A few weeks ago I forwarded an email about the FCC rule changes. The new rules would allow one corporation to own 45% of the media. The email asked people to sign an online petition that would be sent to representatives encouraging them to not allow the rule changes to go through. My friend replied:

"I'm such a cynic. Cleaning out my inbox, I came across this. I never even bothered to visit the site. I'm still not bothering. Not because I'm a big jerk, but because I believe "Them" when they say they only listen to lobbyists, and even then it's a major uphill battle, particularly if the lobbyists themselves aren't concerned in mass.

The reason I'm a cynic is because it's like a society-fulfilled prophecy in my eyes. Everyone expects corporations to consume the world, so when it happens, no one acts surprised and most people don't allow themselves to care for fear of feeling squashed under the weight of forces they don't even understand.

I'll have to participate in that conglomerate-run world sooner or later. My cards will stack right and I'll be a journalist, working like I do now, for people I don't know with agendas I can't see."

_________________________________________


I was thinking about that email yesterday and I thought "Cynics are cowards!" They act like they care, but they don't do anything because they've convinced themselves it doesn't matter. The House of Representatives just passed a bill that would block the FCC rule changes. Take that cynics. Even though Bush is threatening a veto, the bill has so much support that Congress will probably override his veto attempt.

Maybe the cynics are right and the FCC rules would have been blocked anyway. Maybe the activists are the silly ones, wasting all their time feeling self righteous and signing petitions. I don't know. I think some things are worth fighting for. I think over time petitions and letters and phone calls wear down the opposition. It's like a river carving out a mountain. It happens, but only with time and persistance.

He said this 139 years ago.

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

-- Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864

"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
- Woody Guthrie

Take that you silly music industry!

I am falling in love with the Yukon. i'm listening to that yukon radio station. I think the afternoon deejay speaks the native Yukon language. It's clicky, glottal, a little bit like Arabic, a little bit like a Texas drawl. I thought he was speaking English in a really thick accent at first, but it is definitly not English. More later! I have to work right now. The commercials are in English, and most of the people on the radio speak with that funny North Dakota-like accent.

"The gypsy wind is blowing warm tonight" I'm listening to Yukon radio on the internet. It's really neat! I was listening to a Louisiana "Americana/Roots" radio station earlier and they played some funny French songs. Sounds like hick music, but they're singing french.

I regularly love you, my dear.
You are there
in the morning along with my tea.
You're there,
in my shoes at the door.
As I drive down a road filled with cars
going slow,
each one with one person to sit and complain,
you are there.
Waving at me from the road
not aware of the tires rolling over your face,
I smile because you smile
silly and lovely and unaware,
you are there
And so I love you regularly
at 9 oclock, at noon.
At 3 pm at 6
when i close my eyes in deep sleepy slumber
I love you.
And all in between
doing the things that I do,
I'm doing them with you.

Sitting behind a tree,
I watch you row down the stream,
merrily, slowly and quietly
I hear your whisper.
Life is but a dream.

Dennis Kucinich is a vegan! That makes him more fit to be in the White House, in my opinion. This guy really lives by what he believes. I'm impressed.

Morpheus: How did I beat you?

Neo: Your pizza was too delicious.

Morpheus: You think my pizza being tastier, or having fresher ingredients, has anything to do with my ovens in this place? You think that's Mozarella you're eating right now?... We cook again.

(from http://www.matrixessays.blogspot.com)

"My loyalities will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spirtual dimension by one language or culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time." -Edward Abbey

Let your yes be yes and your no be no or you will be condemned.
-James 5:11-13

I decided Morris needs a more noble name. He will now be known as Morpheus, Defender of Humanity. He sleeps alot, but I think thats because he can't really play in his cage. He has a wheel, but his feet fall through and he gets stuck. His back left foot is floppy. I don't think he has any control over it. I let him run around my room tonight and he really enjoyed that. I made tunnels with the rug. I don' t think he even knows that I exist. Oh well.

Yay Kucinich! He has now been endorsed by Willie Nelson, Senator Tom Hayden from California, Ghandi's grandsun Arun Ghandi, and Granny D., the 90 year old lady who walked across the United States from California to Washington DC in 1999 to promote social activisim and political reform. Also, a bunch of feminists (Barbara Enerich, Angela Gilliam, Ynestra King, Gail Lerner, Grace Paley, Digna Sanchez, and Meredith Tax) have decided they like him. I don't know who they are, but thats alot of feminists! I like Dennis Kucinich, and I will keep hoping that he wins the Dem nomination. But I think that Howard Dean will probably win the nomination, and I wouldn't be too upset about that. My bird TA lived in Vermont when Howard Dean was governer and he said that Dean did an excellent job and is a down-to-earth nice guy. I respect my bird TA's opinion, so I hope that he is right. I would be very sad if neither Dean nor Dennis win.

