World AIDS Day

And speaking of lighting a candle...

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Hate crime victim Matthew Shepard would have turned 30 years old on December 1st. He was HIV positive at the time of his death. It is unknown if he knew his HIV status before he was murdered.

Bristol-Myers is donating $1 to the National AIDS Fund every time someone goes to their website and moves the match to the candle and lights it.

It takes a second to raise a dollar.

Please light a virtual candle at the link below.

When you light your candle, please remember Matthew Shepard and all those who have passed away from HIV and AIDS related causes, and those living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

https://www.lighttounite.org /

And after you light your candle, please pass this important message on.

----------------

... than to curse the darkness,
Otter

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- To see white-haired Father Angelo D'Agostino, an 80-year-old Jesuit and doctor, you would almost certainly underestimate his strengths.

He looked like a quiet, gentle priest, only about 5 feet tall and stocky, with an easy, infectious laugh. But beneath the priestly vestments he was one of the fiercest fighters you would ever meet when it came to protecting HIV-infected children in Nairobi, Kenya. He would take on anyone, and he did. He was their fearless defender.

As we observe World AIDS Day today, it's appropriate to remember a man who brought heart and tenacity to the fight. D'Agostino died November 20 of a heart attack following surgery after he was hospitalized for abdominal pain.

"In the very positive sense, he was somebody who could get you to do anything, it was very difficult to say no to him. He was like a pit bull," says Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health and a longtime friend of "Father D'Ag," as everyone knew him.

In the early 1990s, he created an orphanage called Nyumbani -- Swahili for "home" -- for homeless HIV-infected children in Nairobi. When the government wouldn't let them go to school with other children, he sued and won. When the children started dying from AIDS because they couldn't afford the drugs that would keep them alive, and the cemetery behind the school was getting full of tiny caskets, he fought drug companies and the government to get the children affordable medicine. He needed a lab to monitor the children's health and he couldn't afford one, so he built one of the best in the region from scratch. He fought tirelessly for his children. He was afraid of no one.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/11/30/father.dag/index.html

"William Shaheen, a veteran New Hampshire activist whose wife, Jeanne, served as the state's governor and Kerry's campaign chairwoman, said the senator remains viable as a presidential candidate because he has a clear strategy on Iraq, a plan for improving health care nationwide and an outline for energy independence.

"John Kerry is a very complicated guy who offers a lot," he said.

As for whom he will support going forward, Shaheen replied: "I'm certainly leaning toward him, because he's done nothing to violate my trust. I appreciate the race he ran in '04 and I appreciated what he did this fall."

FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE:

Faith groups urge cuts to AIDS fund
Allege opposition to Christian efforts
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff | December 1, 2006

LAKE FOREST, Calif. -- Some leading Christian conservatives, angry over the Global Fund to Fight AIDS's promotion of condoms and its perceived lack of support for faith-based programs, are pushing Congress to cut US support for the AIDS initiative, which was initiated by President Bush in a Rose Garden ceremony five years ago with a $200 million commitment.

The fund -- whose full name is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria -- has become one of the pillars of the international effort to fight infectious diseases, growing into a $6.6 billion organization that supports programs in 136 countries.

It is a primary vehicle for the AIDS-fighting efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The only larger HIV and AIDS program in the world is the president's $15 billion, five-year plan.

But the Global Fund, which works closely with foreign governments, is not nearly as popular among conservative Christians in the United States. Some take issue with the Global Fund's policies, which include buying clean needles for drug users, and many are furious that just 6 percent of its program dollars goes to faith-based groups.

"There's cancer in the fund," said Peter L. Brandt, senior director of government and public policy at the Christian group Focus on the Family. "It does such an unbelievable job in discriminating against faith-based organizations."

People don't know how to love. They bite rather than kiss. They slap rather than stroke. Maybe it's because they recognize how easy it is for love to go bad, to become suddenly impossible... unworkable, an exercise of futility. So they avoid it and seek solace in angst, and fear, and aggression, which are always there and readily available. Or maybe sometimes... they just don't have all the facts.

Anger and resentment can stop you in your tracks. That's what I know now. It needs nothing to burn but the air and the life that it swallows and smothers. It's real, though - the fury, even when it isn't. It can change you... turn you... mold you and shape you into something you're not. The only upside to anger, then... is the person you become. Hopefully someone that wakes up one day and realizes they're not afraid to take the journey, someone that knows that the truth is, at best, a partially told story. That anger, like growth, comes in spurts and fits, and in its wake, leaves a new chance at acceptance, and the promise of calm. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

From the screenplay, "The Upside of Anger"

Monkey:

That makes me want to rent that movie TONIGHT!

My friend, a mother, is still alive. Very, very lucky.

It's Friday and I need a laugh. I like this only semi-satirical references to the conservatives who lives on the other side of the lake (from http://www.theweekly.com):

Dear Uptight Seattlelite,

What's up with looking down on the Eastside? It seems like the farther east people live, the less we think of them, until Idaho, where our regard hits rock bottom. From what I can tell, most Seattleites don't even know that much about the Eastside. So why do we think we're better than them?

