test blog #10

We're already spending tons of money getting ready for the move. Last week we went on a shopping expedition for four "must-have before moving" items. We bought the incredible sucking machine known as the Oreck XL Ultra , so our lovely new home will continue to be lovely. Here in NYC, we have beautiful hardwood floors, requiring nothing more than constant sweeping and the occasional Murphy's Oil Soap to look good. But two large, shedding dogs + carpeting = disgusting. Oreck has a 30-day free trial, plus they throw in free shipping, a free canister vacuum and a free lightweight steam iron to entice you to try it. The vacuum arrived yesterday and it's incredible. We tested it on the dogs' beds, which are as covered in dog hair as the dogs themselves, and we were astounded. It's also very lightweight (that's Oreck's big selling point), which means Allan won't have to do all the vacuuming himself. Yours truly, even with my arthritic hands and should...

I'm amazed, but I actually like the new design for the World Trade Center site. I strongly disliked the design that was chosen, and it's been tinkered with so much that I stopped paying attention. I figured I'd just catch up with it when they were finished playing with it. Now the new design for "Freedom Tower" (excuse me while I gag) has been released, and lo and behold, it's an improvement. Info on the design here , and the Times has a slide show and video . This is just the tower, of course, not the whole complex or the memorial. I saw a headline the other day in one of the NYC tabloids: "Pataki Nixes Nutty Anti-American Art at Ground Zero". Nutty Anti-American Art? I guess someone suggested the US might be held accountable for something and isn't always 100% right. Arrest that man! (Begone foul spirit?) The title of this post makes no sense, but we were watching Talking Heads concerts last night (Red Sox had a day game). Alternate title: ...

Whew, Canada just squeaked by Spain in the equality derby. Today, Spain became the fourth country on the planet to extend equal rights to its gay citizens. (I blogged about this when it was in the works ; it was finalized into law yesterday.) Spain's new legislation is especially welcome and significant, as Spain is traditionally a Catholic country. This is an incalculable act of defiance against the Church's death grip on modern life. Las felicitaciones a España.

G sent this excellent story that ran in the Washington Post about six months ago: "Coming Out for One of Their Own - An Oklahoma Teen Finds Love Where He Least Expected It". A young man discovers community... A lesbian couple with a 3-year-old daughter took Michael and Shelly to dinner in Dupont Circle. Walking around the gay neighborhood, Michael was in awe. "It was like being around family," he said. "Seeing all those successful people, that could be me." . . . "Men were holding hands with men, women were holding hands with women, and no one was yelling at them," Shelly said. ...then a family discovers a larger community, when their town stands up to bigotry and allows themselves to think. (Thanks, G!) The story reminded me of another town that stood up , when Ibrahim Parlak, a restaurant owner in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was retroactively accused of terrorism. (By strange coincidence, these two old stories are dated one day apart.) I've been...

Congratulations, Canada! You've become only the third nation on the planet to legalize same-sex marriage. One gigantic WHOO-HOO for you. ALPF noticed the strange coincidence of the vote in Ottawa and the speech at Ft. Bragg: Last night at the exact same time "W" was "BS"ing his way through another speech live on TV our MP's were passing historic legislation. It was very funny to flip back and forth from one to the other! That about sums up the difference between the two countries for me. No more flipping channels, I'm tuning in permanently. And with that, the countdown begins: 62 days to go .

President Bush, facing a growing restiveness around the country and in his own party over the constant stream of casualties in Iraq, declared Tuesday night that the daily sacrifice of American lives in Iraq "is worth it, and it is vital to the future security of our country." That Moron felt the need to give a pep talk is a good sign. My question to him is above.

By email, Carl D. Blyth, Sr. says: Don't forget to give up your USA citizenship while you are there. All leftists and liberals talk big about going to Canada and other socialistic economies, while blasting the United States of America where they have the freedom to demonstrate how foolish they are, but do not have the guts to put their citizenship where there mouth is. So I am waiting to hear that you are now a citizen of Socialist Canada, where it is a crime to openly speak ill of the Queen or her minions. You will quickly learn that you cannot get away with free speech nor liberty. That is why my family fought the British Crown with such vigor, willing to spend all, give all, and surrender even life itself, rather than live in under the thumb of some egocentric kingship. Yes your life in Canada will be fraught with fun things like 'you do what your told, not what you want!' That's what you need a good dose of the socialistic police collaring you. HURRAH for lessons l...

