The perspective of a present, originally uploaded by Becky B..

Last night we set up our Christmas tree -- kicking off the incessant christmas carols, movies, gift-buying, food and other elements involved with my favorite time of the year.

More pictures of our Tannenbaum here.

Here's a picture of me as an apparition at last night's Freehouse.

More pictures of the night here.

- Friedrich Hölderlin

I guess I was seven when I first heard the maxim that only people with small vocabulary use "dirty" words. I am 47 and I have just received a communication from a reader delivering that maxim as though he had invented it. The trouble with the cliche is that a) it isn't true; b) it doesn't take into account the need to use the resources of language; and c) the kind of people who use it are almost always engaged in irredentist ventures calculated to make "dirty," words that no longer are, and even some that never were.

The first point is easily disposed of by asking ourselves the question, Did Shakespeare have a good vocabulary? Yes; and he also used, however sparingly, profane and obscene words.

The second point raises the question of whether a certain kind of emotion is readily communicable with the use of other than certain kinds of words. Let us assume the only thing it is safe to assume about the matter, namely that every emotion is experienced by everyone, from the darkest sinner to the most uplifted saint . . . Non-saints, it is my thesis, have a difficult time adopting the manners of saints, and even if they succeed most of the time in suppressing obnoxious words, they will probably not succeed all of the time . . .

I had a reason to reach, a while back, for a word to comment upon a line of argument I considered insufferably sanctimonious. "Crap," I wrote: And the irredentist hoardes descended upon me in all of their fury. I have replied to them that the word in question is define in a current dictionary in several ways. That among these are meaning 2: "nonsense; drivel; Man, don't hand me that crap. 3. a lie; an exaggeration; Bah, you don't believe that crap, do you?" Notwithstanding that the word has these clearly non-scatological uses, there is an Anglo-Saxon earthiness to it which performs for the writer a function altogether different from such a retort as, say, "Flapdoodle."

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[from a "clarification" on its website] The Christian Speed Dating event scheduled for Friday November 26 is not intended as a celebration of worldly ways or a singles dating service. Rather, we want to encourage people to meet new people in a pressure-free environment and to freely enjoy being themselves in a safe environment. All proceeds from this event will be going toward helping students attending the National Student Leadership Conference over Christmas holidays. IVCF apologizes for any misinterpretation of the motives of hosting this event and any offence that this miscommunication may have caused. Thank you.

I slept through the night, I got through to the dawn
I flipped a switch and the light went on
I got out of bed and I put some clothes on
It’s a pretty good day so far

I turned the tap, there was cold there was hot
I put on my coat to go to the shop
I stepped outside, and I didn’t get shot
It’s a pretty good day so far

I didn’t hear any sirens or explosions
No murders coming in form those heavy guns
No UN tanks, I didn’t see one
It’s a pretty good day so far

No snipers in windows, taking a peak
No people panic, running scared through the streets
I didn’t see any bodies without arms, legs, or feet
It’s a pretty good day

There was plasma bandages and electricity
Food, wood, and water; and the air was smoke free
No camera crews from my TV

It was all such a strange sight to be home
Nobody was frightened, wounded, hungry, or cold
And the children seemed normal, they didn’t look old
It’s a pretty good day so far

I walked through a park, you would not believe it
There in the park, there were a few trees left
And on some branches, there were a few leaves

I slept through the night, got through to the dawn
I flipped the switch and the light went on
I wrote down my dream, I wrote this song
It’s a pretty good day so far

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

• Hotel Rwanda trailer -- a new movie coming out next month that looks interesting on all sorts of levels.

• Looking to mold your pre-teen into that ultimate consumer? Well, give her a Hello Kitty debit/credit card, and she'll be well on her way! I thought these were a joke -- but they're not.

• NYT article Giving the Law a Religious Perspective (user/password: grrrlmeets) -- An interesting take on my pal Jerry Falwell's Liberty University's School of Law. WWJS? -- who would Jesus sue?

• A good post from Daily Kos, a couple days ago: It's not religion, not moral politics, nor faith. It's mass-marketed *culture* and identity politics.

In my opinion, the problem with the church today is what I'll call "Christianity, Inc." (I think others have used this term before, but I don't know who.) Corporate America has seen Christians as a lucrative demographic that is consistent enough in certain beliefs that "formulaic" marketing can be effective (and here I'm not just talking about advertising, but marketing). I believe this trend first started in the mid- to late-80s and is responsible for a lot of the "political" shifts we've seen in church attitudes today. In short (and to simplify it a bunch), I believe that marketers are responsible for creating "Repuvelicals."

