Author: miri

I finally finished the cross-stitch project that was supposed to be a Christmas present for my mom in 2001. Whew!

Sometimes I dislike his opinions, sometimes I don’t…but I always respect him for saying what he thinks. In a recent interview, Bill Maher talks about the comment that got twisted and taken out of context…and probably lost him his TV show. Looking at it now, he says it seems very tame and that the reaction to it just shows you were the public’s mind-set was at the time. He follows that comment with:

But you know, there was a good side to that time too. For about a month or two, this country was ready to change. And I will always hold it against this president for not taking advantage of that and asking people to really do anything to change.

Darn good point. We needed leadership, we were told to go shopping. We needed to understand the real issues, we were fed lines about “axis of evil” and “the evil-doers.” *sigh*

Oh my. Bono’s on the list of nominations for a Nobel Peace Prize. Amazing…and wonderful. He’s helped put together some inventive campaigns for international debt relief and AIDS prevention/treatment.

I really don’t know what to say about this other than…Bravo! I wanted to quote the whole thing here – I agree with that much of it. Here’s a tease:

This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption — the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future — is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. And it is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our — or some other nation’s — hit list.

I just put a pair of white ankle socks in my mailbox. You probably don’t want to know why. I just hope they get picked up before the mail-person sees them and fears what the future might hold…

There were tons of anti-war protests all over the world this past weekend. Here in Austin (supposedly Bush-country) one of the largest political rallies in the city’s history was held. Here are some great pictures.

This new DVD player is going to drive me to the poor house. I have terrible impulse control when confronted with movies I want…so far, the damage includes the movies Amadeus, Memento, The Fisher King and Witness and a box set of all the Sports Night TV show episodes. I really want the Criterion version of Brazil, but it’s so expensive.

Wow – further signs that Bush and company have ADD.

The United States Congress has stepped in to find nearly $300m in humanitarian and reconstruction funds for Afghanistan after the Bush administration failed to request any money in the latest budget.

Remember all those quotes about how America was going to help the poor people of Afghanistan get out from under the mantle of the evil-ones? How we weren’t going to walk away from Afghanistan after dropping bombs on them? How, after killing many innocent citizens of the country, we would “Marshall Plan” Afghanistan? Guess Bush didn’t remember all that… Gee, what support the people of Iraq have to look forward too!

Here’s another article about the denial of AIDS funds to organizations that support/talk about abortion as an option. Essentially, the current position states that if an organization has separate financial divisions for family planning and AIDS help, they can get the money. This way, the Bush can impose his own personal sense of morality while appearing to be “compassionate” at the same time. Of course, never mind that this compartmentalization demand is impractical.

But Planned Parenthood’s Sherk argued the policy is unworkable. Women, especially in poor countries, are unlikely to visit separate facilities to meet different health care needs. Additionally, the costs of setting up separate facilities would be prohibitive for cash-strapped nongovernmental organizations.

[Kirsten Sherk is the spokeswoman for international programs at Planned Parenthood.]

Why not just give the money to the UN-sponsored Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria? Oh yeah, because according to the Bush administration, anything not unilateral is bad.

Ah, yes. How predictable. There are some strings attached to that AIDS money that Bush talked about in his state of the union address:

President Bush has decided to allow organizations that promote or perform abortions in poor countries to qualify under some circumstances for part of the $15 billion he has proposed to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, an administration official said Friday night.

[emphasis mine] So, just under some circumstances? If a woman is HIV positive and pregnant with a high probability that her child will be born HIV positive (because throughout her pregnancy she hasn’t been able to afford the drugs that would decrease those chances), she will be forced to bring her child into the world – a child that will present an even further financial burden to herself and the government and for whom she won’t be able to afford the drugs needed to extend his/her life. That just makes no sense to me.