Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed in an accident."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, his head cradled in his hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks.......... "How many is a Brazillion?"

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

• Remember that chick who shared the Purpose Driven Life with her captor in Atlanta? Turns out she shared more than mass-marketed evangelicalism with him. It all makes perfect sense now!

• And this one is really funny -- Pat Robertson has a "age-defying" health shake recipe available for downloading! From the website:

Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 2000 pounds! How does he do it?

Where does Pat find the time and energy to host a daily, national TV show, head a world-wide ministry, develop visionary scholars, while traveling the globe as a statesman?

One of Pat's secrets to keeping his energy high and his vitality soaring is his age-defying protein shake. Pat developed a delicious, refreshing shake, filled with energy-producing nutrients.

Discover what kinds of natural ingredients make up Pat's protein shake by registering for your FREE booklet today!

There's also recipes for age-defying pancakes, a weight loss cookbook, and different plugs for the South Beach diet and GNC health stores

Those who do not bathe, and those who do -- in cheap cologne, not water.

Many people deny that legalized gay marriage is the beginning of a "slippery slope" (a taboo term these days) for the institution of marriage. I couldn't tell you definitively whether or not this is the case, but I can say that the latest news from The Netherlands and Belgium doesn't come as a surprise. From the Brussels Journal:

...in the Netherlands polygamy has been legalised in all but name. Last Friday the first civil union of three partners was registered. Victor de Bruijn (46) from Roosendaal “married” both Bianca (31) and Mirjam (35) in a ceremony before a notary who duly registered their civil union.

"Bush is keeping track of Hurricane Rita as it hits his home state of Texas. That's Bush's worst nightmare: an electric chair with no power."
--Jay Leno

-

"Hurricane Rita is supposed to make landfall in Texas, which is good for Barbara Bush because she can insult survivors closer to home."
--Bill Maher

-

"Yesterday President Bush made his fifth visit to the area that received the most damage from Hurricane Katrina. In other words, the White House."
--Conan O'Brien

-

"The president believes the government should be limited not in size, Jon, but in effectiveness. In terms of effectiveness, this is the most limited government we've ever had."
--Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry

-

"Now here's some sad information coming out of Washington. According to reports, President Bush may be drinking again. And I thought, `Well, why not? He's got everybody else drinking.'"
--David Letterman

"I believe, myself, that George Bush is no kind of Christian -- he's pretending to be a Christian. He's not found God, he's found the party of God -- 17 million people who could propel him to power.

I always put it this way: Christians believe in the prophets, peace be upon them. Bush believes in the profits, and how to get a piece of them."

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 23 - President Bush was supposed to land here on Friday afternoon on the first stop of a tour intended to make clear that he was personally overseeing the federal government's preparations for Hurricane Rita's landfall. But the weather did not cooperate.

It was too sunny.

[...]

At the Federal Emergency Management Agency's command center in Washington a reporter asked him: "Sir, what good can you do going down to the hurricane zone? Might you get in the way?"

Mr. Bush quickly shot back, "One thing I won't do is get in the way." After explaining the purpose of his trip was to make sure federal, state and local officials coordinate well, he added, "We will make sure that my entourage does not get in the way of people doing their job, which will be search and rescue immediately."

But clearly someone at the White House reconsidered the President's impact. When Mr. McClellan announced that the president had scrapped his trip, he said that with the search-and-rescue team preparing to move with the storm, "we didn't want to slow that down."

Another White House official involved in preparing Mr. Bush's way noted that with the sun shining so brightly in San Antonio, the images of Mr. Bush from here might not have made it clear to viewers that he was dealing with an approaching storm.

["Three Wishes"], a tear-jerking combination of Oprah and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," sends Amy to make the "hopes and dreams of deserving people" in small-town America come true. In the first episode, Amy "grants" wishes to an injured young girl in need of expensive surgery and a lovable young boy who wants to surprise his stepfather with an official, public adoption ceremony. Later in the show, an Astroturf field not only brings joy to Sonora, California athletes, but to a cancer-stricken coach, too.

Some reviewers criticize the show's overt product placement and its nauseating sappiness, but the Times Ned Martel digs a bit further to uncover religion as an issue as well. Grant is trying play God in her show, and Martel is the only one bold enough to call her out on it. In his cleverly titled article, "Manna from Hollywood: Charity Begins on TV," he argues that "'Three Wishes' operates like a traveling ministry, with revival tents pitched in a different small town each week." He goes on to describe the masses of "unhealed souls" -- including Catholic nuns -- lined up with the hope of "Grant Herself" answering their prayers.

Every other day
Every other day
Every other day
Every other day of the week is fine (fine), yeah

[phone rings]
JERRY: hello. Oh, hi. What's happening? what? oh um, sure, um, yeah, okay, uh. I'll see you then. Yeah, yeah, Bye.
ELAINE: Who was that?
JERRY: That was Keith.
ELAINE: What's going on?
JERRY: He wants me to help him move.
ELAINE: Help him move? Move what?
JERRY: You know, furniture.
ELAINE: So, what did you say?
JERRY: I said yes, but I don't feel right about it. I mean I hardly know the guy. That's a big step in a relationship. The biggest. That's like going all the way.
ELAINE: And you feel you're not really ready for,?
JERRY: Well we went out one time. Don't you think that's coming on a little too strong?