It tastes better than cough medicine, and now researchers think it may be better at relieving coughs, too. Dark chocolate may have health benefits to weigh against fears of tooth decay or putting on weight.

A chemical compound, theobromine, which is found in cocoa, has proved more effective at stopping persistent coughing than codeine.

Tests have so far involved only 10 people and larger studies are needed, according to a team from Imperial College and the Royal Brompton and St Bartholomew's hospitals in London and a Hungarian company. They described their work in an online journal published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

Doses used in the tests were equivalent to a 50g bar of dark chocolate, but the researchers said bigger doses might be more effective.

LAFAYETTE — This Fall, King of King's College welcomed its first candidates for a groundbreaking minor in pastor's wiving, the first such degree offered in the country. "After years of grasping in the dark, pastors' wives can now get all the knowledge they need in one place," says professor Helen DuLac, the minor's director.

The college created the degree in response to complaints from female Christian college students that they receive an overabundance of "book learning," but comparatively little practical help for their eventual careers as pastor's wives. "With a normal degree, I may learn a few facts about the first-century church," says Debbie Kraus, 19. "But what good is that when my women's ministry group wants me to lead them in making a cute and clever seasonal craft?"

The minor doesn't require any academic courses.

"To be a pastor's wife you don't have to speak Greek and Hebrew, just be able to listen to it with an expression of sincere interest," says DuLac.

In the chapel on the King of King's campus, twelve well-dressed female students sit on the front pew, their hair perfectly groomed, their nails painted a modest pink. Bibles are open on each lap. Though nobody is preaching and the room is all but empty, they nod and smile in silence, occasionally throwing in a demure "That's right" or "Amen."

Finally, an instructor with a stopwatch yells, "Time's up!"
The students collapse in their seats, rubbing their necks and cheek muscles.
"We have to do that every Sunday?" one asks.
"And Wednesdays, and special events," groans another.

These aspiring ministerial mates are learning how to smile pleasantly in the face of devastating criticism, how to lead women's ministry groups rife with in-fighting and how to worship in demonstrative yet non-offensive ways, appropriate to their church setting.

The professors take pride in "getting real" about pastor's wiving.

The election is over. The fight is not.

Bush's election is bad for the US, and even worse for the rest of the world. But elections are only one part of democracy. We need to think strategically about direct action, learn from a rich history of nonviolent activism, and develop new tactics to take on this administration.

Let's start from the start: Inauguration Day.

On January 20th, 2005, we're calling for a new kind of action. The Bush administration has been successful at keeping protesters away from major events in the last few years by closing off areas around events and using questionable legal strategies to outlaw public dissent. We can use these obstacles to develop new tactics. On Inauguration day, we don't need banners, we don't need signs, we don't need puppets, we just need people.

We're calling on people to attend inauguration without protest signs, shirts or stickers. Once through security and at the procession, at a given signal, we'll all turn our backs on Bush's motorcade and continue through his speech and swearing in. A simple, clear and coherent message.

The 2004 Conference on Refugee Realities will focus on the international refugee crisis, specifically the experiences or "realities" they may be challenged with. Through this conference, we wish to increase community awareness and involvement in refugee issues, at home and abroad.. The organizations involved (click here to read more about who is involved) are looking forward to working closely with the community to make this event a success.

If my dog is part Pug and part Terrier, does that make him a Perrier?

The preaching goes on, interrupted with dutiful "amens." It would be nice if someone would read this sad-eyed crowd the Sermon on the Mount, accompanied by a rousing commentary on income inequality and the need for a hike in the minimum wage.

But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so he can never get a word out of his mouth.

I would like to stay around for the speaking in tongues, should it occur, but the mosquitoes, worked into a frenzy by all this talk of His blood, are launching a full-scale attack. I get up to leave, timing my exit for when the preacher's metronomic head movements have him looking the other way, and walk out to search for my car, half expecting to find Jesus out there in the dark, gagged and tethered to a tent pole.

For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate -- in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that's become our culture. We pause. We make a small choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm. Together we say to Exxon, Nike, Coke and the rest: enough is enough. And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.

As Augustine advanced in leadership in the Church, he was forced to return to consideration of the problems of rhetoric that he thought he had left behind. Christianity is one of the world's most rhetorical religions in that it seeks converts. It actively takes the stance that it is important to bring others to accept its principles. The methods of including people in the Church are often rhetorical. Yet Augustine knew firsthand how dishonest rhetoric could be, how shifting in its principles, how unconcerned with truth. So in his work he confronted the question of how absolute truth might use a method that recognizes no absolute truths, how a doctrine of love and kindness could use a technique that seems attuned only to winning, and how a religion concerned with human ends could use a discourse that regarded itself only as a means.

