Blackberry and send instant messages and bang out text messages on my cell with my nose and still have room to think fond thoughts about my penis, all at the same time! I am superhuman! I am the wave of the future!

Wrong.

But this is what we think. We think technology is making us sharper, more efficient, more light and nimble and connected and enlightened and more primed to hotwire our bodies straight into the grand cosmic mainframe so we can finally be forever placed atop God's own personal IM Buddy List.

And much of the sci-fi bookshelf is taken up with visions of people as human/machine hybrids, these glorious yet weirdly damaged beings who have happily sacrificed hunks of their analog, low-tech humanity at the altar of high-tech hardwired info glory and we're like oh my God that is so cool! I can't wait until I can play a video game in my sunglasses and merely think about any person on the planet and have my intracranial implant chip automatically dial their intracranial implant and them I can speak to them through a microphone implanted in my tooth!

But, alas, we are not smarter. We are not deeper. We are not even all that much more profoundly connected to anything larger or more significant. We need to know this.

All we are now is more adept at allusion, at skimming like lightning over the surface of things, at referencing the world more deftly, while comprehending it less. We can quick-link and cross-text and multi-chat while at the same time remaining blissfully ignorant of how these very info tools are quietly destroying that all-important human skill, that slower, longer, often far more subtle and difficult art called deeper understanding, and if you've lately been anywhere near a roomful of teenagers, you understand this phenom perfectly.

On first blush, the next generation, they appear to get it. They are wired like a telephone pole. They speak the lingo and are fluent in ring-tone programming and iPod bells and HTML whistles and nothing but nothing in the tech sphere gets by them and you'd think, wow, these kids, they must be info supergenuises by now, so aswim are they in giant pools of gizmos and information and communication ease.

But then you hear them speak. They you hear them try to form a complete sentence about an actual subject of interest and struggle to form a single nuanced and careful thought that has nothing to do with what was on the WB or what video they just watched on their PSP or what their friend just text-messaged them on their Nokia, and you hear them fumble and slur and fall into huge pits of painful, tortured Bush-like grammar and you go, oh my freaking god we are in deep, deep trouble.

A CRISIS looms on the United States border with Canada

http://tinyurl.com/eyd66

May 12, 2005

Hell From High Water

 

By FRANK MCKENNA

     Washington

A CRISIS looms on the United States border with Canada, and it could easily be averted with some research and a little patience.

The problem stems from a body of water in North Dakota known as Devils Lake. The lake has no natural drainage, and because North Dakota has drained surrounding wetlands, it has risen 26 feet since 1993, flooding nearby communities. In Canada, we are sympathetic to the plight of the lake's neighbors, but not to the solution their state has proposed.

In June, North Dakota plans to open an outlet that will let Devils Lake water travel into the Sheyenne River and on into the Red River, which flows north into Canada. From there the water will eventually stream into Lake Winnipeg and the Hudson Bay watershed.

Devils Lake, a remnant of a shallow glacial sea, is a closed ecological system that has been geographically separate from the surrounding Hudson Bay basin for more than a thousand years. Its salty waters have high concentrations of nitrogen, sulfates and phosphates - minerals that could cause severe digestive distress if consumed and could be lethal to aquatic life. Because of these contaminants, North Dakota does not allow Devils Lake waters to be used for irrigation.

Once the canal is opened, the pollutants will enter the water supply of downstream communities in North Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba. Moreover, species of fish, plants, parasites and viruses previously confined in Devils Lake, in some cases for millenniums, will spill out into the Sheyenne and Red Rivers. There they could kill the native plants and fish of the larger ecosystem. The consequences for Lake Winnipeg, the largest freshwater fishery in North America, are particularly worrisome.

Despite concerns on both sides of the border about maintaining safe water sources, North Dakota has decided to pump out Devils Lake water without undertaking any environmental assessment or establishing ecological safeguards.

There is a solution to this impending crisis. Nearly 100 years ago, Canada and the United States established the Boundary Waters Treaty. Under that treaty the two governments set up an International Joint Commission to address differences of opinion involving boundary waters. So far, of the 53 issues the two countries have jointly referred to the commission, 51 have been resolved by mutual agreement.