[Kramer enters]

KRAMER: What's going on?
JERRY: Keith Hernandez just asked me to help him move.
KRAMER: What? Well, you hardly know the guy. What a nerve. You see wasn't I
right about this guy? Didn't I tell you? Now, you're not going to do it are you?
JERRY: I said yes.
KRAMER: YOU SAID YES!? Don't you have any pride or self respect? I mean, how can you prostitute yourself like this? I mean what are you going to do? You're going to start driving him to the airport?
JERRY: I'm NOT DRIVING HIM TO THE AIRPORT!
KRAMER: yeah yeah
JERRY: hey Kramer do me a favour.
KRAMER: What?
JERRY: Don't mention it to anybody.
KRAMER: I wish you never mentioned it to ME. [exits]

Seinfeld, "The Boyfriend, Part 2"

Antiwar Rally Will be a First for Many:

"This demonstration will reflect, by far, the most diverse group of antiwar protesters since before the war began," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, one of the event's sponsors. "We have people coming from all political persuasions, including a very large number of people who have never before been part of the antiwar movement or protest activity."

Officials with ANSWER and other sponsoring groups say they expect more than 100,000 people at the protest, which will include speeches at the Ellipse, a march around the White House and an 11-hour concert featuring Joan Baez, Steve Earle, Thievery Corporation and the Coup, among other acts. More antiwar activities will take place Sunday and Monday.

The next Worship Freehouse will be Sunday, October 16th at 7:00 p.m. in the hall above McGuires on 8th Street.

The theme for the next three Freehouses will be "Exploring a Global Faith" and on October 16th we will be looking at global and local poverty and our response to it. There will be some corporate worship, time for reflection, interactive stations, and if you want any food or beverages, McGuires will be staffing our room. If you want to help, fire off an e-mail to thefreehouse@gmail.com.

You can tell by the wind
By fresh cut wood
All stacked to dry
That autumn's here
And it makes you sad
About the crumby
Summer we had

With pine trees creeking
The raven's screeching
Just like the story my grandma tells
About when a bird
Hits your window
And someone you know
Is about to die

Autumn's here
It's ok if you want to cry

Find a sweater
And you'll be better
Until the kindling is tinder dry
We can be quiet
As we walk down
To see the graveyard
Where they are now
I wonder how
They brought their piano
To haldane hill
From old berlin
Be hard to keep it
Well in tune
With winters like the one
That is coming soon
Auntumn's here
It's time to cry now

I think that ghosts like
The cooler weather
When leaves turn colour
They get together
And walk along
These old back roads
Where no one lives
And no one goes
With all their hopes set
On the railway
That never came
So no one stayed
I guess that autumn
Gets you remembering
And the smallest things
Just make you cry.

Autumn's here.

We actually have one of these shaker-things in our apartment "gym."

Maybe I should take it on the Antiques Roadshow?

Welcome to Green Gables -- a photo set of our first apartment, complete with all of its "charms."

Incidentally, we just got a notice from the building manager. She apparently quit her job, due to frustrations with the crazy landlord. Part of her letter to the tenants: "I would like to apologize for any repairs or issues that were not dealt with in my time here."

Saturday, new place to live, here we come!

(I'll be adding pictures of the algae-ridden pool to the set tomorrow, in case you're aching for a swim!)

The Can-do Bush Administration Does... and the Presidency Shines (for twenty-six minutes by Tom Engelhardt.

NBC anchor Brian Williams' blog

Condoleezza Rica skips out on U.N. dinner on women's rights. I suppose she had "better" things to do?

Man builds up 40,000 volt charge of static electricity and instantly regrets touching the metal doornob or giving his girlfriend a kiss --

• "We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.

Quebec — The Quebec Labour Board has ruled that the closing of a Wal-Mart store this year amounted to a reprisal against unionized workers and has ordered the company to compensate former employees.

The labour board concluded that Wal-Mart Canada, Inc., failed to prove that the closing of its store in Jonquière in April was "real, genuine and definitive" as required under the Quebec Labour Code.

The board will determine the "appropriate remedies" for the former employees later. As many as 79 of the store's 190 former employees filed for compensation under the labour code.

During hearings, the board was told that the retail giant has yet to rescind a 20-year lease on the store building and has made no effort to sublet it. This led the labour board to conclude that the store could reopen and that, under the province's labour code, it was closed as a sanction against employees who were exercising their right to unionize and negotiate their first collective agreement.

[...]

In a separate ruling, the labour board rejected Wal-Mart's request to have access to the names of all employees who signed up to unionize in some of their stores.

The company said it needed the list to defend itself against the union's claim that the Jonquière store closing was an anti-union practice because it substantially reduced the number of employees who supported the unionization drive in Quebec.

The board ruled that, under the province's labour code, the names of persons who sign to become part of a labour organization during union certification proceedings must be kept secret to prevent reprisals.

Adversity builds character," goes the old adage. Except that in America today we seem to be following the opposite principle. The worse things get, the more frivolous our response. President Bush explains that he will spend hundreds of billions of dollars rebuilding the Gulf Coast without raising any new revenues. Republican leader Tom DeLay declines any spending cuts because "there is no fat left to cut in the federal budget."