G's comment here reminded me that there are about a gazillion important civil liberty issues going on in the US right now. Flag "desecration", restricted internet access, and violations of the most basic civil right at all - the right not to be hauled off and locked up without charges or access to counsel! - are all part of the creeping clampdown. The ACLU is your best bet for one-stop shopping. While you're there, you can click on lots of easy action-alerts to send some outraged letters.

Q: What do Billy Graham, Mark Felt, New York attorney Edward Cox, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the authors of two books about her have in common? A: Richard Milhaus Nixon. New York City columnist Clyde Haberman explains the connections . Teaser: they don't hate Jews, they really don't! Haberman's column also points out how Hillary-basing continues unabated. I can hardly believe so many Democrats want her to run in 2008. Clinton, the woman millions of Americans see as, as Haberman puts it, "Eva Braun and Lady Macbeth rolled into one". Why not just cancel elections altogether and give it to the Republicans now, save us all a lot of time and trouble? Oh wait, don't answer that .

I love Bob Herbert. Here is a man who understands the connections between this immoral, illegal, unjust war and the class issues he writes about every day. The all-volunteer Army is not working. The problem with such an Army is that there are limited numbers of people who will freely choose to participate in an enterprise in which they may well be shot, blown up, burned to death or suffer some other excruciating fate. The all-volunteer Army is fine in peacetime, and in military routs like the first gulf war. But when the troops are locked in a prolonged war that yields high casualties, and they look over their shoulders to see if reinforcements are coming from the general population, they find - as they're finding now - that no one is there. Herbert speaks with Sandra Lowe, of the Sonoma Valley (California) Unified School District. Sandra and other parents are disturbed by the calls flooding their homes from military recruiters, who are "on campus all the time," giving aw...

Emails have been arriving regularly from armchair activists gasping about the impending death of PBS and NPR. I've been a bit blase about it, not because I don't care about those cherished, semi-non-commercial media outlets, but because I felt the senders were barking up the wrong tree. The last time the "save public television" rallying cry was heard, Reagan was cutting everything that could be perceived as social spending, no matter how miniscule a slice of the bloated budget pie. But this isn't a funding issue. It's strictly an ideological one - part of the right's overall movement to shut out any voices of dissent or diversity, and gain total control over The Message. Yesterday, in "The Armstrong Williams NewsHour," Frank Rich put it in context. HERE'S the difference between this year's battle over public broadcasting and the one that blew up in Newt Gingrich's face a decade ago: this one isn't really about the survival of pub...

I just found this Port Credit website . A little cheesy, but very nice to see! We'll arrive just in time for the local blues festival , which is kind of funny, since we used to be super, super into blues, and now, not as much. Back in Allan's music critic days , we saw tons of blues, and got a bit burnt out on these local acts. But hey, an early September music festival down the road? We'll be there. And if we hear a few good tunes in the process, that's a bonus. Click on "directions" and our street is on the map! The Red Sox - yes, that's the first place Red Sox - will also be in Toronto in September. I think Allan is ordering tickets now. I've also been checking locations of Home Depot, Ikea and whatever the Canadian equivalent of Bed Bath & Beyond is (Home Outfitters?). I told you we'd be good for the local economy. Too good!

Do you all know about Operation Yellow Elephant ? Like most things on the web, we don't know where this started. It might have been this guy Jesus' General , or perhaps not. In any event, folks at New Patriot say: If you believe we are in a war between civilizations with our way of life at stake, don't you have a moral obligation to help fight in that war? And I don't mean in the 82nd Chairborne Division. Jesus' General has a very patriotic campaign going to convince College Republicans to drop their studies in favor of the infantry our nation needs so badly in Iraq. It's called Operation Yellow Elephant. The General is very patriotic (not French at all) and he know it's best to face weakness head-on. The overwhelming support of the College Republicans for the war is embarrassing when compared to their unwillingness to fight. You can help them save their dignity. There's a button or logo you can add to your blog, just for fun. I'm up for it.