For over a year, Canada has been requesting that North Dakota put off pumping water while the United States and Canada refer the issue to the commission for a time-limited, independent, scientific review. Both the Canadian and Manitoban governments have stated that they will support the commission's finding, whatever it may be. The governors of Minnesota and Missouri, as well as many other officials, have expressed support for the Canadian request in letters to the United States secretary of state.

At their March meeting in Waco, Tex., President Bush, Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada and President Vicente Fox of Mexico pledged to enhance water quality "by working bilaterally, trilaterally and through existing regional bodies." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should demonstrate the strength of that commitment by joining Canada in referring the Devils Lake project to the joint commission.

If instead the Devils Lake project goes forward without a review, it will damage not only the region's environment and economy, but also North America's most important bilateral water management arrangement. There is a better solution.

Frank McKenna is the Canadian ambassador to the United States.

I would add that if the Devil's Lake Project goes through without a review it will further erode the already shaky ties that currently exist between the United States and Canada.
It can no longer be said "as the USA goes, so does Canada." The lack of Canadian support for the Iraq war made that quite clear. This administration has been very careless in the handling of it's relationship with it's most important neighbor. I'd hate to see the trend continue.

Anarchy In The USA?

Isn't this a kind of anarchy? The repeated slaying of government officials?
Just a month or two ago a local federal judge came upon her home invaded and her mother and husband shot to death. Now this. It kinda almost feels like it must feel when highly elected officials are slain every single day in Iraq. There's no good that can come of this.

 

Six dead family members found in California home
Tue May 10, 2005 03:33 PM ET 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The bodies of an investigator with a district attorney's office and five members of his family were found on Tuesday in a home east of Los Angeles, authorities said.

Police said the dead were an investigator with the Riverside County district attorney's office, his wife, three children and their grandmother.

It was not clear how they had died but local KNBC television said authorities believed they were dealing with a domestic dispute and the suspect was a relative of one of the victims.

The bodies were discovered just before dawn in a sprawling home in the quiet Pine Meadow community, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. Police gave no other details.

Frank Gehry's Work

I'm not an architecture expert, I'm just a fan. I'll gape and "ooh" & "ah" at supercool buildings, rhyming off all the things I like about them--but I'm not educated in any of it--unless you consider taking a couple of architectural boat cruises down the Chicago River being "educated." :p
I know what I like and I can appreciate beautiful things--not very stringent criteria.

Even so, in the twenty years I've lived in Chicagoland I've appreciated our unmatched city skyline to no end. Many famous names have gifted us with their talent in architecture and art. Only last year though, did Frank Gehry gift us with his skillful creations --two at once--yes!!-- (see my Millennium Park photo album http://cyncity.typepad.com/photos/cyn_city_millenium_park_c/ ). The dazzling Pritzker Bandshell and the snake-like BP Bridge-- both designed by Frank Gehry, played good-sized roles in Millennium Park becoming a stunning new downtown showplace.

I think this is a cool shot of the new MARTa museum in Germany. I would so love to visit it!

External view of the new MARTa museum in Herford, central Germany. The building, designed by US-architect Frank O. Gehry, hosts five galleries providing space for alternating exhibitions.(AFP/DDP/Marc Koeppelmann)

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/afplifestylegermany

Gehry-designed museum opens in German town

Sat May 7, 5:46 PM ET

A museum of contemporary art designed by American architect Frank O. Gehry opened in the small west German town of Herford Saturday after five years of work and amid controversy about its 29-million-euro (37-million euro) cost -- almost twice the amount budgeted.

With its wavy steel roof and curved walls of local brick, the museum resembles Gehry's Guggenheim temple of modern art in Bilbao, and local authorities hoped it would revitalize Herford, a town of only 65,000 inhabitants, in the same way that Gehry's design brought Bilbao to international prominence.

Herford, which lies between Dortmund and Hannover, "had two options -- either to sleep or to turn toward the future," said Jan Hoet, the museum's artistic director.