My dad brought home a hamster last night named Morris. One of his customers told him that she needed to get rid of the hamster, so now he's mine. He's wonderful, but I think he's OLD. He mostly just lays there and sleeps, but he gets up every now and then. Poor little guy, when he has to go poop, he crawls up to the second level of his cage, and sits there with his little feet sticking in the air. Then he pulls the little poops out with his hands or his mouth! I feel so sorry for him, but it's cute. My cat is afraid of him. We thought she would want to chase him, but when I took Morris out of his cage and put him up to her nose so that she could smell him she jumped back about 3 feet. When he's in his cage she's not afraid, and she sits there and watches him. I hope he doesn't die soon, so I can take him to school with me.

I tried to go to sleep early tonight, but I couldn't. I just laid there and worried, and got nervous about things. I couldn't calm myself down. I was just thinking about school and the apartment and alot of different people and my future and this summer, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. Then I told myself - calm down, no need to worry, be peaceful. I feel so nervous sometimes that I can't control it. Most of the time I feel peaceful but sometimes I get so nervous and worried that it scares me. I get upset about some things in my life, and I dwell on it. I wish that life was simple. I got up and ate some pretzels and made some tea and sat on the couch and then I got on the computer. I guess I'll go to sleep soon. I'm almost done reading the first Harry Potter. Eyes are getting sleepy now.

WOW


"It’s time for America to resume its glorious journey. Time to reject shrinking jobs and wages, disappearing savings and rights. Time to reject the detour towards fear and greed. Time to look out upon the world for friends, not enemies. Time to counter the control of corporations over our politics, our economy, our resources, and mass media. Time for those who have much to help those who have little by maintaining a progressive tax structure. Time to tell the world that we wish to be their partner in peace, not their leader in war. Most of all, it is time for America to again be the land where dreams come true because the government is on the side of its people.

Unfortunately, America now leads the world in categories we should not be proud of. America is now the world’s leading jailer with an incarceration rate higher than China. We lead the industrialized world in poverty and in the growing gap between rich and poor. And we are the only industrial nation not to provide national health care. "

I just discovered how to play with colors. I appologize for how weird it looks! I can't work on it now, but when I'm done, this will be a Mighty Fine Blog. :)

I think I know what I am going to do! I think I would like to join Docters without Borders when I grow up. It really appeals to me. If I'm going to be a doctor, I want to be up to my elbows in it, and I don't want to have to worry about lawsuits. I want to go to different parts of the world and learn new things. I looked up info on the website, and it seems really neat. You don't get paid much, but its enough to live on. I would at least want to do it for a few years. While I ate lunch I daydreamed about being a valiant doctor in Central America, or the Congo, or anywhere. I haven't felt this excited about anything in a long time. I may decide to stay here, but who knows. I want to live my life with no regrets. I know my dad will try to talk me out of it, and my mom will too, if I decide to do this, but I have to make my own decisions. I read an article yesterday about kids in India commiting suicide in masses because of their final exams at high school. My cousins in Egypt go crazy every year at finals time. People hire tutors, and parents wait outside the school to hear the results. It determines the rest of your future, that one test. If you do well, you get into the college of your choice. If you don't do better than 80% of your classmates, you may not get to go to college, or you might go to a college you don't want to go to. My cousin Wiza wanted to get into the College of Science and major in physics, but she didn't make it, and so they put her in Literature. She doesn't have a choice. My dad wanted to be an engineer, but he missed it. His friend decided to repeat the senior year, but he didn't make it the second time around either. In India, more girls kill themselves than boys, even though on average girls do better. They say it's because girl's only get one chance to go to college, to have a different life than their mother's. It's your one chance to change your life. We have it lucky here in Amrika.

Good old Dubya

"Meeting last month at a sweltering U.S. base outside Doha, Qatar, with his top Iraq commanders, President Bush skipped quickly past the niceties and went straight to his chief political obsession: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Turning to his Baghdad proconsul, Paul Bremer, Bush asked, "Are you in charge of finding WMD?" Bremer said no, he was not. Bush then put the same question to his military commander, General Tommy Franks. But Franks said it wasn't his job either. A little exasperated, Bush asked, So who is in charge of finding WMD? After aides conferred for a moment, someone volunteered the name of Stephen Cambone, a little-known deputy to Donald Rumsfeld, back in Washington. Pause. "Who?" Bush asked. "