Blogger's newest Blog of Note is breaking my heart. But it's also beautiful. Animal lovers, please visit the street dogs of Bangkok .

An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 officers and operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency on charges that they seized an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street two years ago and flew him to Egypt for questioning, Italian prosecutors and investigators said Friday. The judge, Chiara Nobili of Milan, signed the arrest warrants on Wednesday for 13 C.I.A. operatives who are suspected of seizing an imam named Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, as he walked to his mosque here for noon prayers on Feb. 17, 2003. It is unclear what prompted the issuance of the warrants, but Judge Guido Salvini said in May that it was "certain" that Mr. Nasr had been seized by "people belonging to foreign intelligence networks interested in interrogating him and neutralizing him, to then hand him over to Egyptian authorities." Mr. Nasr, who was under investigation before his disappearance for possible links to Al Qaeda, is still missing, and his family and friends say...

Peter Phillips, a sociology professor at Sonoma State University, wrote something for Common Dreams which deserves our notice. Mainstream media is the term often used to describe the collective group of big TV, radio and newspapers in the United States. Mainstream implies that the news being produced is for the benefit and enlightenment of the mainstream population-the majority of people living in the US. Mainstream media include a number of communication mediums that carry almost all the news and information on world affairs that most Americans receive. The word media is plural, implying a diversity of news sources. However, mainstream media no longer produce news for the mainstream population-nor should we consider the media as plural. Instead it is more accurate to speak of big media in the US today as the corporate media and to use the term in the singular tense-as it refers to the singular monolithic top-down power structure of self-interested news giants. A research team at Sono...

Yesterday I told you about our day-of moving dilemma . Many phone calls and much discussion later, I think we've got it figured out. Allan found a company that will rent us a van one-way to Buffalo. They only have passenger vans, not cargo vans, but that should work. The dogs will be very happy on the seat in back of us (their usual place in the car), and we can pack everything else on and around the rest of the seats. We'll have to be careful about how much stuff we leave out of the professional move, but that's fine, we should be anyway. We'll rent the van for 4 or 5 days, to give us a little breathing room our first week in the house, which is sure to be exhausting and chaotic. At the end of the week, we'll rent a car in T.O., drive to Buffalo separately, return the van, then drive back in the rental car. It's not quite as simple as we were hoping, but on the other hand, not as insane as we were dreading. This week's Sign That We Are Really Moving: we can...

According to Pew Foundation survey, many Europeans have a more favorable view of China than of the US. Brief article here , and the actual survey results and analysis at Pew Global . Thanks, you-know-who. Yes, I had seen it, but everything's a blur right now and you help me focus.

You know I'm writing about the ancient world right now. These are the people who built the earth's first cities, who figured out how human societies could govern themselves, provide for each other, communicate, travel, and create on a large scale. On my timeline, humans have already made the shift from the hunter-gatherer to the agricultural society (the single greatest change in human history), and are now building complex, self-conscious societies. Many modern people could imagine these ancients as their ancestors. It would be impossible to know, of course - no one can trace their family line back to 1500 BC. The chances of one family going back in a given region for 4,000 years is incredibly remote. Still, the series (which my book will be part of) will have international distribution, and it might be fun for a kid reading in, say, Japan, Peru or Greece to imagine his Yayoi, Moche or Minoan ancestors. At the same time, by coincidence, I'm reading about the prehistoric w...

I see there's some political news up north. As usual, I'll leave my Canadian readers to wrangle over it. I did notice, though, that this means the vote on gay marriage will happen sooner rather than later. Excellent! I did like this bit, too: The Conservatives could only sputter and fume after their unofficial partners in the Bloc Quebecois deserted them to join the Liberals and the NDP to cut off debate on the budget. They compared their Liberal, NDP and Bloc opponents to crooks, Satan and Hollywood homicidal maniac Hannibal Lecter. Now that's politics! Lone Primate has informed me that I'll be able to participate in Canadian elections even without citizenship or the right to vote. I'm amazed! I will definitely investigate this as we get settled it. Not quite the "on arrival" list, but probably the "during the first six months" list. Meanwhile, back in New York City, I haven't posted anything for Pride. Yesterday when I switched on our ...

