test blog #10

Why do people watch award shows? Seriously, what is the appeal? Ideas, conjecture and idle speculation welcome.

There's now a petition in support of the people and dogs I blogged about here . Please take a minute to sign it .

I have some questions. Why do so many apparently able-bodied, ambulatory young women drag their feet when they walk? Has it become a "thing" to walk this way? A generational badge, like upspeak? Is there something about Ugg-style footwear that compels the wearer to drag, rather than lift, her feet? Are more young people dragging their feet than ever before, or have I suddenly grown super-sensitive to the sound of shuffling feet? I would like to ask why so many women under the age of 30 want to spend upwards of $300 to wear what amounts to a uniform, but I already know the answer to that. I didn't do it when I was that age - in fact, I was decidedly uniform-free, including all the "alternative" looks that have a way of becoming one more uniform. I didn't do it, but I do understand it. But the feet, the feet! Why the shuffling, dragging, scuffling, flagging feet? Pick them up! For chrissakes, WALK!

From the Brampton Guardian : Rambo wasn't hurting anyone. No one had complained about the young dog, he hadn't escaped 75-year-old Maria Gaspar's Vodden Street yard, and he had never bitten anyone. But Rambo and his sister, Brittany, are on death row at the City of Brampton's Animal Shelter right now while their owners are embroiled in a battle to get their beloved pets back before they are euthanized. The deadline - Feb. 5. Both dogs were seized from separate homes on Jan. 13 by city animal control officials who said they believed the dogs to be pitbulls. Their owners say that's not true, and both say they have proof from veterinarians tracing their backgrounds as boxers/American bulldogs. The city's veterinarian has a conflicting opinion, according to a letter sent to the Branco family, who own Brittany. Gaspar is heartbroken. The senior citizen can't understand why Rambo was seized. She said the confusing part is, the city has licensed Rambo as a boxer/Am...

The Canadian progressive blogosphere is freaking out over a new CBC policy, explained here by Cory Doctorow. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has signed up with iCopyright, the American copyright bounty hunters used by the Associated Press, to offer ridiculous licenses for the quotation of CBC articles on the web (these are the same jokers who sell you a "license" to quote 5 words from the AP). iCopyright offers "licenses" to use taxpayer-funded CBC articles on terms that read like a bizarre joke. You have to pay by the month to include the article on your website (apparently no partial quotation is offered, only the whole thing, which makes traditional Internet commentary very difficult!). And you have to agree not to criticize the CBC, the subject of the article, or its author. Thanks for fostering a dialogue, CBC! It's bizarre, for sure, especially when one considers that CBC is a taxpayer-funded corporation. But a commenter on Doctorow's Boing Boi...

Bob Herbert has a beautiful remembrance of Howard Zinn: "A Radical Treasure". Think of what this country would have been like if those ordinary people had never bothered to fight and sometimes die for what they believed in. Mr. Zinn refers to them as "the people who have given this country whatever liberty and democracy we have." Our tendency is to give these true American heroes short shrift, just as we gave Howard Zinn short shrift. In the nitwit era that we’re living through now, it’s fashionable, for example, to bad-mouth labor unions and feminists even as workers throughout the land are treated like so much trash and the culture is so riddled with sexism that most people don’t even notice it. (There’s a restaurant chain called "Hooters," for crying out loud.) I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. (He called himself a radical.) He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he fo...

I wasn't able to digest the death of the great writer J. D. Salinger , as I was mourning my hero Howard Zinn. I love Catcher in the Rye , and Franny and Zooey, and Seymour Glass. All live very vividly in my memory. Salinger's passing reminds me that it's time to re-read Catcher for the however-many-th time. I would also use the occasion of mentioning Catcher to plug Rule of the Bone , by Russell Banks. Bone is Holden for another generation. He is the grandson of Huck Finn and the son of Holden Caulfield. I acknowledge Salinger and his brief, enormous contribution to our literature. But I can't say I'll miss him, or that his passing is a loss. How can we miss someone we haven't seen in 50 years? Perhaps Salinger's decision to cease contributing to our literary wealth and withdraw from the public was a loss. But with that choice, he became as least as famous for being unknown and unseen than for his justly famous book. For many people, Salinger's reclusi...

