Paint Stains

(Since it takes time to download and watch videos, particularly multi-parters...)

Essential BBC documentaries not shown on US TV
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/22/212041/57/454/425671

Too many tabs and windows open on my browser, so pasting the links into this post for later reference. First one's a depressing read:

Joseph E. Stiglitz: The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush

Students Wear Confederate Flag Shirts To Oppose Peace-Shirt Group

Environment plays key role in children's readiness for school

Scientists explore how violent video games are exemplary aggression teachers

Study reveals 'huffing' household chemicals connected to teen suicide (VOCs are being suspected for depression symptoms...)

Psychologists publish three new studies on violent video game effects on youths

EDIT
Adding another one: Violent TV, games pack a powerful public health threat U of MI

Conpassionate Conservatism at work: SCHIP family being Freeped
Read the comments pulled from (shudder) the right wing blogs. And this is the party and their supporters who claim to want to protect the "sanctity of life" and the "sanctity of the family", whatever the hell they think the second one means. Obviously it doesn't apply to any family that has a member speaking up for SCHIP. Any messenger of bad news must be deestroyed.

But wanted to post a link to this brilliant post from Digby:

http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/no_way_baby

I realized something not long ago. I was in the US for both the 2000 and the 2004 US presidential elections. Not that that did anyone any good, since I'm not a US citizen, but even my 2000 self--ignorant as she was in US politics--could see the cultural and political divide in the US between the states in which I experienced racism (sorry, but till now my gut reaction to the words "Southern hospitality" is to say "my ass") and the states in which no one even brought up (or sometimes even suspected) that I was from out of the country. I'd been in parts of the US where I've been cornered in really uncomfortable situations (till now I wonder if I was in danger), where black families were still receiving burning crosses on their lawns (really), and where the tension was undeniable, where people would look at me in fear out of the corners of their eyes, not looking, but still looking every few seconds, as if they were just fighting the urge to kick me into a crate and ship me "back to China", where they always assumed I was from. Always.

I do recognize my experiences as mild, really. What I always hated more, was telling my experiences to Southerner friends (non-racist, obviously) and getting complete denial from some of them. "No way! You were being over-sensitive! Probably just your imagination." Yeah, right. Can we please now acknowledge I wasn't imagining?

The Decider has decided him and his cronies can now open anyone's mail without warrant.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/01/bush_says_feds_.html

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/1-0&fp=459da19e3b054b87&ei=qiydRcHOC6iuHMCh5fAG&url=http%3A//abcnews.go.com/Politics/story%3Fid%3D2770381%26page%3D1&cid=0&sig2=iG_K9ez_Yo3oMbz9e69i-Q

Him and his fucking signing statements.

And "Land of the free", my ass.

Edit: This miniseries is fucking 5 hours long???

May 7, 2004: On the television network that his company owns, Disney CEO Michael Eisner dismissed the idea that forbidding Disney subsidiary Miramax to distribute a controversial new documentary by Michael Moore was a form of censorship. "We informed both the agency that represented the film and all of our companies that we just didn't want to be in the middle of a politically-oriented film during an election year," he told ABC World News Tonight (5/5/04), referring to Moore's Fahrenheit 911. (emphasis mine)

Of course, now Disney's ABC wants to air "The Path to 9/11" that rewrites the 9/11 Commission Report and wants to lay the disaster that was 9/11 solely at President Clinton's feet. Totally not George "The Pet Goat" W Bush's fault. No, no, no. (Glenn Greenwald demonstrates how this is utter, complete crap.)

The more I've found out about the "Path to 9/11" the more I have to fight the urge to hurl and catch the next flight out of a country that would produce and air blatant neocon propaganda made out of thin air, nevermind that they want to package it as "docudrama" (now with disclaimers!). It's a 2-part miniseries that is nothing but a 2-hour political smear ad against dems, history revisionism, and a gift to the current administration. Disney, fuck you. FUCK YOU. My hatred for you has only grown and grown the more I learn about your hell-spawned company. I will never, ever raise kids on your crap.

Click here for all the info you could ever want on this journalistic travesty

I've been steaming over this the last few days - literally too mad to do anything. That has stopped. I'm emailing everyone I can on this handy contact list provided here.