We're having a hell of a time figuring out one part of our move - namely, how to get us, our dogs and a few essentials safely from New York to Port Credit. We're hiring professional movers, so 90% of our stuff will leave about 5 days before we do and arrive 10 days so after. No problem. We thought we'd rent a U-Haul for the four of us and the other 10% - clothes, computer, an air mattress and whatever other essentials we'll need before the moving van arrives. Then we found out there are no U-Hauls with backseats. Can't put the dogs in a closed truck, can't fit them in the front with us. Plan B. We'll rent a cargo van. Nope, no one-way rentals to Toronto. OK, plan C. We'll rent a cargo van to Buffalo, a few days later rent another car in Toronto, follow each other back to Buffalo to return the van. Nope, no one-way van rentals to Buffalo. This is getting very tricky. We don't own a car, which probably sounds bizarre, but is very typical in NYC. It...

Lone Primate alerted me to this quiz from the Globe and Mail . I thought it was about history, politics, maybe geography, but it's about Canadians, and what's on your minds. I scored much higher than I expected to, thanks to our little wmtc community. ALPF noticed that David Wilkins is being sworn in as the new US ambassador to Canada. Wilkins was speaker of the South Carolina State Assembly for 11 years, so The State , a South Carolina website, weighed in on strained US-Canadian relations . The same story also has a very silly Canada quiz . I expect everyone here to score 100%. The folks in Bangor, Maine, ask an excellent question. "How can members of Congress avoid looking like anything but irrelevant busybodies if they will occupy themselves with Major League Baseball's steroid policy but refuse to consider information that President Bush may have intentionally misled the nation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein?" Finally, in the Sun Is Hot department,...

Letters to the New York Times today about the Guantanamo gulag. To the Editor: Re " Guantanamo's Long Shadow ," by Anthony Lewis (Op-Ed, June 21): I want to assure Mr. Lewis that despite his statement that "Americans have seemingly ceased to care" about the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, this American, and everyone I talk with, continues to be outraged by it and cares deeply. It is the leaders of this country, specifically the Bush administration, who do not care and want our country to forget. I am continually frustrated that as a citizen with little voice or power other than contacting my elected representatives and casting my vote, I lack the ability to move this country to take the appropriate action. Mr. Lewis, please tell me what you would have us do. Patricia Smith Madison, N.J., June 21, 2005 • To the Editor: I agree with Anthony Lewis ("Guantanamo's Long Shadow"). And the longer we keep Guantanamo open, the more anger we will...

Kyle sent this excellent piece by Anthony Gregory, at the Lew Rockwell site. Gregory calls out the hypocrisy that demands a pound of flesh - anybody's flesh - in retribution for American lives, while "foreign" lives are shrugged off as expendable. Before long in any discussion with an apologist for the warfare state one will hear this simple rejoinder to all talk of the devastation, calamity, and bloodshed wrought by the latest military intervention: "Well, yes, people die in war." It is spoken as though it should shut off all concern for the innocent life expended in war's barbaric cruelty. The mere fact that "people die in war" is supposed to make us all realize that we have been utterly unrealistic and juvenile in denouncing or even mentioning the deaths in war. The proponents of war speak as though all costs in human life have already been stipulated and thoroughly considered, and it would be a waste of time for us ever to mention the dead ag...

Speaking of tsunamis, we need one of the metaphorical variety. "We've got new momentum. Now let's ride the wave." So says Medea Benjamin, co-founder of both (!!) CODEPINK and Global Exchange . In an essay published a few days ago by Common Dreams , Benjamin writes: For the history books, mark down June 2005 as the moment the US movement against the occupation of Iraq got its second wind. In June, the US public became solidly anti-war, Bush's approval rating took a nosedive, and a significant number of Congresspeople started to call for an exit strategy. This marks a seismic shift from just one month ago, when Congress overwhelmingly passed another $82 billion for war-with only 44 members of the House and not one Senator dissenting. The continued violence in Iraq, the daily deaths of US soldiers, and the non-stop drain of financial resources has finally moved the anti-war sentiment from a much-maligned minority position to a mainstream one. A Gallup poll June 6-8...