This would be funny if it weren't so depressing. What is happening in Washington today is business as usual in the face of a national catastrophe. The scariest part is that we've been here before. After 9/11 we have created a new government agency, massively increased domestic spending and fought two wars. And the president did all this without rolling back any of his tax cuts—in fact, he expanded them—and refused to veto a single congressional spending bill. This was possible because Bush inherited a huge budget surplus in 2000. But that's all gone. The cupboard is now bare.

Whatever his other accomplishments, Bush will go down in history as the most fiscally irresponsible chief executive in American history. Since 2001, government spending has gone up from $1.86 trillion to $2.48 trillion, a 33 percent rise in four years! Defense and Homeland Security are not the only culprits. Domestic spending is actually up 36 percent in the same period. These figures come from the libertarian Cato Institute's excellent report "The Grand Old Spending Party," which explains that "throughout the past 40 years, most presidents have cut or restrained lower-priority spending to make room for higher-priority spending. What is driving George W. Bush's budget bloat is a reversal of that trend." To govern is to choose. And Bush has decided not to choose. He wants guns and butter and tax cuts.

Tonight we were supposed to be "creative" and explore our relationship with God via the unspoken word. Here's what I came up with:

Everything in my collage is taken from National Geographic magazines -- which felt sacrilegious enough, ripping beautiful pictures from an almost sacred anthropological source.

I'm not exactly sure how to explain what all is going on in my picture -- there's images or words of doubt, reassurance, memory, solitude, and comfort.

My favorite part of the collage is the picture of a rear-view mirror with the image of an old-timey church in the reflection. It reminds me that no matter where I go, or what path I choose in life, there's an aspect of my faith that will always follow me.

[Frederick is talking about TV]
Frederick: You see the whole culture. Nazis, deodorant salesmen, wrestlers, beauty contests, a talk show. Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling? But the worst are the fundamentalist preachers. Third grade con men telling the poor suckers that watch them that they speak with Jesus, and to please send in money. Money, money, money! If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

Frederick: You missed a very dull TV show on Auschwitz. More gruesome film clips, and more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. The reason they can never answer the question "How could it possibly happen?" is that it's the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is "Why doesn't it happen more often?"

MICKEY (V.O.)
And I went upstairs to the balcony,
and I sat down
(sighing)
and, you know, the movie was a-a-a
film that I'd seen many times in my
life since I was a kid, an-and I
always u-uh, loved it. And, you
know, I'm, I'm watching these
people up on the screen, and I
started getting hooked o-on the
film, you know?

The film cuts back to the black-and-white movie screen as
Mickey continues to talk. The Marx Brothers, as well as the
hundred-odd other cast members in Duck Soup, are kneeling
and bowing as they sing "Hidee-hidee-ho." They kick their
heels up in the air. They sway back and forth, hands
clasped, singing "Oh-h-h-h-h-h..."

MICKEY (V.O.)
...And I started to feel how can
you even think of killing yourself?
I mean, isn't it so stupid? I
mean, l-look at all the people up
there on the screen. You know,
they're real funny, and, and what
if the worst is true?

The movie cuts back to Mickey, sitting almost obscured in
the dark theater. The Oh-h-h-h-h-h's coming from the
offscreen movie are heard as he continues to speak.

MICKEY (V.O.)
What if there's no God, and you
only go around once and that's it?
Well, you know, don't you want to
be part of the experience? You
know, what the hell, it-i-it's not
all a drag. And I'm thinking to
myself, geez, I should stop ruining
my life...

As Mickey talks, the film cuts back to the antics of the
Marx Brothers on the black-and-white theater screen. The
four brothers are now swaying and singing and strutting,
their voices indistinct over Mickey's narration.

MICKEY (V.O.)
...searching for answers I'm never
gonna get, and just enjoy it while
it lasts. And...you know...

The film is back on Mickey's dark form in the audience.

MICKEY (V.O.)
...after, who knows? I mean, you
know, maybe there is something.
Nobody really knows. I know, I
know "maybe" is a very slim reed to
hang your whole life on, but that's
the best we have. And...then, I
started to sit back, and I actually
began to enjoy myself.

Wow -- heartbreaking beauty.

• Shining Through, a cheesy WWII flick from the 90's that I just adored when I was growing up. Melanie Griffith plays an American girl who goes over to Germany to be a spy for the Allieds against the Nazis. Back in my obsessive-complusive reading stage on WWII resistance movements, I placed myself as a spy fighting for the "good guys." Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era -- I love the clothes and music of the 40's -- and I think I have the body type of those times, as well.
  

• Erin Brockovich -- because it's a great movie. And it was only 99 cents.

• Bringing Up Baby -- Cary Grant & Katherine Hepburn -- for 99 cents? It's almost like I'm stealing. I love old movies.

• and finally, a French movie, Trois Couleurs: Blue with Juliette Binoche. I think you recommended me this movie ages ago. It got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, so I think it was a good 99 cent recommendation.

muddleheadedness, n.

The state or fact of being muddle-headed; mental confusion or foolishness.

One of my favorite five-year-olds now has his own photoblog -- pretty cool for a kindergardner!