You want web forms? Click below:



Act for Change - ABC: Tell the Truth About 9/11

US Citizens denied re-entry to US
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/28/153423/097

For all those who blog and have web sites, ready to do something on September 1st?

http://www.impeachnet.net

Never did I think the twain would meet... but they just did.

Death Launches A Diary On Daily Kos

Thankfully, he doesn't type in ALL CAPS all the time.

On the downer side, nyceve covers the cost of anti-nausea medication for chemo patients in the US and contrasts it with the cost of them in Canada. I know you know they'll be cheaper up north, but did you know how much cheaper?

Art-wise

The con was pretty enjoyable. Part of it was having a con just 10 minutes away. The first day of the Con, we set me up in the Art Show and promptly came back home to nap. (I needed it!) The total space of 3 panels looked daunting at first, but it filled up quickly and some paintings were left off. Most of my pieces were originals (I have to display them somewhere, might as well be cons). I have to admit I was not very prepared in the area of prints - except for the Book Monster prints, all of which sold. (Nothing else did. The curse of the Book Monster!) Not that I'm complaining. It's nice to have at least one sure bet for cons.

Note to self: Make more prints. Learn, already.

Outside of the Book Monster, sales have generally been slowing on eBay too, and I hate to cop out and blame it on the economy, but I think it can't be avoided. I see the figures. They suck. Can I say it? I mean I am surprised and gratified to find anyone still spending their money on art when I keep in mind gas prices, inflation, stagnant wages, and etc.

But the con was very inspiring in terms of getting the motivation to paint. Really. Can't say that enough. It was great having time to talk with Patrick Meadows, who was very very kind!, William Nick Johns (his stuff is more vibrant in person than on his site, alas for online viewers), Daniel Trout (get your stuff online!) and Bob Snare (hmm...he's probably on DeviantArt somewhere).

I'm halfway persuaded to get a DeviantArt gallery but am still very afraid of the distraction it will bring.

Panel-wise

Generally lots of fun. As mentioned, this is the first Trinoc*Con where, in almost every panel, the current state of things/the adminstration was bemoaned to general agreement. In panels like "Writing as Social Criticism" and "Satire to Reality", it was expected, but when it pops up everywhere else, at a con that IMO has been apolitical before now, I am pleasantly surprised.

People should be mad. I just wish they'd been madder at the end of 2004.

And in the rambling spirit of this journal, I might as well tackle this now...

Good vs Evil and Dragonlance

Oh shit, I finally said the D-word on this journal after, what, 3 years? I left the series pissed because the good vs evil battle in the last Weis & Hickman books (I thought) were getting completely unrealistic. I wrote anonymous (and highly rated) critiques on Amazon.com, ranting about the weak "Good" characters, and how the Evil side had all the strong, conniving, charismatic figures. The evil characters preyed upon ignorance, apathy, personal greed and seductive brainwashing to win, and they were all too bloody successful, and reading the most recent MW&TH books in the DL series were an exercise in frustration.

My epiphany today was... I get the same fucking frustration today reading the US news.

And... Anne Coulter is the Queen of Darkness.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/15/132936/405

Recommend it, rate it, troll-rate it, your choice. I'm sorry it was so long, but the story does span over a year, and describe my personal experience with US healthcare. And then, I will probably piss everyone off by describing Singapore healthcare in contrast.

The topic of healthcare is big, and there are no easy answers. But my main thrust behind the piece is this: it is complete bullshit to believe that no better healthcare system exists in the world than the one the US neocons want.

Here's my journal entry on what we did this weekend.

I think I'm the little dot in the bottom right corner...



( Story behind the cut )

Photo Set on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48954456@N00/sets/1018132/

I have no idea if this link works:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48954456@N00/

But that's 80 photos chosen and cleaned up from the 185 I took. The earliest photos are in the last pages, if you want to go through them sequentially.

( Some of my favorite... )

There's more in my Flickr album, and the ones of the rally that show the incredible, mindblowing size of the crowds are in pages 5-7.


Technorati tags: protest, antiwar, peace, washington, politics, demonstration, September24