It's been six months since the tsunami caused mind-boggling death and devastation in countries on the Indian Ocean. Bill Clinton takes stock of what's happened since, and what still needs to be done . I'm expecting at least one wingnut email telling me Bill Clinton caused the tsunami.

On June 21, 1964, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Earl Chaney, three young civil rights workers, disappeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Yesterday, one of their murderers was convicted (though not of murder). Although I was too young when this happened to remember it first-hand, I feel an odd connection to the case. Andrew Goodman's mother, Dr Carolyn Goodman, lives in New York City; the local media checks in with her perennially, and has kept the case very much alive for New Yorkers. I mentioned this when Killen was indicted . This New York Times story has some interesting reaction from jurors and other local people on the trial and the manslaughter verdict.

I've been so holed up in the ancient world, I almost forgot to wish you all a happy solstice. In northern hemisphere, today is the first day of summer. If you live in Alaska, you can play midnight baseball , or just open a beer , hang out at the game and stay up all night .

This happened here yesterday. No one knew quite what to call it. Residents and office-bound workers near the corner of 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan approached it suspiciously, investigating yet another addition to the gorges that punish vehicles and texture New York's streets. But if this was a pothole, it was a new breed - it was so deep it looked like an excavation site. Construction workers showed up and blocked off the street. Heavy construction equipment - backhoe loaders, actually - rolled down the block. Barricades were set up to keep the curious away. Maybe a meteor had hit, one person remarked, or perhaps someone decided to install a seven-foot-deep pool in the middle of 56th Street, in front of a deli and a sushi restaurant. "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this," said Ivan Sabio, the superintendent at 29 West 56th Street. "This is a first." It took some time before Mr. Sabio and the others straining their necks fo...

It's the religion thing. I need a country with less of it. According to a recent AP poll , "Americans are far more likely to consider religion central to their lives and to support giving clergy a say in public policy than people in nine countries that are close allies.". In the usual sample size of 1,000 adults in each of 10 countries, "nearly all U.S. respondents said faith was important to them and only 2 percent said they did not believe in God". Two percent. Two. Almost 40% of US respondents said religious leaders should try to sway policymakers - much higher than in other countries, including Mexico, Italy and Spain. Of course that means slightly more than 60% wanted religious leaders to keep their noses out of government, which is still a clear majority. Only Mexicans come close to Americans in embracing faith, among the countries polled. But unlike Americans, Mexicans strongly object to clergy lobbying lawmakers, in line with the nation's historical ...

The Times (UK) has some vacation tips for Brits looking for wide open - and friendly - spaces. Oh, Canada! The best of the big country Stunning scenery, vibrant cities, wilderness adventures and friendly airport security. This summer, armies of Brits are expected to swallow the hassles and humiliations of US immigration for the amazingly restorative payoff of getting nearly two dollars for every pound in their pocket. Fair enough, but before you rush to join them, consider another America — a place where your money goes twice as far as at home, your passport is stamped with a smile and the travel experience still feels big, raw and full of surprises. Canada is not only kind on the wallet (one English pound buys 2.25 Canadian dollars), but well stocked with the pleasures you find south of the border. It has world-class cities and a big mash of cultures; stunning scenery and profuse wildlife; spectacular roads and railways; and a full suite of activity holidays, from riding to canoeing...

ALPF and Kyle have given me a lot to mull over this morning, and it's a good thing, because I'm feeling too busy and pressured to find anything good myself. Some days the book deadline feels completely possible, other days it feels completely ridiculous. Book-terror level alert: fuchsia. So let's see. Forget about the dirty war, Canada doesn't even want the US's dirty air . The leader of Canada's most populous province said Monday Ontario is considering legal action against the U.S. government and American polluters in an effort to cut U.S. smog from coming into the province. Premier Dalton McGuinty said they'll consider joining lawsuits already in progress against Washington and against big U.S. polluters. . . . Ontario released a study Thursday showing that more than half of the air pollution hanging over Ontario comes from the U.S and costs Ontario $5.2 billion a year in health and environmental damage. Canada will, however, take the people trying to cle...