All Four Seasons
Sting

With her smile as sweet as a warm wind in summer
She’s got me flying like a bird in a bright june sky
And then just when she thinks that I’ve got her number
Brings me down to the ground with her wintry eye
That’s my baby
She can be all four seasons in one day

And when the nighttime comes with no interference
To our warm summer love with all it’s charms
But like a thoroughbred horse she can turn on a sixpence
And I find that I’m back in mistress winter’s arms
That’s my baby
She can be all four seasons in one day

How will I know?
How can I tell?
Which side of the bed she takes when the day begins
She can be kind
She can be cruel
She’s got me guessing like a game show fool

She can change her mind like she changes her sweaters
From one minute to the next it’s hard to tell
She blows hot and cold just like stormy weather
She’s my gift from the lord or a fiend from hell
That’s my baby
She can be all four seasons in one day

Watching the weatherman’s been no good at all
Winter, spring, summer, I’m bound for a fall
There are no long term predictions for my baby
She can be all four seasons in one day

How will I know?
How can I tell?
Which side of the bed she takes when the day begins
She can be kind
She can be cruel
She’s got me guessing like a game show fool

If it’s a sunny day I take my umbrella
Just in case the raindrops start to fall
You could say that I’m just a cautious fellow
I don’t want to be caught in a sudden squall
That’s my baby
She can be all four seasons in one day
That’s my baby
She can be all four seasons in one day

• decades-old stained carpets (from the leaky floors),
  
• gaping hole in the bathroom ceiling (which still drips),
  
• one landlord who enjoys barging in on your privacy, without notice
• behemoths living in the apartment above yours (stomp stomp stomp)
  
• and now, a gaping hole in the bricks outside the kitchen window (which is letting in all the cool Autumn air).

[camera panning around] "And there's Steven Segal, wearing a Jefferson County SWAT uniform. I'm not sure why he's wearing that, but that's just some of the things you'll see down here."

• I'm watching (well, listening) to the Roberts confirmation hearings on C-Span online. So far, it's not as bleak as we all thought. Clips from here (can't figure out the hyperlinks): Roberts says Roe v. Wade is "settled as precedent" and has a statement on gender discrimination. I'm tentatively optimistic (i.e., at least he's no Scalia) -- a good summary of the hearings so far is here.
  

• Don't look now, but Bush is sounding presidential? Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders -- how un-Bushlike of him. I watched the video clip of him saying this -- and I was blown away by the tone of his message. For a moment there, I almost put aside my disdain for him. It's just a shame that a 38% approval rating is what inspired this -- but maybe he can put away his arrogant attitude and lead, for once. (today's statement is quite different than his attitude yesterday)

Of all the possible connotations Bush had in mind, that last is probably the least likely. Mike Brown would have made a terrible Girl Scout.

After all, the Girl Scout’s motto is, “Be Prepared.”

And the Girl Scout’s slogan is “Do a good turn daily.”

Mike Brown is no Brownie. I should know. I was a Brownie for a year, in second grade. I wore my little chocolate colored uniform with the matching beret, and I took the solemn oath. “On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.”

The Girl Scout Law: “I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, use resources wisely, and make the world a better place…”

Does this sound like Mike Brown?

We’re talking about a powerful religious constituency that claims the right to tell us what’s on God’s mind and to decide the laws of the land according to their interpretation of biblical revelation and to enforce those laws on the nation as a whole. For the Bible is not just the foundational text of their faith; it has become the foundational text for a political movement.

True, people of faith have always tried to bring their interpretation of the Bible to bear on American laws and morals—this very seminary is part of that tradition; it’s the American way, encouraged and protected by the First Amendment. But what is unique today is that the radical religious right has succeeded in taking over one of America’s great political parties—the country is not yet a theocracy but the Republican Party is—and they are driving American politics, using God as a a battering ram on almost every issue: crime and punishment, foreign policy, health care, taxation, energy, regulation, social services and so on.

What’s also unique is the intensity, organization, and anger they have brought to the public square. Listen to their preachers, evangelists, and homegrown ayatollahs: Their viral intolerance—their loathing of other people’s beliefs, of America’s secular and liberal values, of an independent press, of the courts, of reason, science and the search for objective knowledge—has become an unprecedented sectarian crusade for state power. They use the language of faith to demonize political opponents, mislead and misinform voters, censor writers and artists, ostracize dissenters, and marginalize the poor. These are the foot soldiers in a political holy war financed by wealthy economic interests and guided by savvy partisan operatives who know that couching political ambition in religious rhetoric can ignite the passion of followers as ferociously as when Constantine painted the Sign of Christ (the “Christograph”) on the shields of his soldiers and on the banners of his legions and routed his rivals in Rome.

9/11 and the Sport of God
by Bill Moyers

If this country's legislature and judiciary are supposed to
reflect the values and beliefs of The People, then send them
a message that they are WAY off course!

If you are tired of secularists telling you that The Lord has no place
in our government and our public institutions, then show them that
you disagree.

This symbol, this site, and this car magnet have been created for the
millions of Americans who support the President and his vision for a
government that embraces religion, morality, and family values. It
shows worship to the Lord, respect for the President, and hope for
all.