"But we must beware of the man who abounds in eloquent nonsense, and so much more if the hearer is pleased with what is not worth listening to, and thinks that because the speaker is eloquent what he says must be true."

"God forbid, then, God forbid that with us the priest should applaud the false prophet, and that God's people should love to have it so. God forbid, I say, that with us there should be such terrible madness! For what shall we do in the end thereof? And assuredly it is preferable, even though what is said should be less intelligible, less pleasing, and less persuasive, that truth be spoken, and that what is just, not what is iniquitous, be listened to with pleasure. But this of course, cannot be, unless what is true and just be expressed with elegance."

Customs agent: Did you bring any fruit into the country?
Her: 250 of 'em. On bicycles.
Him: Purpose of your visit to Canada was to... "experience the greatest joy I've ever known seeing my gay son marry his lover."
Her: You got a problem with that [looks at his name badge] Buttz?
Him: As I explained to your son, the government of the United States doesn't recognize gays getting married.
Her: But you do recognize Britney Spears getting loaded and married one night, and having it annulled the next morning? Or two total strangers getting married for a million fucking bucks on television? Now is that the "sanctity of marriage" that you assholes are protecting?
Son: Ma!
Her: Well what is this? Not letting you back into your country, like your marriage doesn't count?! You know, if it's good enough for Canada and the queen of England, it's good enough for Buttz!
[silence. Buttz chortles]
Him: Ma'am? Do you like smoked salmon?
Her: What does that have to do with anything?
Him: Because if you don't shut up, you're going to spend the rest of your life in Nova Scotia! [stamps passport] Next!

Hey kids! Want to learn about the joys of pursuing a higher education? Then check out the newest toy from Mattel: Grad Student Barbie!

Graduate School Barbie comes in two forms: Delusional Master's Barbie (tm) and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie (tm). Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours:

• Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks of research or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first).
• Adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes.
• Comes with two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans and 5 year old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching "Go F*!k Yourself" T-shirt.

• Grad School Barbie's Fun Fridge (tm) Well stocked with microwave popcorn, Coca-Cola, Healthy Choice Bologna (99% fat free!), and small bottle of Mattel Brand Rum (tm)
• Grad School Barbie's Medicine Cabinet. Comes in Fabulous pink and contains Barbie sized bottles of Advil, St. Johns Wort, Zantac, and your choice of three fun anti-anxiety drugs! (Barbie Medicine Cabinet not available without a prescription)
• Grad School Barbie's Computer Workstation. Comes with miniature obsolete PC (pink of course), rickety desk, and over a dozen miniature Mountain Dew cans to decorate your workstation with (Mountain Dew deposit not included in price, tech support sold separately)

DAYTON, OH – With the presidential election decided in favor of George W. Bush, millions of evangelical Christians have returned to a state of political inertia, experts say. Content that their man will be inaugurated for a second term this January, these believers are gladly disengaging from the political process for another four years.

“Well, that should just about do it,” said Ryan Alcorn, scraping the W'04 bumper sticker off the rear window of his Dodge Caravan. “All this political activity has really left me exhausted. I’m so glad I don’t have to think about it again for a few years.” Tossing a hand-painted sign in the back, he continued, “Now I can go back to holding up my ‘John 3:16’ sign at Buckeyes games instead of the ‘Bush-Cheney’ one.

[...] Christian Pollster George Gallup speculates that this ebb and flow is consistent with the evangelical way. “Look at revivals, crusades, camp meetings,” Gallup noted. “Every couple years evangelicals realize they’ve been heading down the wrong path, and they find some intense way of correcting it. Then they figure they’ve done their part, and they fade out for another few years. Hey, so long as they remember to vote in the presidential years, it’s fine by me.”

This, too, shall pass.

The United States will muddle through, as it's muddled through before, because the idea of America, and the system that sustains it, is bigger and braver and more enduring than any single subpar president or collective brain cramp of the populace.

But it's so damn sad anyway. Once again, as Franklin Roosevelt put it, the only thing to fear was fear itself, only this time fear won. Bombast won, the Big Lie won. And of course George W. Bush won, with his staunch certainties in a scary world and his skilled retailing of "moral values" to an increasingly conservative base. Because this is what happened in the U.S. election: with jobs disappearing, deficits running rampant, their kids being killed in Iraq saving the world from nonexistent weapons, Americans rushed to the polls to keep gays from marrying and women from having abortions. The culture war somehow trumped the Iraq war -- evidence of an America not only fiercely divided but in deep denial.

The world, by the way, lost. So did reason, the poor, African-Americans, stem-cell research, the air and water, gun control, the cause of basic competence, the belief that the truth will out.