With Paul Krugman on vacation, Bob Herbert becomes the sole reason to read the New York Times . You know, the "paper of record" that has yet to report on the Downing Street Memo ??? Today, Herbert asks the question that, for me, has always the bottom line. Would you send your child? When I was growing up during the Vietnam War, my father used to say this all the time. Would they (the hawk politicians) send their kids? Of course, "they" did not. He had no intentions of sending his, either. My brother was of draft age, and my father, who was very political, explored whatever options there were to keep him out: exaggerating a knee injury, getting conscientious objector status, and if necessary, moving to Canada. I have no idea if my father would have actually moved us north, though I know he would have done whatever it took to keep his son out of Southeast Asia. My brother "got a good number," as we said in those days, and I never found out. Bob Herbert says...

I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner. But we can still try to help this kid. My pal Nick, who is emigrating to Canada with his partner Mason, posted this terrible news . A blog that tracks the activities of ex-gay ministries made a post recently that sent shockwaves out. A 16-year old boy, Zach , has been sent to a residential treatment center for children who are struggling with homosexuality. The kid told his parents he was gay and they decided to send him off to what in my professional opinion amounts to a concentration camp. There is no therapeutic benefit to this program - it is all based on religious doctrine and encourages patients to kill [themselves]. The director of the facility believes in this type of therapy: "I would rather you commit suicide than have you leave Love In Action wanting to return to the gay lifestyle. In a physical death you could still have a spiritual resurrection; whereas, returning to homosexuality you are yielding yourself to a spiritual d...

I just learned that yesterday - yesterday! - W claimed that the US invaded Iraq because of September 11th. Nothing shocks me; very little even surprises me. But I am sitting here with my mouth hanging open, amazed at the sheer audacity of these people. I won't try to recap, I'll just link to Redsock , who found the whole story at DU . If you haven't seen this elsewhere yet, please go read it right away. If people's lives weren't at stake, this would be a hilarious. Instead, it's enraging and heartbreaking and... I'm out of adjectives. Let me know if you have any I can borrow.

I know we're all besieged with requests for donations, and many of us also put our selves, as well as our wallets, on the line. I just wanted to alert you to an important and relatively painless option for the peace movement. United for Peace and Justice , the umbrella group for more than one thousand anti-war organizations, is looking for people to join its "sustainer program," where a certain dollar amount is charged to your credit card every month or every three months. It can be as little as $5.00. Most of us can afford $5.00 or $10.00 a month without noticing a difference. If you've ever done any political organizing, you know it can't be done without money. (If you haven't, take my word for it!) The internet saves a fortune , but funds are still needed. I can tell you without reservation that UPFJ in New York City, at least, runs on an absolute shoe string. If you donate, you're not paying for administrative overhead or big salaries. You're build...

It's been a while since my last What I'm Reading post. That's because I read the beginnings of several mediocre novels that I won't name. Good writers worked very hard creating them, and although they didn't do much for me, someone else is sure to love them. No need to trash anyone's work. I'm about to start Origins Reconsidered - The Search For What Makes Us Human , Richard Leakey's follow-up to his famous Origins . If the author's name sounds familiar, it's because he's the son of the world's most famous paleontologists, Mary and Louis Leakey. There's cool info about the whole family on their foundation's website. So much of what is known about early humans goes back to the Leakeys' groundbreaking work. Their granddaughter, Louise Leakey, carries on the family tradition. There's a profile of Mary and Louis in Time 's "100 Most Important People of the Century". From the Origins Reconsidered jacket: ... F...

David Cho sent me a very amusing link . Click on I, II and III. If it's no longer the first entry, scroll down to "Anti Gay Phone Company". Eugene Mirman, a writer, performer and filmmaker, doesn't quite have the 411 on these calls - what the company is, where the money goes - and I guess he's not inclined to research it. But the phone call are real. Thanks to Mr Mirman - and thanks, David!

