Breathe

Our Farewell

2008-05-19T19:40:00.008-05:00

As we are moving on to a new place...

we will have to learn some new skills...

we will have to try to work as a team...

but we are pretty sure that you know us by now....

Thanks for the friendship.

2008-04-28T18:05:00.003-05:00

Oh, that food crisis...

This blissful state of unawares came to mind today, when I asked a co-worker if she heard anything recently about the food crisis, and if she had noticed any increase in her groceries, especially rice and oil, as I was chopping up not-native-to-North-Dakota-kiwis.

"...what crisis?"

"...um...the food crisis...you know, the hungry people that are rioting in the streets, Haiti for a major example, Egypt too... how export crops are being restricted in places like India and Vietnam ...the food inflation..."

"oh, goodness, I haven't heard of that..."

"You mean you haven't heard about the mainstream IMF, World Bank , and UN reports on the current food markets, called the food crisis ?"

"No, I haven't heard anything about food costs, but you know, I bought frozen raspberries the other day and I thought they were a little expensive, but I needed them anyway."

Wow.

Arabian Knights

2008-04-22T20:15:00.012-05:00

"Saudi women 'kept in childhood' " article. Good read.

It is a tricky situation. We need Human Rights Watch groups to keep reminding us about them so we won't forget, unfortunately, I can see how the U.S./western powers may use that in the future to occupy that part of the middle east...like "liberating Afghani women from the Taliban" and "liberating Iraqis! Free them, and let them fly away!" In our current foreign policy of "WMD"...War Makes Democracy...we are treating them like pawns of our democratic monopoly.
Anyways, that is just speculation.

I still strongly believe that the change must come from within, and right now, the majority of the Saudis seem content with their separation, because of their lavish lifestyle and free benefits if you are a citizen. I know my relatives are split, some believe in the oppression, or are indifferent to it (grandmother, an aunt and two female cousins at the least) and some are against it.. (the rest of the family, including my father and my late grandfather... my father did say we moved here because I would get an equal education and be seen as achieving the same status as male, that is why he taught me to hunt and pushed me
into high professions, (a.k.a. professions that make $$$ and notoriety...opposite of my chosen profession), and he also did not believe in segregation of the sexes, even in the mosque, he did not create a dividing wall as some/most mosques do)

...but when you are provided for, why try to kill the gift horse?

I don't believe the US or any "western" power should invade, or force beliefs and "liberate the women, because it will be seen as imperialism, look how our other occupations worked out... and an insult to the religion itself ("Christian", secular nations invading the "heart of Islam" is reminiscent of the Crusades, that is what likely comes to mind for the Muslim , ....and yes, I am forcefully ignoringanti-relativist, such as anti-relativist Maryam Namazie who says by denying some practices while authorizing others, it won't be seen as a form of imperialism that will create a backlash...I'm sorry, but this case shouldn't compare to banning child pornography, where she says "it is as ridiculous... , it is like saying if we ban child pornography there is going to be more of it out there." Since her quote pertains to the issue of this post, I will have to say that it is an ignorant example that innocently skips through any analyzation. It deserves a critique. Child pornographers/abusers harbor a type of mental disillusion, almost a desperate sickness, that is not tied to a learned cultural belief system, it is tied to individual experiences,
and is not taught to them. Otherwise, if it was a learned cultural belief like a religious cultural belief, everyone (a majority) would be able to be persuaded into child pornography, and would be indifferent to the issue...but there is something inherent that
makes the basic human being against it, and human beings, for the most part, are inclined to protect the innocent instead of violating it. So that excuse has hollow evidence.