Occasional Eastside Visitor

Dear Visitor,

Not sure I'm able to completely go along with your evaluation of how we Seattleites view the Eastside. I myself don't judge. Does the typical Eastsider have a somewhat more consumerist approach to his or her lifestyles than, for example, I do? Do Eastsiders poison the air with their enormous herds of SUVs charging from one mall to the next? Do they bow their big blond hair and orange, tanning-salon faces to a bigoted God in sterile, climate- controlled churches the size of the Boeing factory? Do they vote for fascists? Maybe, I don't know. Like I said, I don't judge.

For DiAnne: http://wornfree.com/

That was a joke - this isn't. GOP Predator - who was activist for Congressional candidate in same district referred to above:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003456308_corrigan01m.html

Same people who preach about morality of others.
Same district where Ralph Reed was paid big bucks by Microsoft & urged them to not pay benefits for domestic partners.

I know we have talked about AIDS before, but thanks, Fe for your always deeply personal and reflective insights.

I too remember the 1980s, when I helped a very ill Jeff Duncan ( http://www.artistswithaids.org/artforms/dance/catalogue/duncan.html ) eat, slowly, while the virus choked him. And I was so angry because Jeff had no health insurance, none, and was living in the home of a friend. This was a man who was one of the seminal figures in modern dance and he was supported almost solely by the dancers in Baltimore whom he had taught.

As the 2008 election cycle unfolds, we simply must keep all of the issues Fe raises in sight: healthcare, discrimination, poverty and the subsequent political price of same, etc. etc.

We must not allow the stupidity of ignoring the social needs of people. We must tell the stories we know to be true to those who are ignorant or deliberately blind.

Streets of Philadelphia
by Bruce Springsteen

I was bruised and battered and I couldnt tell
What I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
I saw my reflection in a window I didnt know
My own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me
Wastin´away
On the streets of philadelphia

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Black and whispering as the rain
On the streets of philadelphia

Aint no angel gonna greet me
Its just you and I my friend
My clothes dont fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip the skin

The night has fallen, Im lyinawake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of philadelphia

Marvin Gaye knew -- and the Artists Against AIDS Worldwide still know:

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P Diddy:
What's going on

Jermaine Dupri:
Tell me

P Diddy:
People dying
People crying
Lord help us

Bono:
Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying

Gwen Stefani:
Oh, brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying

Jermaine Dupri:
That's right

Aaron Lewis:
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Nona Gaye:
Oh my father, father
We don't need to escalate

Backstreet Boys:
You see war is not the answer

Nona Gaye/Backstreet Boys:
For only love can conquer hate

Christina Aguilera:
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Britney Spears:
Barricades can't block our way

J-Lo:
Don't punish me with brutality

Destiny's Child:
Talk to me
So you can see

Destiny's Child/Britney Spears:
(first chorus)
Oh what's going on
What's going on
Yeah what's going on
Ahh what's going on

Ja Rule:
What's going on in a world filled with pain
Where's the love for which we pray
What's going on
When our children can't play
Homeless can't eat
There's got to be a better way
What's going on
When we politically blind
Can't see the signs of endangered times
What's going on

Nelly Furtado:
What's goin' on in the world today
I'd rather be dead than to turn my head away
We got this first world vision too
Comfy to lift up our hands in the air
And cry for a switch

Michael Stipe:
Father, father

P Diddy:
Father help us, come on

Michael Stipe:
Everybody thinks we're wrong

Alicia Keys:
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Together we can all be strong

P Diddy:
United we stand, divided we fall

N'Sync:
Oh you know we've got to find a way

Mary J. Blige:
To bring some understanding here today

N'Sync:
Barricades can't block our way

Darren Hayes (Savage Garden):
Don't punish me with brutality

N'Sync:
Baby talk to me
So you can see

(second chorus)
Yeah, what's going on
Hey, what's going on
Somebody tell me what's going on
I'll tell you what's goin' on

Nelly:
What's going on 'cross seas
Every minute a child dies by this disease
In record numbers indeed
Got momma's crying out please
My baby hold on
My child ain't done nothing wrong
Still I want to holler
Ask them why they don't bother
Oh no, oh no
Make me turn to my father
And ask him why they all got a trapped soul

Nas:
I can feel what was bothering Marvin
Why his words forever remain
Dealing with these modern day problems
'Cause of ignorance surrounding me and my constituents
Too many infected
Too many lives diminishing
Nobody say Protestants, Jews, Blacks, and Whites, Latinos and Asians
Pray together
Less fight
We better unite
As genocide chemical war
And the rich and the poor
Know that God delivers a cure

Eve:
It's a shame our reality is devastating
People praying for a cure
Dying while they're waiting
Ask the Lord for the comfort and strength to face it
All the kids with dreams
Won't get the chance to chase it
Makes me sad
Think about the lives they would've had
Think about the orphan babies got no moms and dads
How can we sit back and not try to make it right
We gotta come together
We gotta fight for life

Fred Durst:
Somebody tell me what's going on
(what's going on)
We got human beings using humans for a bomb
But everyone wanna live
Don't nobody really want to die
You feeling me right
I can't be watching people die
(die)
And watching people cry
Let me break it down for a minute
If there's enough room here for you and me
There's plenty of room for some humanity

Somebody tell me
What's going on

http://www.whats-going-on.org/lyrics2.html

---------------

silence = death,
Otter

Imagine my anger when reading "And The Band Played On" while Reagan was still in office (late 1980's). Imagine how hard I worked to keep Bush I out of office. Then fast-forward to 2005, when an "educated" woman I worked for told to me to my face (her face bright red) that any animal who had sex with their own kind, even rabbits, was a sinner. Bunnies were sinners.

