Waitress offered free kidney

Another one of those "Good things are from god, bad things are from...?"


Iran strikes back

(Not in the WMD-way, don't worry!)

Jodie Foster speaks out in defense of Mel Gibson

I think the way so many are not only shunning Gibson but publicly condemning him because of this incident is disgusting.

Again, why do we think we have the right? Where is the forgiveness? Who is this man to us? He's not our father or brother or husband. He's not a member of our community. He's simply an actor, an artist. Why do we expect his life to be an open book to us? Why do we expect him to be a model of virtue? What right do we, who are at most his fans, have to feel 'disappointment'?

Mel Gibson doesn't owe us anything.

It wouldn't matter to me if it had been Mel Gibson or George Bush who'd made those comments - my initial reaction would still be wary doubt over the sincerity of the words. What a person says when intoxicated... while we should not perhaps just forget it completely, cannot be held up as a true reflection of a person's heart.

Alcohol is not a truth serum.

"In 1940 and 1941, Lehi proposed intervening in the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany to attain their help in expelling Britain from Mandate Palestine and to offer their assistance in "evacuating" the Jews of Europe arguing that "common interests could exist between the establishment of a new order in Europe in conformity with the German concept, and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people as they are embodied by the NMO (Lehi)." Late in 1940, Lehi representative Naftali Lubenchik was sent to Beirut where he met the German official Werner Otto von Hentig and delivered a letter from Lehi offering to "actively take part in the war on Germany's side" in return for German support for "the establishment of the historic Jewish state". Von Hentig forwarded the letter to the German embassy in Ankara, but there is no record of any official response. Lehi tried to establish contact with the Germans again in December 1941, also apparently without success."

Lohamei Herut Israel, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel"


(I'm trying to Wiki-educate myself on the origins of the age-old conflicts in Palestine. Its super interesting! By the way, have I mentioned that Munich was a fantastic movie? Definitely worth seeing.)

[UNTITLED]

You did say, need me less and I'll want you more.
I'm still shellshocked at needing anyone,
used to being used to it on my own.
It won't be me out on the tiles till four-
thirty, while you're in bed, willing the door
open with your need. You wanted her then,
more. Because you need to, I woke alone
in what's not yet our room, strewn, though, with your
guitar, shoes, notebook, socks, trousers enjambed
with mine. Half the world was sleeping it off
in every other bed under my roof.
I wish I had a roof over my bed
to pull down on my head when I feel damned
by wanting you so much it looks like need.

Grief, and I want to take it up in you;
joy, and I want to spend it all inside
you; fear, and you are the place I can hide.
Courage is what leaves me brave enough to
turn you around and tell you what to do
to me, after. Rivers, and downstream glide
I; we breathe together. You look, or I'd
get scared, but you're watching while you take me through
the deep part, where I find you, where you need
to know I do know where, know how to drive
the point home. Wit: you get the point and flat
statement of a gift of tongues. I get
up, and you get me down, get lost, you lead
me home, or I take you, and we both arrive.

How can you love me with the things I feel
that scare me crashing on the window glass?
How can you love me when I'm such an ass-
hole (sometimes) I can't take hold of what's real-
ly there and use it, let you take the wheel
and put my head back as the truck-stops pass?
Where would we go that morning? Would the grass
beside the highway mount to granite, steel
and rubber take us far enough that I
could pull my ghosts out of my guts and cry
for them, with you behind me, on some high
stone place, where water breaks from underground
arteries with hard breaths, that would sound
like mine, letting them go, saying goodbye?


Marilyn Hacker

.

Book love, my friends,
is your pass to the greatest,
the purest, and the most perfect pleasure
that God has prepared for his creatures.
It lasts when all other pleasures fade.
It will support you when all other recreations are gone.
It will make your hours pleasant as long as you live.

- Anthony Trollope

"I still sense his magic..."

"He protected all whom he loved... It was only yesterday he roamed in my dreams … the tiger who hid behind an orange moustache, behind green eyes... They tell me he is dead but I still sense his magic. In starry nights he protected me from all that is wrong in this world. … He has found a new home. The tiger now lives in my heart."

- Soldier's daughter at memorial

Bhutan - Where the GNP is measured in happiness

(When I first took the intro course to International Development, our fantastic professor directed us towards at least one interesting website, magazine, organization, or project per week. One week he told us about the Developments magazine that's published in the UK by the DFID. Its a quarterly magazine and I've been subscribing for 3 years now. I've found the magazine to be a bit biased in its perspective at times; or should I say, very narrowly focused - its purpose seems to be first and foremost to show how great the UK's DFID is doing. But even so, its a very nicely put together magazine (and by that I mean, lots of pictures!) and it's a great way of finding out about all sorts of neat little projects going on in the IDS field worldwide. And its free! England delivers me mail for free! Yay!)

I was feeling a bit discouraged earlier because this afternoon I went down to the UofW to drop 2 of my 3 Fall courses. The reason for that is: my work sucks, they're not letting us do trades, and so there's no point taking 3 classes if I won't be able to make it to any of them.

I decided to drop Human Security Issues and Intro to Sociology and stick with Intro to Conflict Res. The 6 credits from the CR course can go straight towards my IDS degree plus it probably won't be as difficult a class as HSI would have been.

Then I went down to Don's to pickup some wedding photos... and I ran into Megan!

(Megan taught Elliot and I Restorative Justice last term.)

She had just returned from the Congo yesterday and was looking very happy and excited. She and her mom had gone down there for a week with a group of people from the UofW and Menno-Simons to act as international observers in the recent elections. She was full of stories of what they'd seen - riots in the street on the day before the election, for one.

Darnit, she told me a bunch of great stories but I seem to have forgotten them all... ah, well, maybe they'll come back to me later.

The great and cheery thing that I learned is that Megan's teaching Intro to Conflict Res this term at the UofW on Thursday nights! So I'm going to switch my slot from Wednesday to Thursday night. She's a great prof - very young but with an amazing amount of travel and life experience and a very charming way of 'lecturing.'

Now I'm excited about school again! Yay!

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

EMILY DICKINSON

Lady In The Water may be considered a "flop" by Critics but I loved it - imperfections (which there were, of course) and all.

M. Night may have yet to get it perfectly down pat, but I think he is definitely getting closer to It as he goes along.

(And that's more then can be said for most movie-makers... right?)

It reminded me of a crazy day dream - and by that I mean a dream that you dream in the day, half-waking, strange and surreal.

A little like a Gene Wolfe short story or a Neil Gaiman book (a la American Gods maybe...).

I think the little tripline "A Bedtime Story" sums it up perfectly: you need to be on the brink of sleep to appreciate this one - to have it scare you and to believe in it.

Oh, and the promo poster is... totally inaccurate in what its supposed to inspire in your imagination, in my opinion. It makes me think... winter, ice, fairies, magic. Look at it - you'd think she was Queen Jadis or something!

Piff.

*yawn*