I thought John Kerry would win and I was wrong. I thought so because the majority of Americans told pollsters they didn't like where the nation was headed. The ship of state was steaming straight for an iceberg, the captain too stubborn to change course -- but in the end the people were too frightened or too distracted to change captains.

This, too, shall pass. Eventually, with who-knows-what consequences.

Yes, these are very sour grapes. This is a sour day, and whoever won was bound to unleash as much wrath as rejoicing. It's time now for Americans to unite and yet it won't be easy behind this president, who divided to conquer. His isn't the America I grew up in, whose values I was weaned on. That America wasn't run for the rich, the corporate, the Christian. It didn't attack other countries without egregious cause, didn't torture foreign prisoners. It was a beacon, not a bully. Of course, that was the idealized America of history textbooks, of John Kennedy's Camelot and Ronald Reagan's "shining city on a hill."

... So this, too, shall pass. Maybe Bush, for all his stay-the-course rhetoric, will discover moderation in his second term. Maybe this man, so unreflective, unrepentant, captive of the neo-cons, blind to what anyone else thinks or the price anyone else pays -- maybe the president who never admits mistakes will, in the post-campaign calm, acknowledge he made some whoppers and try to put things right.

Maybe. We can hope.

So I'm onto another book to read at night. The latest literary victim is on loan from a friend who's tired of arguing with me. :) Make that a friend who's willing to hook me up with some intriguing reading material, instead.

The book in question is Finding Faith, by Brian McLaren. It's a book that poses a lot of the questions that have been plaguing me lately -- along with a few answers. I'm not sure that I agree with completely everything that McLaren says, but it's been good to read.

Of course, as I'm reading this book, I'm encountering lots of passages that I want to either mull over or discuss further. I'm only about 100 pages into the book itself, but here are a couple passages that stuck out:

As I'll say again later, I don't think the greatest enemy of monotheism is atheism, agnosticism, polytheism, dualism, or pantheism: It is bad monotheism, monotheism carried out in bad faith. Show me a person who has rejected faith, and nine times in ten I'll show you a person or group nearby who turned them sour with their example of bad faith. The great spiritual need of our world, as well as of so many individuals in it, then (in my opinion), is good faith.

I'm surprised he didn't include pluralism in that list. That said, I have to agree with his assertion. Usually the most bitter people out there, in terms of faith, are people who have been wounded by others in their chosen faith. Anyway, I'm sure there's people out there that won't like that statement -- but I think there's truth to be found in it.

Next passage:

Rather, as someone who deeply respects the Bible, I think we do it a disservice by implying that it can do something that no book can. In spiritual matters as in used car sales, exaggerated claims may make a fast sale, but customers are soon dissatisfied, and eventually buyer's remorse sets in, along with a lasting distrust of the salesperson who overpromised and underdelivered. Promising absolute, unassailable certainty, even with the benefit of the Bible or any holy book, seems to be an exaggerated claim.

Nail. on. head. Down with "churchisms" phrases such as "inerrant" and "God-breathed." Down with all churchisms in general, I say! I'm just tired of hearing people spout to me these Sunday-school answers without a clue of what they're really saying -- besides something that sounds churchy.

Is my faith any less solid just because I don't believe we're supposed to follow to the letter every word of a book, written thousands of years ago, in cultures far removed from us today? No. If I can get something out of this book -- good. But as a friend once told me, it's time to stop reading the Bible as a rule book -- and time to consider it as a case book of people and their experience with God. It can be just as meaningful, if not more so, when I look at it in this light.

Finally, here's a quote from a fellow Savannah girl, Flannery O'Connor:

Whatever you do anyway, remember that these things are mysteries and that if they were such that we could understand them, they wouldn't be worth understanding. A God you understood would be less than yourself.

With that statement, this hoarse girl agrees and is for once speechless.

FRONTLINE offers two starkly contrasting images: one of empty storefronts in Circleville, Ohio, where the local TV manufacturing plant has closed down; the other--a sea of high rises in the South China boomtown of Shenzhen. The connection between American job losses and soaring Chinese exports? Wal-Mart. For Wal-Mart, China has become the cheapest, most reliable production platform in the world, the source of up to $25 billion in annual imports that help the company deliver everyday low prices to 100 million customers a week. But while some economists credit Wal-Mart's single-minded focus on low costs with helping contain U.S. inflation, others charge that the company is the main force driving the massive overseas shift to China in the production of American consumer goods, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and a lower standard of living here at home.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell and three other Cabinet members have resigned, it was disclosed Monday, escalating the shake-up of President Bush's second-term team. Senior administration officials said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was most likely to succeed Powell.