TUCSON -- I want to do something to help right now. But I can't give blood (my hematocrit always runs too low), and I'm too far way to give anybody shelter or a drink of water. I can only give words. My verbal hemoglobin never seems to wane, so words are what I'll offer up in this time that asks of us the best citizenship we've ever mustered. I don't mean to say I have a cure. Answers to the main questions of the day--Where was that fourth plane headed? How did they get knives through security?--I don't know any of that. I have some answers, but only to the questions nobody is asking right now but my 5-year old. Why did all those people die when they didn't do anything wrong? Will it happen to me? Is this the worst thing that's ever happened? Who were those children cheering that they showed for just a minute, and why were they glad? Please, will this ever, ever happen to me?

There are so many answers, and none: It is desperately painful to see people die without having done anything to deserve it, and yet this is how lives end nearly always. We get old or we don't, we get cancer, we starve, we are battered, we get on a plane thinking we're going home but never make it. There are blessings and wonders and horrific bad luck and no guarantees. We like to pretend life is different from that, more like a game we can actually win with the right strategy, but it isn't. And, yes, it's the worst thing that's happened, but only this week.

Two years ago, an earthquake in Turkey killed 17,000 people in a day, babies and mothers and businessmen, and not one of them did a thing to cause it. The November before that, a hurricane hit Honduras and Nicaragua and killed even more, buried whole villages and erased family lines and even now, people wake up there empty-handed. Which end of the world shall we talk about? Sixty years ago, Japanese airplanes bombed Navy boys who were sleeping on ships in gentle Pacific waters. Three and a half years later, American planes bombed a plaza in Japan where men and women were going to work, where schoolchildren were playing, and more humans died at once than anyone thought possible. Seventy thousand in a minute. Imagine. Then twice that many more, slowly, from the inside.

There are no worst days, it seems. Ten years ago, early on a January morning, bombs rained down from the sky and caused great buildings in the city of Baghdad to fall down--hotels, hospitals, palaces, buildings with mothers and soldiers inside--and here in the place I want to love best, I had to watch people cheering about it. In Baghdad, survivors shook their fists at the sky and said the word "evil."

When many lives are lost all at once, people gather together and say words like "heinous" and "honor" and "revenge," presuming to make this awful moment stand apart somehow from the ways people die a little each day from sickness or hunger. They raise up their compatriots' lives to a sacred place--we do this, all of us who are human--thinking our own citizens to be more worthy of grief and less willingly risked than lives on other soil. But broken hearts are not mended in this ceremony, because, really, every life that ends is utterly its own event--and also in some way it's the same as all others, a light going out that ached to burn longer. Even if you never had the chance to love the light that's gone, you miss it. You should. You bear this world and everything that's wrong with it by holding life still precious, each time, and starting over.

And those children dancing in the street? That is the hardest question. We would rather discuss trails of evidence and whom to stamp out, even the size and shape of the cage we might put ourselves in to stay safe, than to mention the fact that our nation is not universally beloved; we are also despised. And not just by "The Terrorist," that lone, deranged non-man in a bad photograph whose opinion we can clearly dismiss, but by ordinary people in many lands. Even by little boys--whole towns full of them it looked like--jumping for joy in school shoes and pilled woolen sweaters.

There are a hundred ways to be a good citizen, and one of them is to look finally at the things we don't want to see. In a week of terrifying events, here is one awful, true thing that hasn't much been mentioned: Some people believe our country needed to learn how to hurt in this new way. This is such a large lesson, so hatefully, wrongfully taught, but many people before us have learned honest truths from wrongful deaths.

It still may be within our capacity of mercy to say this much is true: We didn't really understand how it felt when citizens were buried alive in Turkey or Nicaragua or Hiroshima. Or that night in Baghdad. And we haven't cared enough for the particular brothers and mothers taken down a limb or a life at a time, for such a span of years that those little, briefly jubilant boys have grown up with twisted hearts. How could we keep raining down bombs and selling weapons, if we had? How can our president still use that word "attack" so casually, like a move in a checker game, now that we have awakened to see that word in our own newspapers, used like this: Attack on America.

Surely, the whole world grieves for us right now. And surely it also hopes we might have learned, from the taste of our own blood, that every war is both won and lost, and that loss is a pure, high note of anguish like a mother singing to any empty bed. The mortal citizens of a planet are praying right now that we will bear in mind, better than ever before, that no kind of bomb ever built will extinguish hatred.

"Will this happen to me?" is the wrong question, I'm sad to say. It always was.

You've performed so poorly that I'm surprised you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he didn't concede an entire metropolis to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the city of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not "lucky!"

I'm not saying you don't love this country, I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to you ... and what he's saying is -- TAKE A HINT.

from this week's Real Time with Bill Maher.
Watch it here.

• Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.

• Judge supports CNN request to cover Katrina's toll -- despite the Administration's attempts to sweep it under the carpet

• How Reliable is Michael Brown's Resume? -- This article especially interests me because I teach resume writing, along with the ethics behind what a person chooses to include. Maybe I'll use the article this term, and talk about the ethical implications behind Brown's lies.

• Gas went down a penny today. It's only $1.17/litre. How much is it where you are?

• Canadians beat U.S. Army to New Orleans suburb -- A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday.

• Flash cartoon Whoopsi Gras -- a carnival of ineptitude.

• Karen Hughes, the head of the US's "international image-building" says that New Orleans looting will tarnish American image abroad -- funny, I thought leaving your citizens stranded for 5 days without any aid, food, or water would present a larger image problem.