I didn't watch my friend die, thank god, but I've looked into the faces of people who would deny the Matthew Shepards of the world a place at the table. It's ugly. And it has to be changed.

I don't know that it won't end up being the work of my life to try and express the experience of living deep in the trenches of rural red during this time in our history. To live and work among people who aren't all that far removed from a barbarity that I thought was well on its way out years and years ago.

We can tell them the stories, Karen, but they don't listen, and when they don't want to hear from you anymore, they fire you, or discredit you, or tell you off in public. They go right after your bottom line... how you make your living. I know you know already know this but I've lived it just recently. It's uglier than I say. These are real, live people who go to church and own newspapers attend their Chamber of Commerce and are president of their Optimist clubs and function as faculty and administration in our universities.

It will take more than our stories, although I too think stories are our best bet. "Philadelphia" was a start.

I really do think we need a new language.

JBK isn't feeling great today so we are going out tomorrow to "stomp peace into the ground." I'll dig out the camera and take a picture.

KJ
Your old boss misses all the fun & that's possibly her suspicion, like many R wingers.

DiA, I think you are absolutely right about my old boss and her missing all the fun. And she denied herself a sense of her own identity in the process. (She wears her hair in a crew cut and loved it when she was mistaken for a man or called "Sir.") I don't think she misses me though. Maybe just a little... like a rock in her shoe. ;-) Gawd, to be so "stove up" as they say here in the Midwest. We need a revolution! Come back, we need you here!

I am so torn between writing about this experience or giving thanks that I'm somewhere partly sane and forgetting all about it! As a friend once said, the sense of responsibility to the collective drives me to distraction. How do we reach these people? Claire McCaskill did, but she had help by circumstances beyond her control, namely, Iraq. A good story helps, but only if the local theatre will show it or the local bookclub will read the book.

So yes, we have Aids Awareness Day. And the people who cared are pretty much the same people who always cared. Unless it hits personally, many of these issues just aren't in the front of minds or hearts.

There's always tomorrow. :-) later, all.

Hi DCP.

I've been rather swamped lately. (Also hurt my finger pretty badly too.)

Anyways, a quick hi! And please have a virtual toast with me because today I just picked up Jesselyn Radack's book "The Canary in the CoalMine; Blowing the Whistle in the case of 'American Taliban' John Walker Lindh" (And I'm very thrilled! The book looks beautiful if I might say so myself!)

First chapter is posted at her site as well as a few advance recs.

http://www.patriotictruthteller.net

HOW ABOUT SOME COMMON SENSE - Why didn't he stand up against them in the first place, especially after the Gulf War fiasco which he helped keep from making worse?!

Powell Says US Should Talk to Iran, Not Attack
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106R.shtml
Former US secretary of state Colin Powell does not believe the United States will attack Iran and says Washington should speak to Tehran and Syria.

MORE COMMON SENSE - This man deserves the Nobel Prize or something - much moreso than some who have been nominated. As for Gingrich - what a jerk!!

Keith Olbermann | "We Fight for Liberty by Having More Liberty and Not Less"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106S.shtml
Keith Olbermann responds to Newt Gingrich's recent comments at the annual Loeb First Amendment Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Gingrich stated, "This is a serious long term war and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country."

Just the thing for paranoia - they watch us but we have no idea why. Now SOMEONE is paying attention!

Leahy: Terror Screening Oversight a Must
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106T.shtml
The incoming Senate Judiciary chairman pledged greater scrutiny Friday of computerized government anti-terrorism screening after learning that millions of Americans who travel internationally have been assigned risk assessments over the last four years without their knowledge.

I looooooooooooooove Mexico - why didn't we protest more after our election?! Now just watch Venezuela - will they tilt toward nationalism of oil or so-called "free market" economy? This globalization stuff is interesting - anything resembling pro-union is called "protectionism" nowdays & who gets rich?

Mexico's Calderon Takes Power in Unprecedented Midnight Ceremony
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106U.shtml
Felipe Calderon has taken over as Mexico's president in an unusual midnight ceremony at the presidential residence in Mexico City. Opposition lawmakers are vowing to physically block him from being inaugurated in Congress.

kj
hmmmm...(about your boss) - Ought to lure her to a place such as The Wildrose (without her husband, if she has one), on some pretext. Does she like to play 8-ball pool? They have a great jukebox.

FROM YAHOO:

U.S. Blacks Seek Answers to AIDS Epidemic By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Fri Dec 1, 5:02 PM ET

FRIDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- By now, most Americans know the drill: Practice safer sex, and HIV should leave you and your community alone.

Except that it's not really working out that way for America's blacks. Study after study shows that HIV infections continue to escalate among this community -- especially among gay and bisexual black men -- even though they practice safe sex at rates that equal or exceed those of whites.