Link

Falluja the Widow
15 November 2004

"How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow." -- Lamentations, 1:1. Horrific American press reports from Falluja seem down peppy in comparison to coverage provided by the British press across the political spectrum. From the British Independent, hardly a leftist paper: "A drive through the city revealed a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles down, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets. The north-west Jolan district, once an insurgent stronghold, looked like a ghost town, the only sound the rumbling of tank tracks." Why is the American press soft-peddling this story? Perhaps because -- despite a penchant for sensationalism -- American media is uncomfortable with narratives of irrevocable consequences, especially when they're of biblical proportion.

• Bush Paints Rosy Picture of Iraq Situation

• General Praises Speed of Fallujah Assault

God: I wish you could have some permanence, a guarantee or two, the unconditional love we all long for. "It would be such skin off your nose?" I demand of God. I never get an answer. But in the meantime I have learned that most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of people.

Beyond Red and Blue (again)

GEORGE W. BUSH can now claim a clear victory in the popular vote for president, thanks in part to people in and around the city of New York. But the president got no reelection mandate from the citizens of Savannah, Ga.

Wait a minute! Doesn't the familiar red-and-blue map prove that the Northeast is indefatigably Democratic and the South irrevocably Republican? Well, when you go beyond red and blue, things in the electorate get more complicated.

on a sleepy endless ocean when the world lay in a dream
there was rhythm in the splash and roll, but not a
voice to sing
but the moon shone on the breakers and the morning
warmed the waves
till a single cell did jump and hum for joy as though to say

this is my home, this is my only home
this is the only sacred ground that I have ever known
and should I stray in the dark night alone
rock me goddess in the gentle arms of eden

then the moon shone bright and rounder til the one
turned into two
and the two into ten thousand things, and old things into new
and on some virgin beachhead one lonesome critter crawled
and he looked about and shouted out in his most
astonished drawl

this is my home, this is my only home
this is the only sacred ground that I have ever known
and should I stray in the dark night alone
rock me goddess in the gentle arms of eden

then all the sky was buzzin' and the ground was carpet green
and the wary children of the woods went dancin' in between
and the people sang rejoicing when the field was glad with grain
this song of celebration from their cities on the plain

this is my home, this is my only home
this is the only sacred ground that I have ever known
and should I stray in the dark night alone
rock me goddess in the gentle arms of eden

now there's smoke across the harbor, and there's
factories on the shore
and the world is ill with greed and will and
enterprise of war
but I will lay my burden in the cradle of your grace
and the shining beaches of your love and the sea of
your embrace

this is my home, this is my only home
this is the only sacred ground that I have ever known
and should I stray in the dark night alone
rock me goddess in the gentle arms of eden ...

You probably hate to admit it, but you're a lot like Bridget, aren't you? You have nights out that you can't remember past 9pm and still chuck up on the way home after drinking expensive wine you can't afford. You then proceed to attempt to seduce the cab driver/your partner/your husband before falling asleep ... still wearing big pants.

• Who's up for some green creme-filled Twinkies? These look seriously gross. The reviewer said that the consistency of the creme looked (but not tasted) like wasabi. Now there's an idea! Wasabi twinkies!

• This dvd will self-destruct in 48 hours. Really, it will!

• It looks like I missed some amazing Northern Lights up in the country this weekend. Luckily she recorded them via her camera.

• Just to prove to everyone that I'm fair and balanced some of the time, check out this pathetic attempt of conservative retaliation of another popular website: I give you -- We're not sorry. Wait, that sounded sarcastic, didn't it? Oh well.

• and finally, the results for 2004 American Movie President Election are in. No surprise, the ideologue Andrew Shepherd ("I'm Andrew Shepherd, and I AM the President!") didn't win. D'oh.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.Lo and Beyonce can take another bow. The booty-shaking stars have shaped the newest generation of mannequins, with hundreds of well-rounded plastic backsides appearing in shop windows across New York.

Bootylicious figures clad in tight low-rise jeans have spilled from the city's street fashion stores into more established labels.

"It's absolutely the trend," said Dwight Critchfield, creative director for mannequin firm Goldsmith.

"These mannequins look great, and there is a real sex appeal about them."

The recent pop culture fixation on large bottoms has been around since at least 1992, when rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot scored a hit with "Baby Got Back."

But some credit the recent booty shakin' efforts of shapely stars Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce for the fresh emphasis on bigger and rounder posteriors, coupled with the fashion explosion of the Brazilian-style low-rise jeans.

"J.Lo was the first to stress that women shouldn't be afraid to show their curves, and the popularity of rap made that shape more acceptable," said Critchfield. "And it is about these low-riding jeans looking good on a sexy, tight fit."