Anyways, I think that the oil has to either dry up, or the rest of the world has to STOP buying oil from that country, but it has to be a collective agreement with other Islamic nations in the decision process, not just he U.N./United States puppet, So it won't be seen as a "western" persuasion against the Islamic culture. Once the gift horse is drying out, the entire people will be uncomfortable enough to start a revolution in their own hands. I know it sounds slow, but that is what I believe will be the best way, and a way to UNITE Muslims for a cause within themselves,
not dividing Muslims into siding with "western/secular" powers or "fanatical/religious zealots"

For the time being, it is important for human rights campaigns to stabilize the current situation by helping to establish and push for SAFE houses that are really SAFE, and continuing to increase the transparency of abuses. I think actual SAFE communities would be necessary,
like a compound for women, and these need to be established from the inside, with transparency and government cooperation with the outside. Compounds are like mini nations in Saudi, mostly for families of the richer class, like my family where they work for the King's Hospital, and women and young girls are able to walk around freely in them, I only needed a hijab and not an abayyah...I didn't mind the compound, but once we were on the streets of Dammam, that is where we were oppressed and the it was like walking on eggshells.

I know people want a swift, "let's now go save the women!" move, but I think that would create a stronger divide, and add more ignorance of what is really needed, and what the people want, not what the west wants for the people.

These views might sound harsh at a time where anything hinting of cultural relativism is being gagged by staunch anti-relativists, but I'm looking at the long term health of the culture and the people themselves, instead of just instantly homogenizing it into a secular nation like all others. After all, are we not our beliefs? Do you create your beliefs, or do your beliefs really create you? What is beyond our animalistic physical being, what is beyond eating, sleeping, and fucking? Beliefs are beyond this. Values are beyond the animalistic nature, but in the end are reduced to just products of beliefs. I could see how the US could hijack this article/issue for future moves. I also can sadly see how the US population will be appeased with the move if it means better oil prices and
"liberating," cuz after all, "peace is our profession?" We like to chew on the excuse of "liberation" and then poop it out into "democratizing" the country. I love how women's rights in Islam weren't noticed until after 9/11, until after we saw how "unfree" those Afghanis were. Before 9/11, the Middle East was in the realm of "Arabian Nights," a place where it was so different, so far away, it didn't matter. Now, We are so free, we want others to be free too! ha, funny it is
coming from a republic. o, perhaps this country to rust out with all this irony.

Everything

2008-04-09T17:43:00.005-05:00

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another [theory] which states that this has already happened." --Douglas Adams

No-fly zones, misappropriated condemnation from the House of Representatives.
Meanwhile "Success" is Iraq, Iraq, Iraq.
Damn that crazy Olympic torch.

Found Art: Rural, Pastoral News

2008-03-31T17:48:00.007-05:00

The following was taken from my small town newspaper. Obviously, whole names have been left out to protect decency:

We had a nice weekend. Friday we had stations of the cross with about 6 attending. We had tomato dumpling soup and fresh bread afterwards and good visiting. Tina and Ralph were host and hostess.

Saturday Tina came to do her laundry and studying for her religion class. It's quieter here. James is a TV nut and her cats bother her when she's in the house. She has two cats, one big orange and white and one really big that is a mixture and I mean really big. She did my kitchen floor for using the washer and dryer.

Sunday after church and Tina's religion class we went to Vern and Chris's for roast beef dinner and haircuts. We also had Chris's birthday cupcakes. James and I got haircuts. Chris got a little too scissor happy. My hair isn't much longer than Ralph's Crew-cut. She cut the damaged ends off. So it will grow healthy now before my next perm. Its going to take some getting used to.

Vern is so busy calving, he goes to sleep sitting up. He goes out at 4 am to check them an several times a day and night. He and out other son-in-law Doug are really busy. Each have had twins. They went looking for a new simmental bull. Doug got one and his friend Clayton got one. So we didn't see much of Vern until coffee time...

Playing the Flaming Piano

2008-03-20T17:27:00.003-05:00

Fire, Fire, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.