For example, a study published in time for World AIDS Day on Friday in the American Journal of Public Health found that young black adults who had engaged in no sex over the past year, didn't drink, and didn't abuse drugs were still 25 times more likely to test positive for a sexually transmitted disease or HIV than whites who practiced similar behaviors.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fully half of the nation's new HIV infections occur among blacks, who make up just 13 percent of the population. That rate continues to soar, despite the fact that condom use among blacks now tops 50 percent, compared to just one-third for young whites. According to the CDC, black women have 21 times the risk of white women of contracting HIV, while black males are eight times as likely to become infected as white men.

And, according to a recent five-city study conducted by the CDC, a staggering 46 percent of young gay black men in America now carry HIV -- a rate that equals or exceeds that of most nations in sub-Saharan Africa. By comparison, the infection rate among gay American white men hovers around 21 percent.

"However, black men who have sex with men (MSM) do not engage in higher rates of unsafe sexual behaviors compared to other MSM -- we found that in about 30 studies," said CDC HIV/AIDS investigator Gregorio Millet. He spoke at a Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) summit on the issue held earlier this week in New York City.

Millet noted that studies also show that gay and bisexual black men use illicit drugs at roughly the same rate as their white peers.

So, if black Americans are doing so much that is right, what is going wrong? Twenty-five years into the AIDS epidemic, no one really knows for sure.

Denise Hallfors, the author of the American Journal of Public Health paper, said that for too long, the CDC and other public health entities have looked upon HIV/AIDS from a solidly white perspective.

Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, most infections among whites were largely contained within specific groups, such as gay men and intravenous drug users. "The thinking was, you have to go after those very high-risk populations," said Hallfors, who is senior research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Chapel Hill, N.C.

"So, those are the populations that the CDC focused on and did outreach with. And if you look at the data from our study, that makes perfect sense -- whites have very low rates of STDs if they are not in those risk categories. As soon as they enter those risk categories, their rates triple."

But the black community appears to work differently, with the borders between low- and high-risk groups much more blurred. "High-risk individuals can and often do cross over into low-risk groups," Hallfors said. "Once they cross over into the low-risk group, then they spread infection to the much larger community."

Because of the higher death and incarceration rate of black men, black women -- who tend to partner with black men -- have a smaller pool of potential mates to pick from compared to whites, Hallfors added.

"So, if you are a young black female adult and you go to church every Sunday, you have a pretty conservative lifestyle, you don't drink, smoke or do drugs, and you have even one or two partners in your lifetime, if one of them happens to be infected, you're sitting there with an STD," Hallfors said. And since this woman's apparently low-risk, church-going partner may have unknowingly contracted his infection from a prior high-risk contact, she believes she is "safe" and thus doesn't get tested for HIV, or gets tested far too late.

The same may hold true among gay black men, Millet said. "Black MSM are also less likely than other MSM to be tested for HIV," at least on a regular basis, he said. That leaves them more open to unknowingly pass the virus on to other partners.

There could be many other reasons for the virulent spread of HIV among gay black men, but the data just isn't out there, he said. Gay black men may be at higher risk because of their genetics, their lower rate of circumcision (circumcision reduces infectivity), reduced access to health care, their pattern of sexual partners, and their higher rates of incarceration -- one in four black men will serve jail time vs. one in 24 whites. "Unfortunately, there are all these hypotheses where we just don't have sufficient data," Millet said.

Until recently, there's also been little outreach to this hard-hit community, Millet added. "This epidemic has been raging among black MSM for well over 20 years and for some reason there have not been enough HIV prevention programs directed at blacks," Millet said.

Damon Dozier, director of government relations and public policy at the National Minority AIDS Council, said it's taken the recent release of shocking statistics to wake policymakers from their focus on whites.

"I think that no one really paid attention to what was going on, but that 46 percent infection rate is a huge number," he said. "Because of that, the wool has been pulled from people's eyes."

But Dozier said that the CDC, especially, is less able to tackle these issues now than it was in the past. "The CDC prevention budget has been slashed over the past few years," he said. "It would take a number of dollars just to get them back to baseline. Our hope is that with this new Congress, with Ms. Pelosi [incoming House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat] as leader, that we can devote more money to prevention and direct those prevention dollars to that 46 percent demographic."

There are signs of a real turnaround at the CDC. Late in 2005, the agency's head, Dr. Julie Gerberding, met with black activists who had pasted signs reading 46% is Unacceptable to the front of their desks. As reported by The Advocate at the time, Gerberding told them that, "Whatever we are doing right now, it is not enough."

Since then, the agency has launched a flotilla of HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs aimed at specific black communities -- many with proven track records in turning attitudes and behaviors around.

And, on Thursday, Gerderding issued a statement noting that the CDC has "recently issued new recommendations to make HIV screening a routine part of medical care for all patients between the ages of 13 and 64." Most experts who deal with minority communities say getting individuals acquainted with their HIV status is key to helping them get treated, protect their partners, and slow the epidemic.

CDC investigator Millet said he believes the situation "is getting better, in that we are now asking the right questions -- there are more people from these affected populations who are doing the needed research."

Hallfors agreed. She said that papers like hers, and new data coming out of the CDC and elsewhere, "is really important, because policymakers can start to think differently. Whites and blacks are different, the dynamics are different, and you can't just treat these diseases the same for both groups."