White Band Day 2 on 10 September 2005 will remind world leaders, meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York, that the world is still watching and waiting for them to make poverty history. The 2005 World Summit, the UN General Assembly Special Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, will be held September 14-16.

This is the first official opportunity to evaluate progress thus far and chart future action to ensure we achieve these eight targets for addressing extreme poverty by 2015.

This second Global White Band Day is an ideal opportunity to show the leaders of the world, before they head off to New York, that citizens will hold them to their commitments aimed at making poverty history. (link)

Movie Screening: T-shirt Travels: Cast Offs for Africa. This comprehensive program is about how our “cast-off” second hand clothes undermine local African economies that are already jeopardized due to colonialism, slavery, depletion of Africa’s natural resources and massive debt. Winner: Best Documentary, Atlanta Film Festival, 2001. Followed by musical entertainment featuring local talent: Dumb Angel, Aon, Paul Kuzbik, and Adelade. Sponsored by the University of Saskatchewan Students Union, SCIC, Oxfam Canada, Canadian Federation of Students, United Food and Commercial Workers, St. Thomas More Students Union.

the true form is to tide one over. In some slight defence of to tie one over, it is becoming more common, but it is a folk etymology (read “error” if you prefer) that has grown up because the word tide here seems to make no sense.

The phrase means that something—especially money—will see one through a difficult period and keep one going until things improve. An example from the Daily Telegraph from 31 August 2002: “As well as putting money aside, which can be used to tide him over when he returns from his post in Antarctica, Mr Bursnall can begin to build up a deposit for a flat”.

The idea is that of the swelling tide, which will carry you over some obstacle, with the implication that it won’t require effort on your part. It may be that it’s a deliberate echo of Brutus’s comment, in Julius Caesar: “There is a Tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the Flood, leads on to Fortune”, or it may at least be taken from the same idea of a ship, say, waiting for the tide to rise and carry it over the bar into a harbour.

• take it for granted NOT take it for granite
• supposedly NOT supposably
• state of the art NOT state of the ark
• duct tape NOT duck tape
• regardless NOT irregardless
• and my personal favorite: fetal position NOT fecal position

"I don't want to point fingers ... I don't want to play that ... uh, what is that called, Monopoly or Scrabble, what is the childish phrase this Administration demeans accountability as? ... [clips of McClellan, Bush, Chertoff, FEMA Brown saying "blame game"] Here's a quick observation -- when people do not want to play the 'blame game,' they're to blame."

"Well, there you have it -- New Orleans is to blame for ... existing. If you hadn't, then maybe this wouldn't have happened."

• Being back in an academic environment. There's nothing like walking the school grounds and finding yourself surrounded by people pursuing higher education (with most of them actually wanting to be there) -- I keep thinking of that line from the film You've Got Mail, about smelling a bouquet of freshly-sharpened pencils. Part of the allure of school starting back is all new school supplies! (and I've just now outed myself as a geek, I know)

• I'm teaching! And not only assisting, but actually teaching my own class! I'm excited, nervous, anxious to get started, and nearly ready for it. I won't be talking about my experiences teaching here on the blog, but feel free to email or message me, and I'm sure I'll spill all about it. If you think of it, send good thoughts my way on Thursday morning, that's my first official class begins.

• A regular schedule. Yes, I'm actually looking forward to spending time inside those hallowed walls, working and writing. I've got goals to reach, and this thesis hanging over my head is only getting in my way. Must write, but more importantly, must finish.

• Getting back to a workout schedule again.

• Very excited about this -- there is a new Tims in the Geology building. We already have one in the Arts building, but that's all the way across campus. Now I can get my caffeine fix at half the walk! (which means a lot when it's -30something outside)

• Losing much of my free time. Time to buck up and be responsible (which is never any fun). I'm a little worried that between my school hours and Jerry's shift work, we're not going to see much of each other.

• Losing the warm weather -- according to my husband, I'm continually in weather-denial. But it's a toss-up, this season of Fall. While I love watching all the leaves change color and drift down off the trees, I hate having everything so bare for the next 6 months.
  

• Negotiating packing, moving, and settling into a new place in the middle of a new term. Oh well, it'll be better than where I'm at now -- so this really isn't a complaint.

• New Orlean's newspaper, The Times-Picayune weblog -- which includes this Open Letter to the President.

• Last week, a top FDA Official quit over the political stalling of making the morning-after pill more accessible. Here's a special report on Refusal Clauses and the Fight for Birth Control.
  

• Hell freezes over and I agree with Jerry Falwell?! He's actually advocating civil rights for homosexuals -- it's not nearly where it should be, but it's a step in the right direction.

• Generous Orthodoxy conference -- where I'd be the second week in October, had I the money.

• Bush appoints Roberts to Chief Justice -- after he's had 2 whole years of experience as a judge. Talk about promotion! (but surely Bush wouldn't ever appoint someone inept and underqualified into an important position?)
  

• Bush 404 Error -- Bush's Crawford vacation cannot be displayed.
  

• Office of the Rentalsman -- a provincial office that mediates between renters and landlords. On this site you'll find a FAQ that details the do's and don'ts of the relationship -- including these gems:

• The landlord must keep the residential dwelling and common areas in a good state of repair and comply with all health, safety and housing standards set by law.
• The landlord must keep the appliances in good repair and make sure that the utilities (water, power, gas) work.
• The landlord cannot enter the tenant’s premises unless he or she has made an appointment and given the tenant at least 24 hours’ notice, except in cases of emergency or where the landlord has the right to show the premises after the tenant has given notice of termination.