Amid mounting opposition to the war and its costs,
A fast staccatissimo
cry of victory and fight them over there slurs was muffled in part by the
War Resisters League and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates of $600bn spent on Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq. Near Kirkuk, US troops shot dead three Iraqi police. Iraqi parents worry about the next mistake, tragic accident, and incident as their children, brutalized by war, are sincerely regretted.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Bear Stearns, sincerely regretted, incident, mistake, and tragic accident sends pouts of dollar woes as the Fed invades on ideological grounds,
removing the "risk" for JP Morgan with 30bn in troop reinforcements. Light sweet crude began being traded at $111.80.

Fire, Fire, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.

Selfish Symbiosis - let them eat cake

2008-03-11T15:40:00.016-05:00

Supply and Demand...one farmer profits, another farmer loses...As the world approaches 9 billion people...and we push great "economic growth".... praise countries when they approach middle-class status
Are we really seeing the whole picture? Or, are we in fact, not caring about the whole picture?

We still want wheat for our cheap meat and dollar menu, but ignore the people of the world who need to feed themselves as well, meat cannot afford to become a necessity.

It is a

Good thing that

we got our

Priorities

Right...

"crime against humanity" to convert food crops to fuel

But Dark Humor is always a relief.....it shows some Truth behind the chuckles..

Pop Sensations

2008-03-05T19:32:00.009-06:00

I have been struck by Pop sensations.
Amnesty International, Save the Children, Cafod, Care International, and Christian Aid criticize Israel's smooth criminals of collective punishment. Meanwhile, 8,000 people are still in slavery after being captured during the great Sudan north-south breakdown.
We are all locked in the basement of the private sector,
And American family radio just can't seem to get enough bibles to China.

I have been struck by Pop sensations,
Sensation play and the great Sado-"machoist" McCain, with "determination to defeat an enemy and a heart big enough to love those who hurt," invites me for more than erotic tickling as Lou Pearlman caresses my inner thigh with his silk money laundry singing nipple clamp false statements in the back, Conrad Black leather seat of his 2004 Rolls Royce Phantom.

I have been struck by Pop sensations.

Fear Mongering and Divine Evil

2008-02-24T18:04:00.006-06:00

God needs a spanking.

They do whatever they can to urge others to join them in their faith, but they are well aware that many will not fall into line, and they think that, if that happens, the perpetrator will be right to start the eternal torture. They endorse the divine evil. --Philip Kitcher

Women of Manila

2008-02-19T17:02:00.007-06:00

Although a quarter of the million is the “consensual” figure of historians, estimates of Filipino deaths from the war have ranged as high as one million, which would have meant depopulation of the islands by around one-sixth."Kipling, the 'White Man's Burden,' and U.S. Imperialism". Monthly Review 55: 1.
The Women of Manila protest a history of military intervention.
A history of the Spanish American War, the Philippine-American War;
Sold into American colonization slavery for $20 million.
Just ask the Treaty of Paris.
The Great General MacArthur, "liberator of the Philippines"
took part in an extensive "campaign"
to suppress the local population. One million of them.
His campaign also attempted to kill
everyone over the age of 10 years old.
He received the Medal of Honor for his work

The Women of Manila are still fighting MacArthur.
They want the US troops out now.
The U.S. closed down its bases in the country in 1992,
after the Philippine Senate voted not to renew a military accord
between Manila and Washington.
Yet as part of the "war on terror,"
thousands of American troops have been in the Philippines training
and advising on how to fight "communists" and "terrorists."

The women of Manila are not happy.

You know what they say about the girl that wears black panties...

2008-02-11T18:28:00.000-06:00

Is there a Happy Medium for.....Valentine's Day?
......Modesty?
......Liberation?
......Sexuality?

In a land where roses are on the black market, people pretend to be brother and sister in order to go on a date, and abayas are slipped over the lacy lingerie...

They may say there there is more to the veil...

but in the end, is it not just tromp l'oeil?

"Sexual love is a troubled and problematic relationship in cultures where there is a strong sense of man's separation from nature, especially when the realm of nature is felt to be inferior or contaminated with evil" - Alan Watts

A Conversation: Ron Paul comes to Fargo

2008-02-04T19:55:00.000-06:00

Me: I was invited to experience "democracy" in Action.