Bush:“Abstinence... Only Sure Way To Avoid The Sexual Transmission Of HIV/AIDS”...

Do they write this crap for him in crayon or what?

I am sorry but I just have to get it off me chest...

I AM SO F*CKING SICK AND TIRED OF GEORGE W. BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!

Yarrrrghhhhh!!!!!!!

Ok TY I feel better now.

Hooray for Christy! You say it - we feel it - I nod, laugh and think, "Couldn't have put it better myself! I feel better now too! Thanks, Christy.

And sometimes, the title comes first and the lyrics after. Yet another DCP inspired poem, from our conversation about 'fixing the broken things'...

Broken Things

Whose pieces of a life is this?
Left here forgotten in the rubble?
Jagged shards and razored barbs,
Fuel a fire that bubbles.

What happened to these people?
Who left this all behind?
Did they know what they would leave,
Here for us to find?

The smell of smoke seems far away,
As does the death it claims.
Yet we are all covered in blood.
While standing in the flames.

All we see is these broken things.
Things that once did matter.
Of that there is nothing left.
Except splinters that also shattered.

Whose life was this forsaken?
What place was this before?
It belonged once to a people,
That do not live here anymore.

As the ashes singe a harvest moon.
I see these broken things are mine.
They once belonged to you as well.
But that was another time.

And Woz, you are most welcome.

Thank you for joining us.

I appreciate what you were saying the other day about the rising tide of intolerance in Australia as well as here.

I think most people has noticed it but are not sure what to make of it because racial tension is not really something we associate with that image of 'modern' Australia.

I was thinking about it the other day but did not really feel I had the insight to comment on it. I know racisim works the same way everywhere but I am not there so I guess it is just hard to judge the ..umm... mood? .. of every day Aussis.

I only know what I can see from here, and something has shifted, a severe shift even. The very social foundations of the past are being swept away as surely as New Orleans and something strange and dangerous has seemly happened very quickly.

Something very strange has taken hold of all of us, the whole earth. I do not know what it is but I am sure it is george w. bushes fault along with his little dog dick. The last 6 years have been bizarre in the extream every where you go.

I believe it is biblical, but not in the sense of Armegeddon. Not yet.

I think all of mankind is on the verge of a monumental act of EVOLUTION, and it is all in our minds.

Strangely enough, I do suspect the internet may have prompted it. Knowledge, after all, is the original sin.

All of history, religion, race, perception itself has collided into each other and we will profoundly change radically as a race in the next 20 or 30 years.

Or we will stay the same and refuse that evolution. If so, we are all DEAD.

Our race will only survive if it can evolve into something better.

Abstinence ... the only sure way to avoid having a life.

That's probably out of line. Oh well, you can take the rock and roller out of rock and roll but not the rock and roll out of a rock and roller. I think I'd like that on my tombstone.

Chuck in Houston

Christy:

I had a strong friend that died young of cancer. Not long before that, he used to say, "the day you stop growing is the day you die" or something to that effect. His motto was something like "love life." I'm thinking of a bumpersticker like this: "EVOLVE!" Heck, maybe even in the shape of a fish (I like fishing as Wild_Salmon can vouch for).

Chuck in Houston

Maybe "EVOLVE OR DIE" would be better.

Chuck in Houston

In the shape of a dinosaur.

Chuck in Houston

Evolve or DIE!

I love it.

Come on, people now;
Smile on your brother.
Everybody get together,
Try to love one another
Right now.

Don't know why, just popped into my head.

There is a hideous stigma attached to people who are HIV +ve. All difference and lack of information creates the bigotry, hate, lack of compassion and suspicion.

Excuse me slipping off topic here for a minute or so.....

Christy, I do believe that most Australians find our current government's attitude to difference among our population abhorrent - even among those who elected the little *bonsai*. Wish I could take credit for that title, but I can't. "Bush and his Bonsai", was the phrase used on the very last Glasshouse on Wednesday night by one of the comedians. They had nothing left to lose - they'd already lost their jobs - John Howard is terrified of comedians as well as terrorists apparently. I do find it an extremely nasty slur against poor bonsais.

Our treatment of refugees is about equal to our treatment of Aborigines. Or perhaps worse than our treatment of anyone who could - maybe - possibly - be labelled as having a 15 second contact, in the last 28 years, with another person whose origins might be of one of those "regions-of-interest" in this war on - well, on anyone or anything or anyplace or anyconcept really. It changes daily.

Most of us are deeply ashamed of this treatment.

In today's Melbourne Age online

Australia may relent on asylum seekers

Mark Forbes, Jakarta
December 2, 2006

AUSTRALIA is under pressure to help up to 200 Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers left "in limbo" in Indonesia for more than five years.

The forgotten victims of Australia's tough border protection stance, the Iraqis and Afghans have been without rights since being intercepted en route to Australia.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says they cannot safely return to their war-torn homelands. Canberra is considering at least accepting those with relatives in Australia.

Under a deal brokered with Jakarta, Australia pays nearly $3 million a year to accommodate the Iraqis and Afghans in ramshackle camps and boarding houses. The UN has granted them temporary protection visas but, until now, Canberra has insisted they return home.

