AWOL

The past few weeks have been stressful. There was a lot of screaming and ignoring going on between the FWOB and I, which resulted in my moving out of her apartment. I'm currently sleeping on someone else's couch now until I can find a new apt. Unfortunately, this means I no longer have immediate access to broadband internet, and I won't be posting very often until I move into my own apartment once again.

For those of you who are concerned, FWOB and I are actually getting along better now that we are no longer living in the same small space. Occasionally, I may be able to write new entries when I visit her, but these moments will not be daily, so assume that for the next month or two I will not post often (as you have already seen from the past two weeks).

I will continue to read everyone else when I can sneak some time online at work, but I won't have more than 5 minutes at a time to do so, meaning I probably won't post replies.

I'll write when I can.

It Was 40 Years Ago Next Month...

I've heard a lot of talk about how the reaction in much of the Middle East over a Danish cartoon has been proof of sinister hearts. This action reminds of so many news images yesteryear when American flags and full-sized uniformed effigies of presidents were burned almost non-stop in Iran and the rest of the neighborhood.

We in the west could not possibly understand this religious passion which compells people to to burn images of the someone who scorned a religious group...

...yet I take you back to the Summer following March 4, 1966, when a comment by a Beatle sparked a wave of bonfires across the Bible Belt in the United States. I don't defend the actions of rioters, however a little bit of understanding of other cultures before you force your superior beliefs on them is wise. Of course, infidels will be infidels.

Is the destruction by angry mobs of people in Syria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran and Afganistan simply the reaction to the a religious slur? I doubt it. The Beatle Bonfires of '66, though proof of the short-sight of the fundie mind, were non-violent (despite the provocations of the KKK). What is going on now resembles the race riots of the Sixties, when people who were angry at being held down for so long were ready to release.

Muslims in the Middle East have had their fill of the Western world taking over and are ready to take back what is theirs. The elections by Palestinians was only the start. What is going on now is exactly the kind of thing that the Taliban wanted, but failed to do with the 9/11 attacks.

Expect things to get worse if the West doesn't learn how to stop being a bully and a parent.

...Put Your Little Hand In Mine, There Ain't No Hill Or Mountain We Can't Climb...

I believe I experienced this Groundhog Day more times than I can recall any longer.


I woke up this morning to the same old songs that I've heard a million times:

• The police have beaten or shot someone in front of cameras AGAIN.
• Despite all of the progress we think we've made in wiping away bigotry and hate, some bastard AGAIN finds a way to prove that humans are animals.
• Western insensitivity meets Middle Eastern hypersensitivity AGAIN, proving that we will not "win" in this region by forcing our beliefs upon Islamic nations.
• The Bush administration continues to "fight" crime while it manages to cover up its own AGAIN.
• There are people who can shut down all compassion in order to take advantage of those who are suffering AGAIN.

Will I wake up to find something new, something unexpected, something that will bring me into February 3rd? Is there someone lying beside me in bed who has made it with me to the new morning? No, that's just my pillow. But wait, that song HAS CHANGED... Let's hope the wind has as well.