• and The Residental Tendancies Act of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly -- which states:

Entry of premises by landlord
9(1) Except in cases of emergency or where the landlord has the right to show the residential premises to a prospective tenant during reasonable hours after notice of termination of the tenancy has been given by the tenant to the landlord, the landlord shall not enter the residential premises unless he has first made a specific appointment with the tenant, giving the tenant at least twenty-four hours’ notice.
(2) Subject to subsection (1), the landlord may enter the residential premises on any day during daylight hours except on a Sunday, a holiday or during a temporary absence from the premises of the tenant and the other occupants, if any, of the premises.
(3) Nothing in this condition shall be construed to prohibit entry by the landlord with the consent of the tenant given at the time of or immediately before the entry.

I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims — far more efficiently than buses — FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.

But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast — black and white, rich and poor, young and old — deserve far better from their national government.

Louisiana Governor Mary Landrieu
link

• Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

• The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

• Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck — a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress. link

Radio interview with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin

NAGIN: I told [President Bush] we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect.

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks.

And they don't have a clue what's going on down here. They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn -- excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.

[...]

WWL: We'll do that. What else can we do?

NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.

I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.

Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

"Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera were livid about the situation in NO as they appeared on H&C. When Hannity tried his usual spin job and said "let's get this in perspective," Smith chopped him off at the knees and started yelling at him saying, "This is perspective!" It was shocking.

Geraldo who I'm no fan of was crying, holding a little child up to demonstrate the extremely inhumane conditions these people are forced to live under. Forced is the right word because they are locked in the dome by our government and can't leave. Troops are guarding the bridge.

This goes beyond political lines and it's as sad a situation as I've seen. Let's see all the happy politicians slap themselves on their backs after viewing this segment."

Go watch -- I can't believe I'm advocating a FOX News broadcast, but it's that powerful.

(AgapePress) - Two Christian leaders in New Orleans are testifying to God's mercy in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One suggests that the death toll could have been much higher had it not been for God's mercy -- and the other that God may have used the hurricane to purge wickedness from the city.

[...]

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be felt.

“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again."

The New Orleans pastor is adamant. Christians, he says, need to confront sin. "It's time for us to stand up against wickedness so that God won't have to deal with that wickedness," he says.

Believers, he says, are God's "authorized representatives on the face of the Earth" and should say they "don't want unrighteous men in office," for example. In addition, he says Christians should not hesitate to voice their opinions about such things as abortion, prayer, and homosexual marriage. "We don't want a Supreme Court that is going to say it's all right to kill little boys and girls, ... it's all right to take prayer out of schools, and it's all right to legalize sodomy, opening the door for same-sex marriage and all of that.”

Shanks heeded warnings to evacuate New Orleans, and is currently staying with friends in the Jackson, Mississippi, area.

Link

This Friday (September 2) at 4:00 Bill Whatcott is planning to come to the University of Saskatchewan campus to do a “graphic signs display” and literature drop on abortion. Bill Whatcott is a notorious anti-choice activist as well as being convicted by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal of inciting hatred against gays and lesbians.

We are having a Pro-Choice demonstration to voice what the majority of Canadians support: continued access to reproductive choices including abortion.

Meet in front of the MUB building (Louis/Browsers) on the University campus where we will gather before walking down to the corner of Preston and College

this Friday, September 2nd at 3:30 pm

So the questions that have to be asked are:

Why weren’t the poor people evacuated? They don’t have SUVs. They travel by public bus. Could they have been evacuated?

Secondly, in terms of pre-positioning, where were the troops, where were the National Guard? If people were to be sent to the Superdome, why weren’t there cots and water and food there?

Second-guessing is easy, but it is also, I think, a requirement of those in a free society to challenge their government, when the primary function of the government is to protect its citizens and they haven’t been protected.

Tim Russert

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.

Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.

So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.

[...] At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.

Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.

So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.

• Following up the discussion below on "looter" versus "finder," read this article on Snopes or this Salon article -- each piece goes into a little more detail behind the word choice in the contrasting photo captions.
  

• Why New Orleans is in Deep Water by Molly Ivins

• MAYDAY Mississippi Delta -- news stories and entries from a variety of news outlets

• Waiting for a Leader -- the way the federal government have responded to this crisis is deplorable.

• Who Are You Going to Believe, Me or Your Lying Eyes? -- "Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff claims that food and water are being provided to refugee concentrations, and that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia"

• Lost in the Flood: Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage?
  

  When disaster strikes, Americans—especially journalists—like to pretend that no matter who gets hit, no matter what race, color, creed, or socioeconomic level they hail from, we're all in it together. This spirit informs the 1997 disaster flick Volcano, in which a "can't we all just get along" moment arrives at the film's end: Volcanic ash covers every face in the big crowd scene, and everybody realizes that we're all members of one united race.
  
  But we aren't one united race, we aren't one united class, and Katrina didn't hit all folks equally. By failing to acknowledge upfront that black New Orleanians—and perhaps black Mississippians—suffered more from Katrina than whites, the TV talkers may escape potential accusations that they're racist. But by ignoring race and class, they boot the journalistic opportunity to bring attention to the disenfranchisement of a whole definable segment of the population. What I wouldn't pay to hear a Fox anchor ask, "Say, Bob, why are these African-Americans so poor to begin with?"