What would we do without our liberal media. From Common Dreams, John Conyers's letter to the Washington Post , copied here in full. June 17, 2005 Mr. Michael Abramowitz, National Editor; Mr. Michael Getler, Ombudsman; Mr. Dana Milbank; The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 Dear Sirs: I write to express my profound disappointment with Dana Milbank's June 17 report, "Democrats Play House to Rally Against the War," which purports to describe a Democratic hearing I chaired in the Capitol yesterday. In sum, the piece cherry-picks some facts, manufactures others out of whole cloth, and does a disservice to some 30 members of Congress who persevered under difficult circumstances, not of our own making, to examine a very serious subject: whether the American people were deliberately misled in the lead up to war. The fact that this was the Post's only coverage of this event makes the journalistic shortcomings in this piece even more egregious. ...

Catching up on my blog-reading, I found this moving quote . Fearless Leader said it's "hard work" comforting the families of soldiers killed in Iraq. This didn't sit well with Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California. She knows something about hard work. Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again. Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby. Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big [brother] into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both. ... We're watching you very carefully and we're going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American p...

The Loch Ness Monster. Bigfoot. Extra-terrestrials at Area 51. These mysteries pale in comparison to New York's most elusive creature: the Second Avenue Subway. It's been talked about for, oh, about fifty years, ever since Robert Moses tore down the Third Avenue El with no thought to what would replace it. Gene Russianoff , an amazing guy who puts the lie to every lawyer joke you ever heard, has been working for New York City public transit riders for almost as long. (I totally exaggerate.) But Russianoff, the anti-Moses, once again makes the case for the Second Avenue Subway. As usual, he's got a plan . Also as usual, it makes perfect sense.

I've been looking for more news about the two teenage girls who were abducted and "detained" - love that euphemism! - on suspicion of terrorism. I blogged about it briefly when one was released after six weeks: my post here and the story I linked to saved here by Islamophobia Watch . The second girl was eventually released on condition that her family leave the country. The only charges filed were her parents' immigration violations. Yesterday the Times ran a follow-up on the girl who was deported , with this CYA note: This account is, in large part, her version of events. Some of it is supported by documents and other interviews, but it cannot all be corroborated because a court has sealed the case record at the F.B.I.'s request and barred participants from disclosing government information. The government has declined repeated requests to present its side. The FBI says the girls' behavior set off "alarm bells". Pre-9/11, thousands of alarm bells ...

Oops, I almost forgot an important follow-up. Naomi Klein and Aaron Mate decried a Montreal library's decision to remove some photographs by Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian photojournalist who was tortured to death in Iran, after some Jewish groups complained about supposed anti-Israeli bias. When I blogged about it here , asking for follow-up, G the LB sent me this almost immediately: On Friday, members of the Canada Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation held a mock book-banishing ceremony in front of the Côte-St-Luc library where Kazemi's photos had been on display. A member of the group, Lillian Robinson, used metal tongs to drop a book into a bright orange biohazard bag. It was one of several books about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that she and the Jewish Alliance borrowed from the library to make a point about freedom of expression. "A library, of all places, is a place where all opinions, different opinions, are aired," Robinson says. She says Zahra Kazemi...

I have some cool stuff from ALPF, from two sources I never would have seen. (Extra thanks!) In The Tyee , Raif Mair confronts "The problem with pre-programmed politicians" . Last week I offered, as one of the reasons the Tories will lose the next election, the fact that they are being hijacked by the religious right, just as has happened to the Republican party. At last count there were some 15 actual or probable Tory nominations to fundamentalist Christians. When I raise this question on air, I can expect a barrage of email asking: "Why are you afraid of fundamentalist Christians? And wouldn't it be better for the country if we had men and women of Christian morality in office?" My answer to the first question is that I fear any politician whose views on anything are unbending and depend upon a philosophical commitment that is unbreakable. Am I saying that I want politicians who change their minds with every shift in the prevailing wind? No, not quite that. I j...

A college senior writes about " an unspoken civil disobedience " and a new motto - why fight? - as Generation Y refuses to be taken in. I'd personally like to see that joined with what he calls "our parents' wild flood-the-reflecting-pool protests" - private resistance, public demonstration of strength and support. But either way, it's hell no, we won't go. He closes with this: Maybe if you had in the first place, your electoral outlook for the next 20 years wouldn't seem so bleak. For now, enjoy the power you've got with this one little caveat in mind: Since you seem to want to play in your sandbox so much, you will end up fighting the war with something like "an army of one." Thank you, Phill Provance. And congratulations on getting the Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun !

On Fridays, the New York Times has a section called "Escapes," with a feature called "36 Hours In...". Today, it's Toronto! Check it out and let me know what you think of the writer's choices. Of course you'll want to add your own.

Thanks to Redsock for this great pic. Thanks to this man for doing this job.

Most afternoons I take a break from writing to drink a mug of Irish tea and watch "Dallas". Yes, Dallas, the cheesy 1980s nighttime soap, which can be seen in endless reruns on SoapNet. Call it a guilty pleasure, or call it re-charging. I can't read on a break - I need to rest my eyes and my brain - and a mindless yet somehow compelling soap opera, especially one I've seen before (long ago, my roommate and I used to watch it on Friday nights), is the perfect thing to keep me away from the computer for an hour. Most of the commercials during this hour are for household cleaning products and bizarre gadgetry like uber-mops or magnifying glasses you wear as a necklace. There is one striking exception: the US Army. Aimed at young people watching TV in the middle of the day, presumably without jobs or classes to attend, these ads take many different tacks. Education. Adventure. Pride. Independence. (I love that one. How could any military foster independence?) Becoming a m...

There's a tiny bit of good news on the so-called Patriot Act. The House voted to block a provision that makes it easier for the FBI to snoop into library and bookstore records. Luckily both conservatives and liberals saw the danger in this Big Brother clause, and voted 238 to 187 against. "Congress has begun to hear that civil liberties and privacy issues are important to Americans," said Representative Bernard Sanders, the independent from Vermont who led the effort to block the provision through a $57.5 billion spending measure. It covers the Justice, State and Commerce departments as well as federal science programs. The White House has threatened to veto the measure if it impedes the Patriot Act, and Mr. Bush as recently as Tuesday personally urged lawmakers to renew the law. "The Patriot Act is an important piece of legislation," Mr. Bush told Republican lawmakers at a fund-raising dinner. "It gives those folks who are on the front line of fighting te...

Naomi Klein and Aaron Mate, a journalist and researcher from Montreal, have a written an excellent and disturbing piece for Common Dreams. Even after her death, it seems the attacks on Zahra Kazemi will not end. It was only two months ago that Canadians were stunned by new evidence that the Montreal photojournalist was tortured to death while in Iranian custody. Kazemi was arrested in June 2003 while taking photographs outside of a prison in Iran, the country of her birth. To punish her for this transgression, Kazemi's captors raped and beat her, according to a doctor who fled Iran to tell the story. Close to two years later, there are new attempts to cover Kazemi's lens, to prevent her photographs from reaching public eyes only now the censorship is happening inside her adopted country of Canada. Last week Montreal's Cote St. Luc Library removed five of Kazemi's photographs from display after Jewish patrons complained of alleged "pro-Palestinian bias"; they ...

I read - and write - both fiction and nonfiction, and appreciate real quality in both. I also know the difference between them. From conversations with co-workers and students over the years, I've learned that not everyone does. I've observed that the average person has a lot of trouble distinguishing between fact and fiction. I've seen people read newspaper ads - the full-page variety that many advocacy groups take out - as if they were articles. People read novels written in the first person and don't understand that the narrator is not the author. Basically anything printed between two covers is assumed to be fact, and any author assumed to be an authority. These people aren't dumb. They aren't well educated, which makes them like most Americans. And they're not rare. This is why the increasingly blurry line between news and entertainment - and there are so many examples, I can't begin to name just a few - is so dangerous. This is why the disinformati...

Rob , filling in for ALPF, sent me this excellent story . Airbase hosts 1st military gay wedding Two men were married in the chapel at Nova Scotia's Greenwood airbase in May, in what's being called the Canadian military's first gay wedding. Lt.-Cmdr. David Greenwood, the base's head chaplain, said a sergeant and a warrant officer were married May 3 in front of about 45 guests. "This couple had been waiting a very long, long time," said Greenwood, declining to give their names because he hadn't asked for permission. In September, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled that banning same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, effectively changing the definition of marriage in the province to "the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others." The military has said it's willing to host gay weddings in jurisdictions where it's legal. Greenwood, an Anglican, did not perform the marriage but he did make the arrangements for the service wh...