The company launched a "Sex" mannequin with "a larger booty and body" tailored for fashion label Express and for stores carrying lower-end trend clothing, said Critchfield.

On the juniors' floor of Macy's in Manhattan, Guess jeans and streetwear label EckoRed display jeans on a fuller rear-end bottom-half mannequin, known as a pants form, opposite a large poster of J.Lo and her clothing label, while a DJ mixes hip hop and reggae to teen and 20-something shoppers.

EckoRed launched the new mannequin -- called the J.Lo butt form -- at the store almost two years ago and sales have since tripled.

"It is a serious sociological trend that is positive for retailers and customers in that the tyranny of the undernourished perfect model is over," said Rich Rollison of Lifestyle Forms and Display, which designed the pants form mannequin.

Other companies also are developing more realistic mannequins with larger posteriors in maternity and plus sizes.

U.S. label Lane Bryant, which caters to plus sizes 14 to 28, is launching a more voluptuous full-body mannequin across its 250 stores after a successful test run in New York.

"It originated from urban ethnic street wear, but it has transcended that," Rollison said. "Now you are going to see it projected in more urban markets and it will get bigger."

Speaking for all of us grrrls with a largerish booty to haul, hooray for this! Now if someone can just explain to me why some mannequins have nipples -- I'd be set.

1. Empathize with your enemy.
2. Rationality will not save us.
3. There's something beyond one's self.
4. Maximize efficiency.
5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
6. Get the data.
7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
10. Never say never.
11. You can't change human nature.

Futility

Move him into the sun-
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds-
Woke once the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
-O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?

Sask. court approves same-sex marriage

SASKATOON - A judge in Saskatoon has ruled that refusing to grant same-sex couples a marriage licence violates their charter rights under the Constitution.

With Friday's ruling, Saskatchewan becomes the seventh jurisdiction in Canada to allow gays and lesbians to legally marry.

In a five-page ruling, Justice Donna Wilson decided that the traditional definition of marriage discriminates against gay couples.

"The common-law definition of marriage for civil purposes is declared to be 'the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others,'' " Wilson wrote.

She made the decision after hearing from five gay and lesbian couples who were denied marriage licences in the province.

Neither the provincial nor the federal government contested their application to have the definition changed.

When are people within the sealed box known as "the church" going to realize that Canada and the US are NOT CHRISTIAN NATIONS!

God isn't going to pour out his wrath because of a secular government in a secular nation legalizing Gay Marriages.

He may pour out his wrath for a church that has become more political than spiritual.

He may pour for a church that endorses war and the killing and murdering of creatures made in God's image.

He may for a church that spends 96.3% of it's money on Church buildings, facilities and staff and only 1.2% of it's income on the poor and needy (the VAST majority of what Jesus talked about when referring to money).

God poured out wrath on his OWN people Israel because he loved his children. Right now his "children" are collectively a bunch of snotty nosed loud mouth brats that need a spanking from daddy.

The President is a "saved" Christian (saved from alcohol, drugs and financial and political failure) and never misses a chance to profess his fealty, not to the man-made Constitution, but to Jesus Christ. His Attorney-General, responsible for defending the separation of church and state, composes and performs gospel songs and invites his subordinates to morning prayers in the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, John Kerry, the quasi-secular Catholic, made damn sure he was photographed with the proper forehead smudge on Ash Wednesday. Threatened by Catholic priests furious with his defence of abortion rights, he tried desperately to outdo Mr. Bush in his declarations of religious faith.

In the final presidential debate, Mr. Bush stated that "God wants everybody to be free" and "in Afghanistan, I believe that the freedom there is a gift from the Almighty." But Mr. Kerry, instead of simply affirming Article 6 and the First Amendment, upped the ante: "Everything is a gift from the Almighty." More recently, in a speech in Fort Lauderdale, he employed the word "faith" 11 times, while genuflecting to the enemies of liberty, those "great preachers and educators who taught the founders of our nation to believe that we could create a great and shining City on a Hill here in America."

Thus is a religious qualification for public servants, banned by the Constitution, in effect established.

Ironically, Mr. Bush outran the demons of his past on Tuesday, managing to live down the drunk-driving conviction that cost him votes in 2000. Mr. Kerry, no matter how devout he tried to appear, could not live down his pro-choice position and what was perceived as his excessive tolerance for homosexuals.

Mr. Kerry's reading of the Bible emphasizes Jesus's admonitions about tolerance and love. The President's political message implies that he worships God's power to smite, rather than Christ's generosity, and that he loves the money changers more than he loves his neighbour.