Repeatedly, reporters refer to white victims clinging to life as "survivors" and "residents," while African-American victims doing the same things are called "looters" and "criminals." Disproportionately, the humanizing, "heart-breaker" stories feature white victims and families. Meanwhile, images of African-American crowds are almost invariably in the background during discussions of "criminal activity."

Yahoo.com's news page provided one of the most blatant examples of this kind of bias.

The website featured a photo of two white residents, wading through the water with food. The caption read: "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)"

Then there is a photo of a Black youth, wading through water with food. The caption reads: "A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)"

KLEINMOND, South Africa (Reuters) - A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker's penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.

"Nothing has ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time," Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the "rapex", a device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime.

Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year, while experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.

Ehlers said the "rapex" hooks onto the rapist's skin, allowing the victim time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators.

"He will obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage," she told reporters in Kleinmond, a small holiday village about 100km (60 miles) east of Cape Town. "I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital."

The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can only be removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital staff, and ultimately, the police, she said.

It also reduces the chances of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same way as a female condom.

South Africa has more people with HIV/AIDS than any other country, with one in nine of its 45 million population infected.

Ehlers, who showed off a prototype on Wednesday, said women had tried it for comfort and it had been tested on a plastic male model but not yet on a live man. Production was planned to start next year.

But the "rapex" has raised fears amongst anti-rape activists that it could escalate violence against women.

"If a victim is wearing such a device it may enrage the attacker further and possibly result in more harm being caused," said Sam Waterhouse, advocacy co-ordinator for Rape Crisis.

Other critics say the condom is mediaeval and barbaric -- an accusation Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape.

"This is not about vengeance ... but the deed, that is what I hate," she said.

Yet now being a resident of Saskatoon now for 20 years makes me appreciate living in Saskatchewan a little bit more. Sure it isn't perfect. We are taxed to death here. The Saskatoon city council amazes me with their inability to rise above mediocrity at best. The Saskatchewan Roughriders have only had one home playoff game since I moved here and they lost that. It can be a pain to fly in and out of Saskatoon. You need a 4x4 to navigate our paved highways in the summer, let alone the winters. The cold saps your will to live and in the summer, the 4 hot days do the same to you. Yet despite all of that, it started to grow on me. There are only a million of us here and a frightenly high percentage have mullets and still think Monte Carlo SS's from the late 80's are the apex of car design but it is a good place to live. I am not sure when I stopped thinking of myself as a Calgarian and started thinking of myself as a Saskatchewanite but I am glad to call Saskatchewan home (even if I do like to hang out in Calgary once in a while)

The president's 35-minute Air Force One flyover of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama was the perfect metaphor for his entire presidency: detached, disconnected, and disengaged. Preferring to take in America's suffering -- whether caused by the war in Iraq or Hurricane Katrina -- from a distance. In this case, 2,500 feet.

Apparently, the president "sat somberly on a couch on the left hand side of the presidential jumbo jet peering out the window" at the catastrophe below, joined at different times by White House staffers including Karl Rove and Scott McClellan. McClellan later quoted the president as saying, "It's devastating. It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground." Ya think?? Hey, here's an idea, Mr. President: maybe you should, y'know, get off the plane and see for yourself?

Instead, he jetted on to Washington for a brisk 9-minute Rose Garden speech designed to let us know that his administration was doing everything in its power to mitigate the looming PR disaster the flooding of New Orleans could create for the White House... Uh, I mean, everything in its power to aid the recovery.

"The Flyover Presidency of George W. Bush"
Arianna Huffington

according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, New Orlean's median income is well below the national and state averages, and nearly 30% of New Orleans residents live at or below the poverty line, including 43% of children under the age of 12. A comparison of poverty and elevation maps on the site illustrate how many of those residents were, and will continue to be, the hardest hit by flooding, as the bowl of the city continues to fill from levee breaches.

My desktop wallpaper.

One day [my daughter] Emma saw a woman walking toward us covered in a veil and asked the inevitable, "What's that, mommy?"

"Emma," I answered, "that lady is a Muslim from a faraway place. And she dresses like that -- and covers her head with a veil -- because she loves God. That is how her people show they love God."

My daughter considered these words. She stared at the woman who passed us. She pointed at the woman, then pointed at my hair, and further quizzed, "Mommy, do you love God?"

"Yes, honey." I laughed. "I do. You and I are Christians. Christian ladies show love for God by going to church, eating the bread and wine, serving the poor, and giving to those in need. We don't wear veils, but we do love God." After this, Emma took every opportunity to point to Muslim women during our shopping trips and tell me, "Mommy, look, she loves God."

One day, we were getting out of our car at our driveway at the same time as our Pakistani neighbors. Emma saw the mother, beautifully veiled, and, pointing at her, shouted, "Look, mommy, she loves God!"

My neighbor was surprised. I told her what I had taught Emma about Muslim ladies loving God. While she held back tears, this near stranger hugged me, saying, "I wish that all Americans would teach their children so. The world would be better. The world would be better."

Broken We Kneel
Diana Butler Bass