If you read only one piece on this year's Super Bowl advertising hypocrisy, make it Antonia Zerbisias . I read this on Facebook, copied with permission: Pro-choice people have better use for their money! By now most of you have probably heard about the anti-choice ad CBS plans to run during the Super Bowl. Multiple media sources have reported that the segment will cost sponsors Focus on the Family $2.5 million. Here at NYAAF, we have been wondering: what kind of non-profit has an extra $2.5 million lying around to spread misinformation to sports fans? How, we wonder, was such an expense justified to their individual supporters and their board? While extra cash lying around has never been our problem, neither has irresponsible spending. Our pledge to our supporters remains true: %100 of your tax-deductible donations go directly to helping women obtain abortions they need but cannot afford. Our board is %100 volunteer and our personal donations as board members cover all overhead cos...

In yet another classic Friday afternoon news dump, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has appointed another five Senators , tipping the balance of power in the Senate to the Conservatives. And supposedly this is needed because - caution! watch for exploding heads! - the Opposition is obstructing the passage of anti-crime legislation! Ontario MPP and Senate appointee Bob Runciman said: For too long, the Ignatieff Liberals have abused their majority in the Senate by obstructing law-and-order bills that are urgently needed and strongly supported by Canadians. Today, this abuse comes to an end. Holy cow! Did he really say that?? Obstructing law-and-order bills, Bob? You don't mean the very bills that were killed when your leader suspended Parliament, do you? Hypocrisy the First of Stephen Senate-Reform Harper appointing yet more Senators is a raindrop in the ocean of Stephen Suspend-Parliament Harper accusing the Liberals of obstructing bills! Second Wave, anyone? Keep it up!

There's been a big run of anti- war resisters letters in some local Nanaimo newspapers, focusing on Cliff Cornell, who was recently released from military prison, and who wants to return to Canada. The letters were clearly orchestrated - they all used the same language, made the same fatuous points, and omitted the same relevant facts. This week the same paper ran several letters in support of Cliff, including one of mine. Letter writer Ken Bennett (Disgraced U.S. soldier a deserter, not 'resister', Letters, Jan. 21) calls Cliff Cornell a coward, but claims that the Americans who came to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam "had principles and stood against going to war." How can the same not be said of Cliff Cornell? Like Vietnam, the U.S. war in Iraq is a war of aggression against a civilian population. Cornell, Rodney Watson (currently living in sanctuary in Vancouver) and others like them said "no" to this. They knew the people of Iraq are no threat t...

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the constitutional rights of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr have been violated, and continue to be violated every day that he is imprisoned in the US concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay. Although the Supreme Court said it has no jurisdiction to order the Harper Government to repatriate Khadr, there is now even more unambiguous and powerful evidence that the Harper Government violates the human rights of Canadian citizens, specifically those who are brown and/or Muslim.

Very interesting Daily Dose of Imagery today. I recommend scrolling down to read the whole post. Link good on 29 January 2010 only.

A few months after Dr. George Tiller was assassinated, Esquire did a long feature on Dr. Warren Hern, now thought to be the last doctor in the US to perform "last resort" abortions. I missed it at the time, so perhaps you did, too. The young couple flew into Wichita bearing, in the lovely swell of the wife's belly, a burden of grief. They came from a religious tradition where large families are celebrated, and they wanted this baby, and it was very late in her pregnancy. But the doctors recommended abortion. They said that with her complications, there were only two men skilled enough to pull it off. One was George Tiller, a Wichita doctor who specialized in late abortions. They arrived in Wichita on Sunday, May 31. As they drove to their hotel, a Holiday Inn just two blocks from the Reformation Lutheran Church, they saw television cameras. They wondered what was going on, a passing curiosity quickly forgotten. But when they got to their room, the phone was ringing. Her...