UNHCR regional representative Robert Ashe said the asylum seekers had "understandably" refused to go home.

"They can't continue to live in limbo," Mr Ashe said. "There are limits both from the Indonesian perspective but also limits from the mental and emotional situation these people are subjected to. They can't work, access education; that has a psychological impact that gets worse and worse."

The UNHCR has approached Australia and other countries where the asylum seekers have family ties. About 100 had family in Australia, Mr Ashe said.

An Immigration Department spokesman said a request to resettle some of the asylum seekers was being considered.

The co-ordinator of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Pamela Curr, said Australia had a moral responsibility towards the asylum seekers.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/australia-may-relent-on-asylum-seekers/2006/12/01/1164777793323.html

Oh please - how about an exchange??? We'll give the Indonesians the Bonsai and the Ruddock. And they can give us all the refugees.

However Christy, I do think that education makes most of us free to welcome, respect and learn from the differences - it's the ignorance of difference that makes people so afraid, suspicious and violent. By education - I don't mean the Upper Class - government-paid-for - private education of the elite, where one learns that one is superior to all other life-form on the planet. I mean education that allows students to learn through immersion in all the possibilities, then sifting and reasoning to individual conclusions or possibilities.

I'll stop digressing now.
Wendy

Better yet, do a subhuman man holding a banner.

Evolve or Die!

Too bad we ate everything that threatened to evolve past us, just imagine how much we could have learned about ourselves from them.

Poor little tool makers never had a chance.

Christy:

That's all in the future! As for me, I eat beef, pork, mutton, poultry, fish (with or without scales), dairy products, vegetables, cereals, and fruit. Preferrably with pan-gravy when possible (saves on dishes too). Not much on desserts.... 6'0" 165# at 45!

Chuck in Houston

But my cholesterol stinks. Oh well...

Chuck in Houston

I am a beef eater. Big imagination requires constant protiens.

I will also eat a pig and a chicken, but am allergic to fish.

It does not matter though cause a big juicy piece of beef is all I need to revel in my status at the top of the food chain.

As long as I am alive all cows are in danger.

You will be relieved to know that I am more evolved in other areas.

I could never eat a chimp. E. Ghad. It just goes against all my highly evolved ideas of human civilization.

The only thing a cow is good for is satisfaction.

Christy:

I don't know why but I am relieved to know you won't judge me because I'm not a vegetarian (not that there's anything wrong with that). Here's to growing and evolving and always being struck with the wonder of the mysteries yet to unfold in this life. In that sense, "Evolve or Die" isn't a threat, it's a proposition. Reject the mysteries, stand still and stop growing, and cease to really live, or take that step into the unknown, trust your heart, and continue to grow and keep living. Maybe that is even on-topic in a sense.

Chuc in Houston

just had Thai yellow curry shrimp fried rice .. so that's actually more Malaysian

EVOLVE OR DIE

http://www.iwillevolve.org/

the t shirt

Hey DiAnne:

Funny you should say that because I'm off agaion on business on Sunday to SE Asia and will bracket Malasia (Singapore and Thailand). Also, check out a bizzare phenomenon on WaPo vis-a-vis a George Will column and my boy Jim Webb at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/comments/display?contentID=AR2006112901267&start=1841

Off topic I know except insofar as it speaks to the issue of respect. It's bizarre because a little inside-the-beltway ettiquette issue has elicitd more comments -- by a factor of about 100 -- than anything else I've seen on WaPo. Weird.

Chuck in Houston

PS: We have Oregon-type weather here in Houston today. Homesick again....

DiAnne:

I just clicked your link and Honest Abe I had no idea that anyone had said "Evolve or Die" before. I hereby reject any implication that I knowingly impinged on any intellectual property in that respect. (Sorry, I do contracts for a living and couldn't resist that disclaimer.)

Chuck in Houston

Chuck
I'm not surprised .. it's been a long time since anyone actually believed Bush was any sort of compassionate conservative.

DiAnne:

Not surprised about what?

Chuck in Houston

DiAnne,

Why don't you travel to an exotic location (here!) and we'll hook up and take my ex-boss to The Wildrose. Consider it your civic duty and write it off your taxes like a conservative would. We might have to kidnap her though and she's bigger than both of us put together. But hey, it might work. What a coup it would be. ;-)

Wait we ripped off the phrase Evolve or Die!??

Wow, just when you think it is cool to be original.....

Yes, Chuck, it is a proposition. And yes, I too believe it is on topic.

Our evolution, both mental and physical is always relevent.

Monkey To Man
by Elvis Costello

A long time ago, our point of view
Was broadcast by Mr. Bartholomew
Now the world is full of sorrow and pain
It’s time for us to speak up again

You’re slack and sorry
Such an arrogant brood
The only purpose you serve is to bring us our food
We sit here staring at your pomp and pout
Outside the bars we use for keeping you out

You’ve taken everything that you wanted
Broke it up and plundered it and hunted
Ever since we said it
You went and took the credit
It’s been headed this way since the world began
When a vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man

Every time man struggles and fails
He makes up some kind of fairytales
After all of the misery that he has caused
He denies he’s descended from the dinosaurs

Points up to heaven with cathedral spires
All the time indulging in his base desires
Ever since we said it
He went and took the credit
It’s been headed this way since the world began
When a vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man

Big and useless as he has become
With his crying statues and his flying bomb
Goes ‘round acting like the chosen one
Excuse us if we treat him like our idiot cousin

He hangs up flowers and bells and rhymes
Hoping to hell someone’s forgiven his crimes
Fills the air with his pride and his praise
He’s a big disgrace to our beastly ways

In the fashionable nightclubs and finer precincts
Man uses words to dress up his vile instincts
Ever since we said it
He went and took the credit
It’s been headed this way since the world began
When a vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man

Woz,

" I mean education that allows students to learn through immersion in all the possibilities, then sifting and reasoning to individual conclusions or possibilities."