The central part of the museum is a hall 22 meters (66 feet) high, surrounded by five exhibition galleries lit by lofty skylights.

The building includes a cafe and restaurant overlooking the river, which has been open for several months.

The museum was inaugurated in the presence of the architect and the German economy minister, Wolfgang Clement.

 

Quote of the Day

"It is difficult but you get used to it. It has become part of our daily lives. Just like eating, sleeping, there is bombing."
NABA S. HAMID, a professor at Baghdad University.

This just gets under my skin every single day. How in the name of...whomever can anyone say with a straight face that these people are better off now than before we invaded their country?

And don't even think about calling these flesh and blood and guts PEOPLE, "collateral damage."

A Small Death

When the minor symptoms first appear she denies them, downplays them, brushing them aside refusing to believe that Sickness is about to become a close companion.

Soon, when it becomes apparent that Sickness has a stronger will than she does, anger and frustration settle in and become her companions as well.

But they are a burden too heavy to carry; after a short time Sickness overwhelms them, too.

 

After several days being confined to her bed, she realizes this and begins bargaining.

"If I can be well be by tomorrow, I will..."  But Sickness has taken what it wants--her health. It wants nothing else.

The understanding of this sinks in. There's simply no bargaining to be done.

 

A sense of defeat overcomes her, self-pity and short temperedness rear their ugly heads, embracing not only her but the loved ones around her.

Soon, it's apparent that they too are sick of her being sick; the loving inquiries offering assistance are now more tired, thinly-veiled exercises in basic care.

Anything "special" about this situation has passed.

Finally, as the illness continues to colour every waking moment she accepts the reality that she has no control. None. When Sickness is done with her, it will move on.

And she will gingerly pick up the pieces and return to her life.

Sick, Sick, Sick

Last pm I got a stiff neck and within 10 minutes I was shaking so much I couldn't hold my mug of tea.

I was freezing even with tons of blankets, the quilt, and my spouse's bathrobe and I was fully dressed because the thing hit me like a Mack truck and I was too cold to get changed. The whole night was a nightmare. And my poor spouse having to lay next to such a mess.
I know he was worried because the chills brought on hyperventilation and he was afraid my heart would be affected. I kept trying to breathe deeply and slowly but when your body goes off like that it's really hard to bring it back.

Spouse stayed home with me today as I segued into having a fever of  103 and couldn't get enough cold cloths and ice packs.
Now that I'm able get out of bed I feel a bit better--one was not meant to spend 24 hours in bed--the body has many complaints.

So I think I'm past the worst of it--I had some scrambled eggs and felt much better afterward. I'm very lucky to have such a great spouse when the chips are down. Really illustrates the "in sickness and in health" part of the vows.

Whelp, that's it for now.

Best to all,

--Cyn

What Does Your Birth Date Mean? Quiz

Your Birthdate: November 29
Your birthday on the 29th adds a tone of idealism to your nature.

You are imaginative and creative, but rather uncomfortable in the business world.

You are very aware and sensitive, with outstanding intuitive skills and analytical abilities.

The 29 reduces to 11, one of the master numbers which often produces much nervous tension.

This is the birthday of the dreamer rather than the doer.

You do, however, work very well with people.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Almost all on base with the exception of the last one. That one is so. not. right. :p (unless it means I make a good boss then yes actually, I do, but it should be worded that way and it isn't). :p

I hijacked this the normal weblog way... I stole it from from a  blog-friend's  blog-buddy's blog.

I haven't been blogging much because I've been working a lot...not playing and this is...play. I know I have my priorities screwed up but I really want to go both to Hawaii  for my 11-years-delayed honeymoon in July (and bonus! see my kid perform in concert--but stay on seperate islands) AND go to a blogger's meet-up at the end of August. That timing is turning out to be really tricky but it appears that the host blogger gets to call the date of the meet-up :/ --so perhaps after we get moved to proper house, I'll host a meet-up here in Chicagoland. The meet-up this end-of-August is in San Fran but I'll be an hour north about half the time as well, tasting grape juice. :D

I must go and get some more personal stuff done. Cheers to all and ::hugs:: for those who like/need them. 

--Cyn