Jerry Lundegaard: Oh jeez.

Me: I know, in preparation for Super Tuesday, ya know.

Jerry Lundegaard: What the heck are ya talking about? What do you fellas have yourself mixed up in?

Me: The NDSU Campus republicans, God please draft them all, are hosting Ron Paul at 1:00 pm. Afterwards, with some irony, they are planning a "support or troops" event on Saturday the 23rd.

Jerry Lundegaard: Ya?

Me: Ya.

Jerry Lundegaard: Ya.

Me:Ya.

Jerry Lundegaard: Is he stayin' for supper then?

The $720 million dollar day

2008-01-31T18:36:00.000-06:00

It's a Quaker organization and I'm not so sure
about the 10 friend thing, but the common sense
is universal.

It seems like the same people arguing for Iraq are
the same people arguing against a "welfare state" of
School lunches.

Dance of the Ferret King

2008-01-29T21:09:00.001-06:00

Sound clip

The seven-headed Ferret King
and his mouse minions are no more.
Stuck together with blood, dirt, and excrement,
he focused almost his entire campaign
on Florida's orange juice,
But Fresh squeezed only 15%.

Audio file from This American life

Now who is the snake?

2008-01-11T17:49:00.000-06:00

Introducing the vagina's version of the "make my day law"

RapeX

Sorry Oprah, your advice of urinating on the attackers and fighting back doesn't cut it in the real world anymore, time to make the Vagina Dentata real.

RapeX is described as, "a new product that was developed to empower women to defend themselves against rapists"

Basically, a woman puts it in just in case a man will attempt to rape her. If he does, teeth sink in, it pulls out, and he as to rush to the hospital to get it removed, where he will be persecuted.

Yes, Rape is a very serious crime, but is this really the right way to deal with it...because this is actually NOT dealing with the intent/psychological motive of rape

I believe that this raises some psychological issues...

Victim blaming still occurs in many parts of the world, and in many cultures. But what is more personal is the strong instance of rape victims blaming themselves over the act, by harboring shame......as rape victims usually blame themselves (wrongly, of course), that little voice will say..."O, if only I would have worn the RapeX...if only I had bought that pepper spray." Just a FYI, Fargo suppliers were sold out of pepper spray one week after the Dru Sjodin issue...

This furthers the fear of every man being a potential rapist (like how the P2 movie furthered "every" women's fear of working late at night/dark places/parking garages/no cell phone service/waking up naked in sexy white cleavage dress to find the creepy janitor staring at you...this list can go on and on and on....)

So...here are some of the FAQ's from the site:

Q. When should I wear it?

A.

Should you have to travel long distances alone, on a train, working late, going out on a date with someone you don’t know too well, going to clubs, or in any situation that you might not feel comfortable or even just not sure.

Actually, 4 out of 5 rapes are "acquaintance rape." Women usually know the offender, or have a relationship with them. And only about 16% of the acquaintance rape victims actually report the crime....which means that there is a lot more going on than we even know about.

Q. From what age can this device be worn?

A. Menstruating age, thus 11-12 years of age.

But, more than 50% of the female victims were raped while a minor, and the majority of them were victimized by relatives...

And just to make sure you have good dreams before going to bed...

Q. What if I'm asleep and someone enters my house and tries to rape me?

A. Golden rule... keep the device right next to you. Remember it is very easy to insert, and very quick too.

Ironically, RAPEX is also the acronem for the "EU rapid alert system for all dangerous consumer products"

Just a related issue, here is a movie that is about the Vagina Dentata myth.

*Note: This post is not meant to trivialize or ignore the instances of male rape. However, due to the object of the criticism, it focuses on female rape.