You just perfectly described the type of evolution I am talking about.

The internet has suddenly opened up this hole in our minds and we are all scrambling to fill it.

I no longer have to rely on outside sources to tell me about you, I can simply come right to you directly. I can be told about a man in China, but inside here I can not only reach out and communicate with him directly, I can also see him, and hear him.

This kind of technology has ignighted an unanticipated and completely unpredictable.... knowing.

When you do reach out like that, you can not help but be changed in your heart, and your soul. All of us have changed in ways we never anticipated.

And all of it is in our minds.

Most people see the monkeyman scale when they think of evolution, we often overlook the fact that our most profound acts of evolving did not change us physically.

KEITH OLBERMANN PROVES THAT DISSENT HAS AN AUDIENCE
By Daphne Evitar, The Nation
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann has become the first cable news host in years to tell it like it is, and his soaring ratings prove the American public does have a taste for real news and honest dissent.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/45007/

Dodd Proposes Restoring Rights for Terrorism Suspects
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106G.shtml
Christopher Dodd, Connecticut's senior US senator, has proposed revamping the newly authorized military commissions to restore habeas corpus protections for terrorism suspects, as well as to curb executive interpretation.

{{{Not good enough. We need to pressure Dodd and Leahy and other senators to totally repeal MCA '06 in its entirety; habeas corpus has been around for 900 years, and must not be taken away under any circumstances. Torture must be totally outlawed as an interrogation procedure. It makes us less than human and completely uncivilized to allow torture of any kind to be permitted. There are more effective methods of catching and convicting criminals with good police and detective work, along with forensics. Torture should never be an option. Allowing the section where the presidunce and his hirelings are exempt from being charged with war crimes should also not be allowed on the books. They need to be held accountable for their numerous crimes - here and now, not in the so-called afterlife.}}}

Socialist Senator to Push Congress From Left
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106E.shtml
From pressing for hearings on Iraq to probing no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton, America's first socialist senator aims to give Congress a hard tilt to the left. Bernie Sanders, a 16-year veteran of the House of Representatives who swept 65 percent of the vote in Vermont running as an independent in the November 7 elections, says Congress owes voters an exhaustive probe into the White House.

{{{Go Bernie!!!}}}

Outcry Over Congressional Pensions for Convicted Members
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106D.shtml
The new Democratic leadership faces pressure to end taxpayer-funded pensions to misbehaving members of Congress. Over 20 civic organizations claiming to have millions of members sent a letter to the new Democratic leadership demanding that they immediately pass a law taking away pensions from members of Congress who've been convicted of a felony.
Excerpt:
But even a new law will be too late for former Congressmen Duke "Randall" Cunningham, Bob Ney and Mark Foley, who all left Congress in disgrace this year. They will still get their generous Congressional pensions no matter what.
~~~~~
Regardless, the current bill is not retroactive so Ney and Cunningham are guaranteed their pensions. Ney will get $29,000 a year after age 60, and Cunningham is already collecting $64,000 a year while in prison. According to Sepp, the amount grows with the cost of living each year.
~~~~~
Some 15 other disgraced former members of Congress are also collecting their pensions. Convicted Illinois Rep. Dan Rotstenkowski still draws over $100,000 a year.

{{{So, why can't they include a retroactive clause in the proposed legislation? It's ludicrous to give taxpayer-funded pensions to the disgraced legislators and/or legislators convicted of crimes!}}}

The New York Times | A Crack in the Stone Wall
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106C.shtml
"The question of the wiretap program's constitutionality is now making its way through the courts and should ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. Congress should not be satisfied with Mr. Fine's very limited investigation. It should mount its own independent inquiry into how the war on terror, and American civil liberties, are being affected by an eavesdropping program about which we have been told so little," says the New York Times.

Halliburton Unit to Pay $8 Million for Overbilling
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106A.shtml
A Halliburton subsidiary agreed to pay the government $8 million to resolve accusations of overbilling related to the firm's work for the Army in the Balkans.

{{{What about the billions Halliburton and/or its subsidiaries are still fleecing taxpayers with in Iraq? How many years will it take before they pay reparations on those funds?}}}

Devo - Jocko Homo Lyrics

they tell us that
we lost our tails
evolving up
from little snails
i say it's all
just wind in sails
are we not men?
we are DEVO!
we're pinheads now
we are not whole
we're pinheads all
jocko homo
are we not men?
D-E-V-O
monkey men all
in business suit
teachers and critics
all dance the poot
are we not men?
we are DEVO!
are we not men?
D-E-V-O
god made man
but he used the monkey to do it
apes in the plan
we're all here to prove it
i can walk like an ape
talk like an ape
do what a monkey do
god made man
but a monkey supplied the glue
we must repeat
o.k. let's go!