But the gospel according to Bush has carried the day. As a consequence, I fear that one of America's principal constitutional jewels has been permanently defaced. God help us.

Don't know about you guys...but the reality of Fallujah having the hell bombed out of it today is eerie.

I keep thinking of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

Here are some quotes from another "Christian" leader:

"We are all proud that through God's powerful aid, we have become once more
true Germans." -Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

"The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world
lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically
convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all
others." -Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

"Thus inwardly armed with confidence in God and the unshakable stupidity of
the voting citizenry, the politicians can begin the fight for the 'remaking'
of the Reich as they call it." -Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

Anyone who says Hitler was a pagan or an atheist has not read any original
documents and does not like to face reality. (http://www.nobeliefs.com/hitler.htm)

friendly
Americans have been complaining lately that Canadians aren’t as friendly as we used to be, we’re not as friendly. Problem is, when you think about the words American and friendly in a sentence it’s usually followed by the word fire.

My family is Canadian. I am proud to be an American. I’m proud to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world, and I’m getting really fed up with hearing all the criticism of President Bush and on the war in Iraq. I would not have wanted to be in the President’s shoes on the morning of September 11, 2001. I couldn’t have done a better job than he has in the past 4 years, and I know that none of you could have either. I’m not sure why the condition of America’s government is of such concern to Canadians. I don’t even know who your Prime Minister is, and to be honest, I don’t really care. I think his name might be Paul something. Really though, it doesn’t matter. I don’t go around pointing fingers at Canada and everything I disagree with about your country. I’m proud to have a President who seeks God’s face in the day-to-day decisions. His strength of character is inspiring.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout most of the country Sunday, paving the way for an all-out assault on the guerrilla sanctuary of Fallujah. Militants dramatically escalated attacks, killing at least 30 people, including two Americans.

NEW YORK - A 25-year-old man from Georgia who was apparently distraught over President Bush's re-election shot and killed himself at ground zero. Andrew Veal's body was found Saturday morning inside the off-limits site, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A shotgun was found nearby, but no suicide note was found, Coleman said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will renew a quest in his second term for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage as essential to a "hopeful and decent" society, his top political aide said on Sunday.

Seasoned Democrats are hardly strangers to being out-manoeuvred or out-gunned by the Republican election machine.

But the heartache John Kerry's defeat inflicted on his supporters was especially crippling given the belief that, this time around, they had more than held their own in a particularly bitter campaign.

"We'll admit to being heartbroken. ... It's a dark day," said Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn, the political action committee for the pro-Kerry grassroots lobby group MoveOn.org.

"I'm devastated," said Kurt Mangel, a Democrat in his 40s, who became actively involved for the first time in this election, campaigning for months in his home state of Pennsylvania.

"There's no anger; I just feel heartbroken," Mangel said. "I don't fear so much for myself, because I can go to Canada, but for my country and this 200-and-some-year-old dream that has worked so magnificently.

"I can handle that"

"Wow, there's a lot there"

"It's okay, it can be tight"

"Everytime I see one, I think of the Rocky Horror Picture Show"

"That looks like fun"

"I don't think I'd wear that for a long period of time"

"Wow. It's getting hot in here"

"I've heard about those"

"Everyone is going to eat it"

"Well, that's not too bad -- it has the potential to get worse"

"I remember this -- Rock on!"

Oh, Oh Deep water
Black, and cold like the night
I stand with arms wide open
I've run a twisted mile
I'm a stranger
in the eyes of the maker

I could not see
for fog in my eyes
I could not feel
for the fear in my life
From across the great divide
In the distance i saw a light
Jean baptiste
walking to me with the maker

My body is bent and broken
by long and dangerous leaps
I can't work the fields of abraham
and turn my head away
I'm not a stranger
in the eyes of the maker

Brother john
Have you seen the homeless daughters
standing there
with broken wings
I have seen the flaming swords
there over east of eden
burning in the eyes of the maker
burning in the eyes of the maker
burning in the eyes of the maker
burning in the eyes of the maker

oh river rise from your sleep

• 17 reasons not to slit your wrists [due to this election] by Michael Moore.

• How Bush won the election by Jason Kottke

• The cover of the Daily Mirror: "How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?!"

Deciding who is the trustworthy recipient of a secret or an honor, deciding who is worthy of the offer (or the acceptance) of a marriage proposal, deciding how to rear children and when or if they should be punished for wrong-doing (not to mention deciding what constitutes wrongdoing), or merely deciding whether to agree with the movie Pretty Woman that the Julia Roberts character has attained the highest pinnacle of female happiness by being lifted from her life as a public prostitute in order to become the private prostitute of a wealthy man -- all are ethical decisions.