Deep down, I'm in mourning for Howard Zinn. It feels like a personal loss to me. Zinn lived a long life, and by any measure an incredibly full one, and apparently did not suffer a physically bad death. So his death is not a tragedy. But still, my heart feels so heavy with his passing. There's probably only one famous person - in the "famous people I have never met but whose lives have affected me so profoundly" category - whose death will pain me more. Another hero for peace and justice, Daniel Ellsberg, shares a memory of Zinn on TruthDig . If you know Howard Zinn only as a historian and a writer, a kind of elder statesperson of the left, here's a story from his younger days, and not unique one, either. ...Twenty-seven years later, I can remember some of what he said. "On May Day in Washington, thousands of us were arrested for disturbing the peace. But there is no peace. We were really arrested because we were disturbing the war." He said, "If Th...

Update of this earlier post . Heys called: "We are going to give you a replacement bag. We very rarely do this, because what happened to your backpack is not covered under the warranty, it is normal wear and tear. But since you bought it at ShopHeys-dot-com, and since you are a good Heys customer, we will replace your backpack. You may come pick it up anytime during normal business hours." So when it finally became clear that I was not going to go away quietly, the company came to their senses and did what they should have done in the first place. Obviously they had no intentions of honouring their warranty and were simply going to blame the problem on the customer. Can this be considered good customer service? I'll leave that to your judgement.

Follow up on this post . + + + + To Whom It May Concern: Regarding the issue below, I brought my backpack to Heys and was shocked to learn that your company does not stand by its warranties. In addition, customer service was rude and dismissive. You may wish to read the details here on my blog. [ link ] I hope someone from Heys will be able to rectify this situation. Laura Kaminker Mississauga, ON + + + + Hi Laura, Thank you for your email. Here at Heys International, we pride ourselves in our customer service and we feel that your interpretation of the conversation you had with our customer service representatives is not accurate. We value our customers and treat all customers - whether warranty repair or not - with respect and do our best to help them out and often go above and beyond what other luggage companies would do. For the record, we have sold tens of thousands of ePac backpacks and have not had such a problem with the mesh pockets, - therefore the issue is not with the ma...

Howard Zinn, thank you for all you gave us. You gave me history. You gave me hope. Thank you. You will be missed, always.

I get really annoyed at the way Martin Luther King, Jr. is portrayed and celebrated in the US, how his message has been dumbed-down and sanitized for mass consumption. This is typical of US society, which vilifies, demonizes and sometimes criminalizes people working to make the country more egalitarian, then later puts their image on a postage stamp. King has a lot of company there, from abolitionists to early feminists and probably current environmental activists. King is especially subject to this treatment, since through King's image the US can congratulate itself on desegregating, which is falsely equated with equality and justice. And because King advocated non-violence, the media can dish him out as a public pacifier, conveniently omitting the rest of the phrase: disobedience . Here's a quote you won't hear on CNN. Been a lot of applauding over the last few years. They applauded our total movement; they've applauded me. America and most of its newspapers applauded...

Sometimes poetry says it best. Haikus Against Harper: Mother Earth rebuffed. Criticism banished too. Decency denied. -- TSL @ Halifax, NS Summer, blossoms bloom, Winter, parliament prorogued, Spring, Stephen must . . . Fall -- ABC @ Halifax, NS Afghan detainees Innocent people tortured Stop the lying now! -- JN @ Chelsea, NS Arrogance pays not Soon the piper will be paid Harper is prorogued -- CG @ Halifax, NS Try your hand at writing your own! For instructions on how to submit a haiku to Haikus Against Harper , go here . Thanks to Christine B for sending!

Before I started grad school in September, I treated myself to a beautiful new backpack , specially designed to hold a laptop and with good ergonomics. It's this one , in red. A few weeks ago, I noticed that both mesh side pockets had ripped. These are the pockets generally used for carrying an umbrella and a water bottle, and there were holes in the bottom of each. I contacted Heys, and was told that this was probably covered under the warranty, and I could either bring the pack in or send it in. It happens that Heys has its corporate headquarters in Mississauga, making things that much easier. After some delay, I took the pack in yesterday and was very surprised at the poor service - or rather, no service - I received. When we walked into the building, there were two people seated at a front desk. A man was on the phone and a woman spoke to us. We showed her the problem and she immediately said, "This isn't covered by the warranty. It's normal wear-and-tear." I ...

When Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament, I wrote a post about Canadians' political disengagement , and submitted it to The Mark. By the time they got back to me with an edit, the anti-prorogation movement was going strong. I've never been so happy to see a story grow old. After last Saturday's protests, I wrote an update: Apathetic No More . Please click and read, and feel free to post comments here or there.

Last night, Global's "16:9" show included a segment on US war resisters in Canada. It is absolutely brilliant. Please watch! And please circulate.

I heard about this yesterday during the Toronto anti-prorogue protest, and I can't stop thinking about it. There must be something we can do to help this family. On Christmas Eve, 2009, four construction workers were killed in Toronto, when the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed. A fifth worker survived with very serious injuries. All five were migrant workers and their working conditions were unsafe. Bad enough, eh? No, it gets much, much worse. The family of one of the four deceased workers are refugee claimants from Israel. They are Orthodox Christians, and came to Canada so their two daughters would not be forced to serve in the Israeli "Defense" Forces. The girls are 7 and 14 years old. Now the family may be deported. They have a refugee hearing next month, and they cannot afford a lawyer. On New Year's Eve, Cherniakova got a letter from the Immigration and Refugee Board, telling her she has a hearing Feb. 23. Cherniakova, who speaks little English, kn...

If you liked launching shoes at Bush , you'll love smacking Stephen Harper . Mr Harper got a big smack yesterday, as thousands of Canadians expressed their displeasure with his prorogation of Parliament. Plans are already in the works to keep the movement alive with a second wave of action. You can stay informed through the Facebook group CAPP: A second wave of actions and through No Prorogue . There's very decent coverage in the Globe and Mail , Star , CTV , Global , CBC . Of course crowd numbers are under-estimated, but that's always the case. And I do mean always. I think it's best not to get too caught up in crowd counts. People cared enough to take to the streets in January in 60 Canadian towns and cities, and another handful of locations around the world, and everyone watching TV or picking up their newspaper or clicking on news sites can plainly see that crowds were both significant in size and spread throughout Canada. That's what counts. Everyone in the ac...

Wherever you are, enjoy the day! Rallies in: Antigonish, NS Barrie Belleville Bolton Calgary Charlottetown Dallas, TX Duncan, BC Edmonton Fredericton Grande Prairie, AB Guelph Halifax, NS Hamilton Huntsville, ON Inverness, NS Kamloops, BC Kelowna Kingston Lethbridge, AB London, ON London, UK Maple Ridge, BC Mississauga Moncton Montreal Nanaimo, BC New York City Newmarket North Bay, ON Oakville Orangeville Orillia, ON Oshawa-Whitby Ottawa Owen Sound Parry Sound, ON Penticton Peterborough Prince Albert, SK Prince George, BC Prince Rupert Quinte Regina Saint John, NB San Francisco, CA Saskatoon Sault Ste. Marie Smithers, BC Smithers, BC St. John’s, NL Stratford Sudbury Sydney, NS Terrace, BC Thunder Bay Toronto Vancouver Vernon Victoria Waterloo Region Whitehorse Windsor Winnipeg Wolfville, NS Yellowknife For information about your location, click here , look for the city, click again.

Today is the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade . I'm taking a year off from Blog For Choice. Instead of writing, I'll refer you to April Reign , who reminds us that in order to control their lives, women must control their bodies. And to the National Network of Abortion Funds , which reminds us that in order to control their bodies, many women need assistance. A donation to N-NAF is a meaningful way to celebrate Roe v Wade Day. Trust Women!

The great Antonia Z: It was Woody Allen who said that 80 per cent of success is showing up. Is that why Conservative critics and the corporate media are so focused on numbers? How many Canadians care about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cynical and contemptuous prorogation of Parliament last month? Click and read!

The war resisters event last night in Mississauga was excellent. After brief talks by war resisters Chuck Wiley and Kimberly Rivera, we watched "War Resisters Speak Out". The one-hour film was created from a past Campaign event, in which CBC radio host Andy Barrie - who came to Canada after deserting from the Vietnam War - interviewed a dozen Iraq War resisters who are seeking refuge in Canada. The movie is an amazing organizing tool - moving, informative, compelling. After the film, Campaign organizer Michelle Robidoux gave a little update on our political situation, then I chaired a question-and-answer discussion between the audience and the resisters. It was a great discussion, with many attendees making the undeniable connection between the increasing militarism in Canada and the government's refusal to allow US war resisters to stay here. Perhaps the most gratifying part of the evening for me came as we were leaving: two people who attended told me they wanted to pla...