DEVO = de-evolution, as in de-evolving

"god made man
but a monkey supplied the glue"

HAHAHA.

Amen sister!

It is strange to think that the AIDS virus, in all of it's perfection of form..

Evolves with every every infecting.

It is what makes AIDS so lethal, and unstoppable.

I know a microbiologist who has been on the front lines of AIDS research for the last two decades. It was startling to me that he absolutely believes it is a man made virus, because of its' perfected form.

However it perfected to be the ultimate invader, it is a condition where evolution is being used against us in the most basic sense.

Foe of Birth Control to Head Family Planning

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1201-07.html

THE VILLAGE IDIOT DID IT AGAIN......Oh incidentally only 760 days more

Speaking of evolution, this is from a guy that has some pretty high up govt. connections, acc/my friend:

The H5N1 Has mutated - at least in South Korea and Indonesia. In S. Korea last week the World Health Organization reported 79 people dead from the virus which has a 60+% mortality rate and in Indonesia there were an additional report of 58-59 people dead from the H5N1 which was transmitted among siblings in the same families. WHO World Health Organization is now looking into genetic link bonding of the virus. Don't want to alarm you but with the hours you and your wife work you may not have caught that tidbit on the news which seems to make a single report and then Nothing!!!

monkey is all about the glue... come get unglued at my annual jungle boogie ... MONKEYBALL 2007

http://www.monkeykrewe.org/

"At MonkeyKrewe, we're not happy til you're not happy."

Eek Eek, Mofo

Evolution is highly overrated.

I mean, what has it done for me lately?

on a scale of 1 to 10 I'm neither,
Otter

What's wrong with this picture?

I got thi:

Widespread Corruption in Iraq Costs Taxpayers $4 Billion a Year
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120206Z.shtml
The Iraqi government is in danger of being brought down by the wholesale smuggling of the nation's oil and other forms of corruption that together represent a "second insurgency", according to a senior US official. Stuart Bowen, who has been in charge of auditing Iraq's faltering reconstruction since 2004, said corruption had reached such levels that it threatened the survival of the state

Then this:

.FOCUS | Pentagon Seeks Huge Cash Infusion to Continue Funding Wars
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120206Y.shtml
The Pentagon is seeking at least $100 billion to continue paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the agency has been using these funds on the broader fight against terrorism, which critics say could be interpreted to cover almost anything.

I work hard for my money and pay alot of taxes. I spent years in school trying to learn how to earn a living. I've worked since I was 11 years old when I washed dishes for 25 cents an hour. I don't mind paying my fair share of taxes and don't want to sound like a selfish Republican, but THIS IS A WASTE and they're sending more money after it. In the meantime, the dollar is shrinking, to help with the deficit by making our goods more competitive - but what goods - what do we manufacture? Just rockets, missiles, warplanes, daisy cutters, bunker busters etc.

Once AIDS mutates with the bird flu, once those two marry and produce a new strain...

The Stand by Stephen King.

Our goose will be cooked and the monkeys will not dare touch us.

Oh My God, I love this DJ... That is ..HELL YEAH, TAKE THAT!

In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent
Fri Dec 1, 9:05 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters)- When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."

At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.

"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL (http://www.wmal.com/), which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland

"For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.

"Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."

The show aired on November 26, the Sunday after the Thanksgiving holiday, and Klein said in an interview afterwards he had been surprised by the response.

"The switchboard went from empty to totally jammed within minutes," said Klein. "There were plenty of callers angry with me, but there were plenty who agreed."

It continues and gets even more ... scary.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061201/lf_nm/usa_muslims_fear_dc_1

Posted by: Christy at December 2, 2006 01:32 PM

Christy,

That is a fascinating news story. My father has been warning me my entire life that as a Jew I needed to be mindful of subtle anti-semitism and that what happened in Germany could happen here. In my younger years, I thought he was over reacting. The story you posted while not about anti-semitism clearly shows that it can "happen again" especially here (George Santayana:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.). It is a truly frightening prospect for any of us no matter our ethnicity or religion.

BTW hello everybody. Work has been a bear. I have had an opportunity to read most of the posts over the past few weeks, but not comment. It sure is nice to have a day off.

Christy
S Kiing's new book is called " Cell"

http://www.wmal.com/home.asp

Christy, here is the home page for the radio station mentioned in the article you posted. Look at their programming lineup. Is it any wonder that many of the callers were racist bigots?

"The Great War and Modern Memory"!!! (now on wish list)

"I really do think we need a new language."
~~Posted by: kj at December 1, 2006 05:54 PM

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120306A.shtml
Has He Started Talking to the Walls?, By Frank Rich
The New York Times * Sunday 03 December 2006
"In his classic study, "The Great War and Modern Memory," Paul Fussell wrote of how World War I shattered and remade literature, for only a new language of irony could convey the trauma and waste. Under the auspices of Mr. Bush, the Iraq war is having a comparable, if different, linguistic impact: the more he loses his hold on reality, the more language is severed from its meaning altogether."