Whenever we propose a theory of "oughtness" about how to live and a line of reasoning about how to achieve life's different "goods," we are engaging in ethical criticism. But since the various arguments about the various goods and their status are not self-ranking, we are forced to rank them ourselves. We must always challenge one set of goods invested with the power to work on their own. We must make the case, both in terms of the coherence of the theory and the moral reasoning themselves. Such argumentations is nothing short of a compressed way of respecting others as rational beings. One way we demonstrate that respect is by assisting others, at the same time we rely on their assistance, to become more fully possessed of the fundamental human powers of sociability, language, imagination, and ethical reasoning that we all share.

"Ethical Criticism: What it is and Why it Matters" by Marshall Gregory.

If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief — I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper — that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America — there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

-- Senator-elect Barack Obama

The realm of godblogs feels surprisingly like my sweet little New England town -- if random conversations in my town included discussing Leviticus with a minister and a Quaker half-Jews, or trading prayer techniques across denominational lines. The first time I got hate e-mail (in response to a post supporting the right of gays and lesbians to marry), I was furious -- it was as though someone had come to my tea party and thrown a drink in my face. Some days, the blog seems like a pulpit with an unresponsive audience; other days it's more like a theology powwow in a collegiate dining hall, where somebody's always pulling up a chair to join in.

And while blogs' interactivity sometimes facilitates flame wars, it also enables fascinating friendships. Most godbloggers report having befriended other bloggers or readers -- and those ties inevitably stretch beyond faith and geographical boundaries.

Still, the self-consciousness and self-reflexiveness of the larger blogosphere makes it worth asking whether our forums are connecting us in a meaningful way, or whether we're simply shouting past each other about our various spiritual worlds. Most likely, it's both.

...

The bonds that form across orthodoxies and faiths may simply testify to a basic dissatisfaction with public discourse about religion. Given mainstream reportage in the United States, it's easy to conflate "religious" with "fundamentalist." The Passion of the Christ, the Federal Marriage Amendment, the usage of "under God" in the Pledge of allegiance, and the question of whether or not John Kerry deserves Communion all got major ink this year, but for the most part the media didn't address the broader religious themes at the root of these topics.

Where media coverage often reduces discussions of religion to a battle between wild-eyed fundies and atheist culturalists, godbloggers live to show gradations instead of stark dichotomies. Most of the godbloggers I read don't fit the mainstream mold: We cherish our sacred texts, but roll our eyes at posting the Ten Commandments in schools. We blog our all night Easter and Shavuot and Laylat ul-Qadr vigils, but scoff at the televised National Day of Prayer.

...

True, pixels are no substitute for genuine encounters, but my religion places a premium on dialogue and text. Godbloggers are not only real, but, in a time when religion is treated more as a scapegoat than a source of strength, we're contemplating our faith and our place in the world, speaking up about what we think matters, and, when we're lucky, truly connecting with other human beings.

her: What to do about the fundamentalists..?
me: maybe the rapture will come soon, so they'll go away!
her: LOL

This afternoon I took engagement photos of two of my favorite people on the planet. They didn't turn out all that bad, considering I was the one behind the camera -- in addition to standing on the slats of the train bridge!

More pictures here and here.

I also believe the blog you have created has been an additional tool Satan has used to confuse you even more, not b/c you can put your thoughts somewhere (you can do that in a personal diary), but b/c people can say whatever they want on there, people who can confuse you, condemn you, or just make you angry. Do I believe in freedom of speech? Yes, most definitely, but I'm not going to give Satan any chance to confuse me or cause me to doubt God, so I just focus on prayer and His Word and I find the answers there. The same would happen if I delved into Satanism or witchcraft. I don't give Satan any chance to have a foothold on me in looking in the wrong places where he can easily overtake me and change my life forever. He causes people to commit suicide and murder. I mean, people have choices, but they choose death when he makes it look better than life. He's crafty and we have to constantly putting on God's Armour (Eph. 6) using our Sword, the Word as our weapon, our only weapon of defense b/c it's enough.

Wisconsin supporters of John Kerry and John Edwards had an extra reason to cheer the Packers victory over the Redskins [this Sunday]: over the past 17 presidential elections, the outcome of the Redskins' final home game has determined the outcome of the election. According to history, if the Redskins win, the incumbent president remains in office. If they lose, the challenger wins.

(link)

• "Our politics seems at times a public nightmare privately dreamed"

• "The quest for identity is the modern pilgrimage. And we look to one another for hints as to whom we should become. Perhaps these reflections do not apply to everyone, but they do apply to the persuasible, and that makes them germane to rhetoric."