Happiness and the warm gun

2008-01-09T16:34:00.000-06:00

My hands are busy working overtime.
We'll be back by February.
In the mean time, we'll be commenting,
not posting.
But don't worry, you Bobby Mcferrin you,
be happy.

that New Year's Break

2007-12-28T18:21:00.000-06:00

As we have been traveling for a couple of days and heading out again...here is something to get you in the party mood...ready for the great '08

Yummm....a bowlful of watered-down history

2007-12-18T13:10:00.000-06:00

Line right up, Americans...time for your daily SoyLent Green

Did Rudy Giuliani witness something that the rest of the world missed?

Or

Did the rest of the world acknowledge something that Rudy Giuliani is missing?

Oh Rudy, I understand that 30-second time limit for your TV ad:

- gotta use "Islamic terrorists" Because they are Islamic and "terrorists".....there's our 9/11 link

- throw in some "dictator" and "tyrant" along with the "terrorist"...because they are all the same to Americans, right? At least the good 'ol red+white+blue Americans that will vote for you

- no time to go into any of that silly Iran-Contra affair...that would require at least a couple of minutes....better time spent in the Rudy Introductory video, where it spends those minutes talking about how America is the "last best hope of man on earth"

Rudy must not be getting the same soup I have, for mine is overflowing with Nicaraguan blood.

Spare Me My Life

2007-12-10T06:51:00.000-06:00

Stoic acceptance of the accommodations
made when traveling
to the bandanna republic wearing "Wild West,"
where women know their place in the shopping malls,
where men are in business or in prison or in the business of prison.
People talk slowly, presidents emulate cowboys,
and everybody has a gun because shootings are common
and shootings are common because everybody has a gun.
Spare Me My Life.

Post of Zen

2007-12-08T20:24:00.000-06:00

(Silence and some white space,
you'll thank me later)

moderate-to-high confidence

2007-12-03T22:57:00.000-06:00

We, as Americans, don't often do this,
But it appears we may have missed an opportunity for another "just" war... OR Maybe not.

With "moderate to high confidence,"

We believe Iran is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.

(Picture is one of Banksy's latest creations)

Atrial fibrillation

2007-11-26T20:03:00.000-06:00

Over the "break," I was feeling danceable in flannel, touring all-night diners with my pregnant Styrofoam cup. Yes, I've been opening doors for it. It tastes like rice cakes, cardboard, and red meat conservatives. Mr. Dick has had four heart attacks and a quadruple bypass.

Sorry for the absence. My muse was in a secret detaining center, experiencing a kind of electroshock therapy. Doctors at the Washington University Hospital also gave Chaney an electric shock

"No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were to tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too..." Irregular.

Nietzsche in the Bathtub

2007-11-16T18:04:00.001-06:00

So...denying the issue of salvation leads to to such "scary" thoughts of science and...gasp...humanism!

I can't decide what choice would be scarier when "staring mortality in the eyes"....

a) snuggling up with the Bible in bed

b) thinking it is time for Nietzsche in the bathtub

A Belated

2007-11-12T16:19:00.000-06:00

I feel like a 1969 Jimi strumming a different kind of banner, alienated by another gunpowder filled Veterans Day as more than a dozen members of an antiwar veterans group were arrested while dusting off their civil rights. We're deafened in headaches of red, white, and blue vigils of nationalistic pride honoring the behavior of Benito Mussolini and Stalin's mustache.

The Elementary school had a "Wall of Peace." Once again, Jennifer Love Hewitt told us Veterans help keep the freedom of speech, travel, and purchase--the new american'ts Trinity.

A gods-blessed belated Veteran's Day wearing Stalin's mustache,
and an American flag do-rag.

Case Closed.

2007-11-09T19:24:00.000-06:00

Yup, no need to question creationism with that lovely cartoon. That looks like evolution in a nutshell...

And all that fuss about us privileged children of God sharing our created DNA with those lowly life forms like apes and flies?

.............Well, that's because the immaterial God ran out of material substances. Case closed.