I got an email a while back from CODEPINK, copied below. It's an excellent wrap-up of their involvement in the Gaza Freedom March, but beyond that, it's a beautiful articulation of the many reasons actions like this are important, and how they help to create change. I have no doubt that the Gaza Freedom March was - and will continue to be - important in ways we will never know, part of the communal chain-reaction that will help a people achieve independence and self-determination. In 2004, while waiting for our applications to Canada to be approved, I spent the summer working with a get-out-the-vote campaign to elect John Kerry. I didn't do this because I loved John Kerry, and in fact had a very difficult time deciding whether or not to vote for him. (I ultimately did vote Democrat that year, the only time in the decade I would do so.) But at that time, I felt strongly that progressives and liberals and ordinary non-wingnut folks needed to make a huge showing at the polls, ...

Between schoolwork and the event I've been planning , plus my usual campaign duties, blogging has had to take a back seat. I have a long list of topics to write about, and it really irks me when I can't get to any of them! I think I've been posting something like this every few days . How boring. Plus, guess what, we have to find a new weekend dogwalker. No crazy drama or disappearances this time, she's just moving on. The wonderful Dharma Seeker will be filling in until we find someone new. But responding to emails and interviewing takes time, and time is in short supply.

If you are in Mississauga or Oakville or thereabouts, please join us for a special event. It's very special to me, because it's the first activism I've planned in Mississauga. I've been co-organizing it with a great activist from the Mississauga Coalition for Peace and Justice , who I met through IS . We'll be screening "War Resisters Speak Out," a movie featuring a dozen US war resisters inteviewed by CBC radio host Andy Barrie, followed by a discussion with two people who are in the film. See below for details. Similar events are being planned all over Canada in support of Bill C-440 , the private member's bill that would allow US war resisters to stay in Canada. Opposition bills survive prorogation , and this one has the support of all three opposition parties. Obviously the bill has been stalled because of Harper's political machinations, but if passed, C-440 would give the weight of law to the two motions the House of Commons already passed i...

Stephen Harper's visit to Toronto today was overshadowed by a little cloud.... a cloud that will soon develop into a mighty storm. From the Globe and Mail (that's my friend NCF in the photo!): Canada's convalescing economy may have topped Prime Minister Stephen Harper's agenda Wednesday, but anti-prorogation anger ended up hijacking his Toronto road show. About 35 protesters from students to seniors picketed Mr. Harper's afternoon visit to the C.D. Howe Institute, chanting “Stop the prorogation, listen to the nation!” It's just a taste of what's to come on Saturday, when thousands are expected to gather at rallies across Canada to protest the shutdown of Parliament, said Walied Khogali, who helped organize the demonstration. “We just want to send a clear message that we are watching and we do care, and our MPs are accountable to us, not to any specific political party or to any elite,” said the 25-year-old university student. That "25-year-old universi...

In this previous post , I posted two quotes found in Ken Silverstein's brilliant article in last month's Harper's : " Shopping for Sweat: the human cost of the two-dollar t-shirt ". That's not hyperbole, by the way. T-shirts that retail at $40 are produced for $2 or less, and that includes door-to-door shipping from the other side of the globe. The story is only available online by subscription, but if you want to read it, email me for the text. It's a must-read for anyone interested in labour issues. And anyone interested in poverty, and building a just world. And anyone who wears clothes. Writing from Cambodia, Silverstein posed as a clothing company rep to gain access to garment factories not usually granted to media. Perhaps the most disturbing revelation is how, in response to pressure from the largely student-driven anti-sweatshop movement, oversight, inspection and international standards have given rise to an oversight industry, but workers' wa...

