As this tonight is my third “Weekend Anthropology” Essay, I guess it’s officially a Series now. heh. Here are links for the previous essays, last week and the week before.

What I’m hoping to do with these is share some little discovery, a tale, a story or myth, of the “Folk” genre, global, multi-cultural, that relates in some way to our current struggles and living.

The tale I have for you tonight (below) is a Friday’s Eve story from Iran/Middle East that I share to show my support and solidarity for “the Global Day of Action on July 25th so the citizens of the world can stand together for:

* Civil and human rights for the people of Iran;

   * Stopping the abuse of power-the imprisonment, torture and killing?.

   * Solidarity with the Iranian people.

To our Iranian brothers and sisters: We have heard your voices, and you are not alone.

I’ve decided to open each essay with a prayer or blessing, to be sure Trickster gets his due set the tone. 😉

Sometimes I really wonder about myself. I have not been paying super microscopic attention in the past 24 hours, like I’d like to. Like I used to. Like I would if I could. But… sometimes, I wonder if that doesn’t make it a little easier to actually hear & see through all the alarms and smoke better.

Think about this and tell me what you think, dharmadears.

UPDATED with Daily Show Video link, Jon Stewart… below.

blah

Just a little… The past few days, it seems there’s been a bit of lunacy going around.

I don’t have the energy for much. It’s been kinda noisy around my house lately, and I don’t mean the YELLING LOUDER variety.

“Weekend Anthropology” … I started last Saturday with one, so I thought I’d try another. This is much abbreviated than before though.

“There seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn’t forbidden.”

R. Heinlein, The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress

As per Diane W’s great suggestion yesterday …

Monday.  Moonday. Luneday.

The Moon’s own day is appropriate to any work involving imagination, dreams, or psychic knowledge.

It’s also well attuned to issues of emotional health and healing.

Take a load off, Buhdy.

Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn’t burn up any fossil fuel, doesn’t pollute.

Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.

~ Margaret Mead

As Buhdy said recently, we do seem to be at a crossroads.

House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on: Legal Issues Surrounding the Military Commissions System



Wednesday 07/08/2009 – 10:00 A.M.(Eastern)

Here’s the list of Rep’s who are on this Subcommittee, includes mine (Jackson Lee).

Yes, Im reminding myself! On my way to bed. Will edit in the morning. If I remember! lol Should be on C-Span.

UPDATE: Missed it, couldnt find it and got busy. See below for updates from Greenwald’s column today.

Witness List

Panel I

Hon. Adam B. Schiff

U.S. House of Representatives

29th District, CA

Panel II

Lt. Col Darrel J. Vandeveld

Former Prosecutor

Guantánamo Bay Military Commissions

Deborah N. Pearlstein

Associate Research Scholar

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

Princeton, NJ

Thomas Joscelyn

Senior Fellow

Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Washington, DC

Denise “Denny” LeBoeuf

Staff Attorney

American Civil Liberties Union

New Orlean, LA

What the heck. Let’s play hookey.

Greenwald has an interesting piece today on the Uighers. He references an article from the NYT this morning which reports:

The Chinese state news agency reported Monday that 156 people were killed and more than 800 injured when rioters clashed with the police in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between members of the Uighur ethnic group and Han Chinese.

The casualty toll, if confirmed, would make this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years.

So, it being Monday (laundry day), I wandered off on another google-chase.

Apologies for making this a quickie. I have “company coming” this afternoon and I have to superclean  cleara path prepare. :-/

So. My daughter is 12.5, just finished 6th Grade. For a variety of reasons, I’m feeling like… well, it’s time. I’d like to take her to “Church” at least once in a while and so I’ll be doing some Church Shopping. More important, I’ll be talking to her, more than I have thus far, about all things God.

I’d love to hear from any of you who might have, uhm, an opinion, some experience, suggestions, or just stories if you feel like it. It’s Sunday after all.

A few more details below the line.

with liberty and justice for all.

Saturday, July 4, 2009, the Statue of Liberty crown will be open again for the first time since 9/11.

There are 25 windows in the crown which symbolize gemstones

found on the earth and the heaven’s rays shining over the world.

The seven rays of the Statue’s crown represent the seven seas and continents of the world.

Seven in military become citizens on Liberty Island

Saturday, as the Statue of Liberty crown opens to the public for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, seven members of the U.S. armed forces will be sworn in as American citizens during a special naturalization ceremony on Liberty Island.

I’m just gonna lose my damn mind. I’m reacting, partly, to some of the comments in the front page piece at dKos by Lithium Cola about forced feedings at Gitmo.

LC says:

President Obama has declared that America does not torture — an overly careful use of verb tense. However, even granting the present tense, and that the President’s claim is strictly about the current moment, the claim is false. According to the Red Cross report, force-feeding is never justified, is always torture. I am inclined to agree with the Red Cross. However, we need get into no debates about the morality of allowing a hunger-striker to die. It is inarguable that force-feeding a hunger striker who is not on the verge of death is a form of torture, and nothing other than a form of torture.  

There was a variety of replies, but this in an example of what set me off:

Force Feeding Is Torture (5+ / 0-)

I don’t believe that prisoners who starve themselves should be force fed.  If they die they die.

This won’t make much sense to most of you but I wanted something sweet tonight after this long day.

And I’m out of chocolate.

So.. .  here ya go.