Two quotes. Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about ‘labor standards,’ I’d like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh. The miasma of toxic stink leaves you gasping, breezes batter you with filth, and even the rats look forlorn. . . . Many families actually live in shacks on this smoking garbage. [For families living in the dump,] a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty. . . . The central challenge in the poorest countries, is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough. Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, 2009 If the children employed in these mills would, otherwise, be living in decent homes, going to school, eating sufficient and wholesome food, getting some sort of moral, mental and manual training, then, without question, mill-work for children deserves to be decried as a flagrant social evil. As a matter of fact, however, the alternative presented to these partic...

Take a quick moment to vote: Should war resister Cliff Cornell be allowed to return to Canada? Nanaimo Daily News: Gabriola Island peace activist Jean McLaren can't wait to get the party started. McLaren and others on the island started a letter-writing campaign to convince U.S. authorities to release army deserter Cliff Cornell from prison last year after the 28-year-old man, a former grocery clerk at the Village Food Market, was jailed in the U.S. Cornell was released from an American prison Saturday, one month before the end of his year-long jail sentence. He said that it was the support and letters from the people of Gabriola that helped persuade American officials to release him early. He said that he wants to return to Gabriola Island. "We all wrote to him and to the American authorities," said Gabriola's Ann Buttrick, who found out Cornell was going to be released when she received a letter from him recently. "I very much want to try to come back to Canada...

From Canadians against Proroguing Parliament (Toronto): Less than one week remains before Canadians against Proroguing Parliament (Toronto) hosts its city-wide rally and march on Saturday, January 23 at 1:00pm at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto. Check out the final outreach calendar. We could use your help every day this week, or whenever you have time to volunteer. MONDAY, JANUARY 18 4pm to 6pm Leafleting and donation collection Yonge-Dundas Square * Help us distribute leaflets about the rally to passers-by, and to collect donations. TUESDAY, JANUARY 19 4pm to 6pm Leafleting and donation collection Yonge-Dundas Square * Help us distribute leaflets about the rally to passers-by, and to collect donations. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20 4pm to 6pm Leafleting and donation collection Yonge-Dundas Square * Help us distribute leaflets about the rally to passers-by, and to collect donations. 6pm to 7pm Poster run Meet at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor Street West, Suite 207 * Help us...

ding ding ding ding ding (That's a bell ringing, donchaknow.) The Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group has now passed 200,000 members. I am confident that all those and more will be in the streets on January 23. I hope many other towns and cities will do what Toronto is doing: no politicians will speak. Let one elected official speak, and there'll be a whole line waiting to respond, and guess who the media will focus on. Toronto will be a people's rally. But every organizing committee in every one of the dozens of towns will discuss and debate and talk and wrangle, and they'll come to a consensus, and decide for themselves what shape and form their action will take. What's that called again? Wait, wait, don't tell me... If you know someone who's unimpressed or undecided, NoProrogue.ca has a wonderfully concise explanation of Why You Should Care About Prorogation. On December 30th Stephen Harper announced that he will be Proroguing Parli...

From our friends at Quaker House.

We've seen this all our lives, and as far as I can tell, it's a practice followed by media all over the globe. But every time I see it, my skin crawls. This morning on CBC: "Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 8" . In the pre-internet era, I might have thought local-death-toll reportage was a USian thing. "Earthquake in India, 50,000 dead, including 3 Americans! Five New Yorkers trapped in Mumbai airport!" But now that we can easily see media from everywhere, I know that everywhere does it. I've watched less than five minutes of TV news in the last few months, but I did catch a few seconds of Canadians who were recently evacuated from Haiti being interviewed from Montreal. They were describing waiting at the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince, listening to the screams and cries of Haitian survivors outside the gates. These Canadians knew how lucky they were, and I don't begrudge them their rescue. But that gate - separating the rescued from the tra...

If you've read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine , while you were reading about frantic earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti, or watching images of fortunate Canadians being evacuated, like me, you may have wondered if Haiti is in for another disaster, of the capitalist kind. Here's Naomi Klein in an interview with Amy Goodman. ...crises are often used now as the pretext for pushing through policies that you cannot push through under times of stability. Countries in periods of extreme crisis are desperate for any kind of aid, any kind of money, and are not in a position to negotiate fairly the terms of that exchange. And I just want to pause for a second and read you something, which is pretty extraordinary. ... This went up a few hours ago, three hours ago, I believe, on the Heritage Foundation website. "Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthqu...