A friend emailed a link to a defunct blog. A Google search turned up a related post at The Last Crusade.  They assert that Maurice Clemmons, the cop killer, was  a prison convert to the Nation of Islam. They assert that an organization of  black criminals, claiming  Islamic association, is celebrating his ‘martyrdom’.   Bill Warner begs to differ click this link for details.

The  black militant site The Last Crusade links to has been pulled down, and for good reason.  Eliminate all fire, choke, spill, spew, and related hazards before clicking the following link. Make sure there are no hammers or guns within reach. Go take care of any biological necessities, because this site may induce incontinence and will certainly induce extreme rage. http://ghettobraggingrights.ning.com/ I can only tell you that the original link and this one share a common graphic of a very disgusting nature. They may or may not share common authorship or sources; I don’t know.

This link: http://ghettobraggingrights.ning.com/profiles/blogs/for-many-are-called-but-few claims that the murdering wretch will collect 72 houris for each cop he murdered.

72 x 4 =288 Virgins in Heaven

That link is to the WordPress blog which has been pulled down for TOS.
The next link :  http://ghettobraggingrights.ning.com/profiles/blogs/whos-your-favorite-officer is to a similar page, with the same graphic, and this offensive text.

Who is your favorite officer down?” Seattle Black Foot Soldier Alfred “Issaquah” Shafford is reported as asking in a rally to celebrate (what’s being called) the blow against the white terrorist racism of the Washington State Police Regime at the Steele Street Forza Coffee House that occurred early Sunday morning.

“For Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen.” BOW Martyr Against White Terrorist & Racist Police Regime (Maurice Clemmons) Adorned With Virgins, Jewelry & Crowned; “When the Battle is Over, We Shall Wear a Crown.” – Seattle Black Foot Soldiers

The rally came after a reported emergency meeting held by the movement to to map out plans for a street penitentiary protest and street party that will be held to disrespect tributes, memorials and funerals whites are expected to have for the terrorists.

Shafford advised brothers to prepare for street penitentiary protest and party unlike any previously known and to collect pictures and prepare effigies of the four terrorists for desecration and destruction.

“WE don’t WANT THE CITY LITTERED WITH FECES SMEARED PHOTOS OF THESE TERRORISTS. FOR THAT WOULD PROVE THAT WE ARE UNCIVILIZED.”

Wearing masks and dressed in black, it is reported that around a hundred local OOBAN Guerrillas were also in attendance.

A quick skimming of their blog posts page indicates that GBR celebrates murder, rape, racism &  sedition.  I did not find any evidence of genuine Islamic affiliation. It is possible that they have posthumously co-opted Clemmons  and mention Islam as a rhetorical flourish.

The bottom line: if any living person has or adopts the attitudes expressed on that web site, I want it in prison, a grave or exile. I do not want such a fiend loose in this society!!! The judge who granted bail to Clemmons ought to be up before the Judicial Review Board.

Indiana Jones was, is and will forever be one of the most awesome adventurers ever created. Harrison Ford has taken a ton of great roles and brought to life dozens of complex characters, but along with Rick Deckard and Han Solo, Henry “Indiana” Jones leads the pack. That’s why the folks at Sideshow have created a collection of 12-inch Indiana Jones figures that are now available over on CmdStore.com whether they’re in-stock or only on pre-order. We’ve got two figurs of Indy himself, Ernst Toht and Rene Beloqq.

Four of the figures are already ready to be snagged by fans, but you’ll have to pre-order if you want to get your hands on the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Indy or the devious Ernst Toht standalone figure. Check out the latter below:

If you’re a fan, you can also grab the DVDs of the entire film franchise over at Amazon.com!

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Special Edition)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Special Edition)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Single Disc)

Or just cut to the chase and grab…

Indiana Jones – The Complete Adventure Collection (Raiders of the Lost Ark/ Temple of Doom/ Last Crusade/ Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)

Over at Wired, there is a new article documenting huge plotholes in ten classic films. Some of them are fair, a few of them are not. One of them that is easily explainable is how Indiana Jones in Radiers of the Last Ark was able to ride the outside of a U-Boat (wrongly cited as a submarine) thousands of miles to a hidden Nazi base. The answer is the U-Boats only submerged under water to make an attack or to evade predators. They had standard diesel engines that required an air flow. They could only remain submerged for a short period of time.

The article also points out that in the Last Crusade, why would anyone care about the Nazis wanting the Holy Grail since they couldn’t remove the item from its temple. Taking the Grail past the Great Seal would destroy those that attempted it theft. Neither explanation can be considered concrete, but I feel they are satisfactory within the context of the films.

Moving on, there is a much larger plot hole that exists between the Last Crusade and the 4th entry into the series, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. While I thought the 4th film was awful and I don’t personally accept the film as canon, there are many (under the age of 17 or over 50) that do. I still consider this saga a trilogy. Nonetheless, if we are to take the 4th entry as canon, a huge problem arises coming out of the conclusion of the 3rd film.

The one wise choice made during the pre-production of the 4th film (filmed 20 years after the 3rd film) was that Harrison Ford was 20 years older, in his 60s, and that no one would buy him playing a 40-year-old man like he did in the first three films set in the 1930s. A decision was made to have Indy be in his 50s/60s and set the film in the 1950s. Additionally, Sean Connery stated that he would not reprise his role as Dr. Henry Jones Sr..

Two problems arise from this. At the end of The Last Crusade, the Jones’ drink from the Holy Grail which grants immortality. How come Indy visibly looks 20 years older in the 4th film? He shouldn’t age after drinking from the Cup of Christ (so the legend says). Furthermore, Spielberg and Lucas made a conscious decision to show a picture of Connery’s character with Indy saying, “Dad had died”. I thought Dad was immortal? Wouldn’t have been better to ignore the character all together?

The second plot-hole is unforgivable and unneeded, but there was obviously nothing that could have been done to combat the first problem since the actor, Harrison Ford, is mortal, unless of course they didn’t make the film in the first place. Oh, yeah wait, that’s probably what they should have done.

#3 He Never Quits

Having the will and the drive to make the impossible possible. When all of your gadgets and gizmos fail, do you have the will power and the tenacity to keep going on strong?

Do you have the drive and willpower to keep yourself and OTHERS moving forward? This is what intrigues me about the new James Bond. He is depicted as a man not easily detoured from his objective. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a die hard 007 fan and always will be. But the movies of old depict Bond as a character who is easily shifted from his objective for a random bikini or thong. It seems as though more luck than skill allowed him to keep up with his targets. The new Bond makes it clear that the enemy never sleeps and never slows down and that if you so much as think about quitting that he WILL get away. This is the reality that we live in, and this is what Indiana Jones does exceptionally well. He will traverse the globe to get what he wants and stop evil wherever it may be. He is so persistent that his enemies constantly tell their underlings “Do not underestimate Jones”, even though they often do. And due to his willpower and tenacity he always finds himself peering over at their doom as he wins the day.

Sure, he's taking a beating now, but anyone who has seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade knows that the beating that he gives those guys on the tank later makes up for it. How many of us as leaders quit at this point before we get to fight back?

You know what? Fuck Chuck Norris. Sean Connery is a real winner.

And today that suave, woman-hating Scottish bastard is 79 years old! And still in a league of extraordinary gentlemen all of his own.

And, of course, it doesn’t even have to be said -  but of course it has to be said! – the man wasn’t just James Bond, HE WAS JAMES BOND. They had tried to get this character off the page and onto the screen before, and it was a miserable failure. And Sean, the former bodybuilder who won a contest, created and dominated the mindset of this character, well, ever since then. Granted, he had some help from the director of some of the early Bond films, Terence Young, who really hammered some slightly gentlemanly qualities into the Scottish rogue, but even still.

Sean Connery with Ursula Andress on the set of Dr. No.

Sean Connery was the original Clive Owen. The man is all brute, all animal. But he operated with this masculine sense of cheese and charm that makes the fact that the early Bond was certainly an asshole and sometimes acted like a bit of a rapist and made you like him. Made you want to be him, made you want to go on an adventure with him, made you want to be the victim of some of his horrible advances.

And typically when we talk about the quality of the successive actors to inhabit the role of James Bond, it’s usually in a Sean Connery yard stick.

In fact, when Sean briefly left the series after You Only Live Twice before of financial disputes, so heavy was the loss to the series, that the opening (see below) of the following film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in the series had to use a meta moment of breaking the fourth wall to actually inform the audience that the filmmakers were well aware that this new guy was not Sean Connery.

Defying all the odds, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was actually a truly great film, but it’s star, Australian model George Lazenby, didn’t stay in the role, leaving the series because of, again, disputes over pay with the producers. So who did they call back? Sean Fucking Connery. Of course.

This is about Sean Connery, not Bond history in general, so I’ll spare you a lot of details about the how’s and the why’s of the Great Bond Battle of 1983: Sean Connery’s Never Say Never Again (the title coming from it’s star’s declaration that he would never play the role of British superspy 007 again) and Roger Moore’s Octopussy. When the dust settled, Octopussy actually won at the box office but poor Roger Moore lost at a much more serious game, the eternal tournament of life called YOU ARE NOT SEAN CONNERY, SIR.

This is a man that could appear in a (classic) film like Zardoz like this…

…and not give a shit. Ah, Zardoz. Look at that outfit. Who knows what that tells you if you’ve never seen the underrated sci fi classic. Obviously, you can guess it’s just ridiculous. And Sean Connery is his brutal best in it, playing a hunter and a cad, some of the things he’s at his best doing, it would seem.

And see, that’s the thing about Connery. He’s a good, solid actor. And he’s appeared in many a film of real, strong quality. And he’s also appeared in just outright shitty movies too, like The Avengers and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Or Entrapment. But he’s also been in a lot of really in between movies that are maybe ridiculous, but fun and good in different ways. Maybe just because of him, like Rising Sun starring Wesley Snipes. I mean, that movie, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, is a fucking joke, and I still love it. Or Medicine Man. Oh my God that movie is silly. The same with The Hunt For Red October. But it’s Sean Connery. It’s the man who claimed that he was offered the role of Morpheus in The Matrix and Gandalf in The Lord Of The Rings and turned them down and he’s going to do his own thing.

“An open-handed slap is justified – if all other alternatives fail and there has been plenty of warning. If a woman is a bitch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded continually, then I’d do it.”

-Sean Connery, in an interview with Playboy magazine, 1965.

Even his misogyny is ridiculous and lovable. You applaud the things he says the same way you do Don Draper, the difference, of course, being that Don Draper is a fictional character sending up the way we were and Sean Connery is a guy who, well… he’s from a previous generation, alright? And it’s one who’s values we’ve hopefully (started to) migrate from distantly.

“There are women who take it to the wire. That’s what they are looking for, the ultimate confrontation. They want a smack.”

-Sean Connery, in an interview with Barbara Walters in 1987.

You have to wonder how off some of those SNL Jeopardy skits were, right?

And he’s got the voice. Someday there needs to be a Pixar comedy that’s entirely voiced by Sean Connery and James Earl Jones, just having a massive distinct voice off.

I think I could probably sit here and jack off a list of all the great Sean Connery movies out there. And you’d read it and you’d just nod your head, saying, “Yeah!” or however you exclaim excitement and enthusiasm. But whatever film or role of his you know and like the best, my point is that you have one. He may not be your most beloved actor, but you recognize this man as a force within the film world.

And of course, he was also Indy’s dad, man.

And easily one of the originators of “Men want to be him and women want to be with him,” as I said earlier. And the men who both want to be him and be with him.

Ah, Sir Sean Connery. A walking pillar of the cinema.

The Moleskine. Mol-a-skeen’-a. Yet another cult classic, and why shouldn’t it be? This little black notebook’s got its fans cutting hearts out and launching virgins off the summit of Krakatoa, all for its furtive anonymity, acid-free paper, and unembellished distinction. Okay, hyperbolic, yes–but still, you don’t see enthusiastic blogs, reviews or even movie “sightings” about Mead or Composition notebooks do you?

I came across this notebook while on a trip to Italy and France in 2004. The auspicious day took place in small bookstore by the corner of a cafe in Rome. It was a musty souvenir shop, slightly dim and dusty with slivers of sunlight streaming from a small window. By the door lay the biggest St. Bernard I have even seen, nearly akin to a grizzly bear rug except this dog had it’s tongue out and had a slight wheezing in its breathing. A moderately attractive italian woman in her sixties who had an orange glow from her sultry affair with the sun, stood behind a counter and spoke to me in italian. She had a raspy voice and muffled something incomprehensible to me behind the cigarette that kissed her mouth.

“Notebooks?” I asked. She pointed towards the back end of her shop where a few shelves were frosted with notebooks adorned the ubiquitous Mona Lisa, The Vitruvian Man, and a cherub cutout from Raphael’s Sistine Madonna. All sprawled out on the wooden shelf were images raped by mass production and printed for the hoarding consumers that we are. Why not hang a neon sign that read “tourist” around my neck instead? Yes, I was one by the strict definition of the word, but I chose to define myself as a traveller. One who wasn’t just there for the postcard photographs. I wanted to be there for the art, food, coffee, wine, and the company of locals, not adorn every single printable surface I own with a cherub.

Usually, images attract my attention. Colors tickle my fancy. But on that day, a plain and unassuming notebook just below the high renaissance artists, reeled me in. I was curiously attracted to the simplicity of its design, and I’ve been hooked, ever since. Black and leather-bound, like a fetish of sorts. The paper isn’t even white–as if by some guided intuition, it doesn’t flaunt purity, not even the eggshell shade of frailty. This notebook was created to know your sins, your secrets, and desires. I’d like to believe that it is a pale rendition of flesh tones. The corporeal canvass that will soon be inhabited by our savage and even carnal longing.

The irony we choose not to see is that the mere fact that they’ve printed out and included a pamphlet (in every book) stating the history of this legendary notebook, where; Van Gogh, Matisse, Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin (among many others) have used Moleskine’s for their craft, we are vulnerable to it’s key selling point: celebrities. The high-brow kind: Artists. Poets. Writers. When you think about it, it’s no different from cherubs or naked men gingerly touching fingers halfway across heaven and earth. Moleskine just took it off the front page and stuck a leaflet in its back pocket. In fact so many others have trailed along the bread crumbs left behind by this journal. Nevertheless, why do we continue to stack up on it today as if there were a great notebook supply crash? Hoarding, anyone?

This is all attributed to the fact that NO other notebook has inspired and brought people from around the world to unite for the sole purpose of creativity. No other notebook has done tours, traveling from city to city like a moveable feast (I hear you, Hemingway). Perhaps, it is with the sense of community that comes along with it that one can find a sense of belonging. It is the experience. The possibility of creative thought framed between its pages, the solitude in putting it all together and finally the elation of sharing it with others.

A Moleskine is more than just a notebook. You know it’s serious when you start writing down an “As a Reward” figure on the fist page of your journal. Moleskine has made it easier for you by printing out an “In case of loss, please return to…” and a rewards area where you are free to narcissistically place value for your scrawls and scribbles. Seriously though, if you happened to write and lose the epic poem of the century, you’d give leg and limb to get it back. Moleskine assumes that you’re not just writing grocery lists and random phone numbers in there.

Several varieties are available; one for every split personality you carry with you. For the doodlers and artists, the sketchbook. The OCD inflicted planner, the daily and monthly diaries. For the budding Anderson Coopers, the reporter. For music prodigy, the math geek, the pack rats (memo pocket), the traveller, the thinkers, the poets and writers. The list goes on. But personally, I prefer freedom of space. The plain notebook–the one I call mine.

To lose a passport was the least of one’s worries. To lose a notebook was a catastrophe. — Bruce Chatwin (Travel Writer/ Moleskine advocate)

Now, In case you find yourself shopping around for a notebook and feel like spending for your thoughts, when in doubt on what to buy ask yourself: WWJD? No, not Jesus. I’m talking about Jones, as in Indiana. As in, The Last Crusade. What Would Jones Do? Steer clear of the bejeweled chalice, my friends, we all know how that ends. The simplest of cups, the most unpretentious of all chalices is what ultimately held the blood, wine, insight and answers to life.  As far as Moleskine notebooks go, it is essentially, just a blank page. Like an empty cup. What we make of it is what makes it special. It is you that summons the creative forces from thought, pen, to paper that brings it to life. But if you do fill the cup, perhaps an inveterate thirst will be quenched.

However inspiring this notebook may be, the muse will not undress and reveal itself before you. The green fairy is not a centerfold bonus inlay. You won’t win the Pulitzer just by writing your name. Let it bear witness to your life: leather-bound, pulled together with an elastic band and restrained to some degree, somewhere between your Moleskine’s pages you just might find out what makes you feel alive.

You can visit Moleskine at: http://www.moleskine.com/

Just got in from seeing Temple of Doom for the very first time in a theater (my Cylon model hadn’t been created yet when this came out so cut me some slack) and the thrill of seeing this baby on the big screen is like nothing else.  So let me pause here to give a shout out to my human buddy Joe G. from the traveling carnies for facilitating the experience.  Btw Joe G., when are we getting some updates?

All of the Indiana Jones movies are flawed.  Not one is perfect and though people will forever call Raiders of the Lost Ark the best in the series, blow by blow, the underrated Temple of Doom is truly the best of them all and most definitely the ballsiest.

Why are these movies flawed?  Why is Raiders not the best?  I could go on and on listing the many flaws of all 4 Indiana chapters especially Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls but that would be taking the fun out of them, and this movies are so much cinematic fun that you completely forget and forgive their flaws (except for Crystal Skulls) because they scratch  and tickle that part of your brain where your inner kid is alive and ready for some adventure.

The love for Raiders, which is amazing nonetheless, has in part something to do with being the first of them and that kind of first love sticks to you; revisiting something is fun but not quite up there with seeing it for the first time, which unfortunately has the side effect of people not being completely able to appreciate the others.  This effect can be seen with the Aliens films: the first one is magnificent, intelligent, elemental horror of the first order; the sequel is just as great but because it is seem more as an *action* film, which it is, it gets discredited a tiny bit, even though it is more human than the first and therein lies its slight superiority.

Raiders, Temple, and Crusade, all share the winning elements of the franchise: lots of action, lots of comedy, sidekicks, the hero of heroes, a love interest, a quest, big explosions, a breakneck speed, and edge of your seat adrenaline rushes.  But whereas Raiders was created to be the thrill ride of thrill rides and nothing more, Temple was given something the first film was missing: darkness.  And that darkness elevates it to a level Raiders wasn’t coasting on and Crusade (or Crystal Skulls for that matter) wasn’t allow to go to because George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s impetus has always been pleasing as many people as possible even if it means copping out.  The backlash of Temple sealed this reasoning; just look at every Spielberg film since then, and how George gave us cute little ewoks on Return of the Jedi to even out (or atone for in his mind) the darkness of The Empire Strike’s Back (the less said about the mediocre, at times total garbage, of the 3 follow up episodes the better.)

Temple may still seem a bit racist, what with the portray of Hindus and their eating habbits and childrem slavery, but that, alone with the heart-ripping scenes, Indy abusing Short Round and Willie Scott, and the child on child violence showed filmmakers that dare to go there and follow their guts.  You can’t possible have all this adventure and excitement and dealings with such shady people  and not come across some ugliness, even if it is a family film.  The movie has balls, plain and simple and can’t be forever accused of racism since plenty of movies before and after have unfairly depicted whole groups of peoples in stereotypes for the sake of…well, there’s no excuse really.  Heck, racism is alive and well even today; as recently as garbage such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the surprisingly fun of Orphan.  One is racist to blacks in such shocking ways, and the other continues Hollywood’s penchant for that whole “beware of anyone of foreign origins, they are the enemy!” mentality.

A bit less action-packed than the rest, a bit over the top, but supremely more enjoyable with Crusade trailing it as a close second, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom is not only the best but chronologically Indy’s first adventure (forget that stupid TV show of the younger Indy) this is the one that scratch that part of his brain and pushed him into seeking more and more adventure; too bad him and his creators never care to be as daring again.  Grade: A

And just for fun:

Raiders of the Lost Ark, grade: A-   The Last Crusade, grade: A-   Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, grade: B-

The man with the hat (and whip) is back! On DVD this time. Bought the Indiana Jones – The Complete Collection DVD box, containing all four movies; Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade and The kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Hours of adventure await!

Met up with a cousin ofmine today for a cup o’ coffee and a chat. She graduated a while ago, but I hadn’t bought her anything, so I made up for it this time. Got her a cd with the photos I took during that day and also a gift certificate at Granit, and interior decorating store. It was received well, as I had hoped. Had a good time. We rarely see eachother, my cousin and me…

On a side note, I read a quite amusing comment to an article about Apples next version of Mac OS X; Snow Leopard. The poster wrote “Why is every version of the OS named after a German military tank?” That might start a discussion among the zealots, the people who’s non-Apple-friendly. Apple being Nazis, honoring the Third Reich et cetera. Pure bull, but people will go great lengths to achieve their goals…

I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised today to find a whole new pile of LucasArts games on the front page of Steam.  The new group of games includes:

- Adventure games Loom and The Dig

- Action game Armed & Dangerous

- Theme park building strategy game Thrillville:  Off the Rails

- A three pack of Indiana Jones games (The Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis, and LEGO Indy)

- A three pack of Star Wars Games (Battlefront II, Republic Commando, and Starfighter)

All of the games are priced between $5 and $20 and are available on Steam right now.  I am almost tempted to buy Battlefront II, but I may wait until the weekend to make a final call on that one.  If you are looking to satisfy your craving for old school Adventure games, either Loom or The Dig should do so quite nicely for only $5 each.

By Dr. Paul L. Williams

TonyfromOz adds …..

Some of the images are graphic, and rather than include these images, the links instead will take you to those images in a new window.

What’s taking place in Iran?

For an answer, don’t turn to CNN or FOX News and don’t listen to White House officials. Millions have taken to the streets to protest the June 12 rigged election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The University of Tehran has been ransacked. Several protestors have been killed and thousands have been injured. It is the greatest popular uprising that the 21st Century has witnessed. And yet, to find fair and balanced coverage of the momentous event, one had to turn to foreign news outlets.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, opted to whitewash the turmoil in her native country, prompting thousands on Twitter to voice their outrage.

“Why aren’t you covering this with everything you’ve got?” Steve LaBate, an Atlanta resident, asked CNN on Twitter.

While LaBate and others were venting their frustration, CNN was showing a repeat of Larry King’s interview with the stars of the “American Chopper” show.

Part of the reason for the CNN and FOX black-out is explained by the fact that a good chunk of AOL Time Warner (parent company of CNN) and NewsCorp (parent company of FOX News) is owned by Prince Alwaleed Ibn Talal the Saudi billionaire. For this reason, the Saudis serve as a filter for events in the Middle East that are viewed by American and Canadian audiences.

More difficult to explain is the suppressed reaction from White House officials. While blood was being spilled in the streets of Tehran, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide.”

Understatement, to say the least.

Equally bizarre is the statement from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs that the administration remains “impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians.”

Not a word about the turmoil in the streets or the ransacking of the university.

Compounding the weirdness are the comments, which were made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on NBC’s “Meet the Press: “I have doubts, but withhold comment.”

Doublespeak has never been stated more clearly.

Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities are continuing a crackdown on journalists and information that began after the announcement of the disputed presidential election results. Journalists are still being arrested and more censorship measures have been adopted as President Ahmadinejad’s allies try to suppress media coverage of fraud allegations.

“Independent sources of news and information find it very hard to make their voice heard now in Iran because of the censorship,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The authorities are tightening their grip on all news media and means of communication that could be used to dispute Ahmadinejad reelection ‘victory’. They are doing everything possible to limit coverage of the consequences of the election fraud.”

But let’s not romanticize Ahmadinejad’s opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi as a champion of religious tolerance and western civilization. While Mousavi calls for the creation of non-government TV networks and the elimination of the country’s Moral Police, he calls the United States “the Great Satan,” who must be encountered with “iron fists”; calls for the assassination of novelist Salmon Rushdie; and labels Israel “a cancerous tumor that must be removed.” But, in recent appearances, Mousavi has condemned the killing of Jews in the Holocaust — a most liberal position for an Islamist.

For more information, stay tuned to al-Jazeera.

About Dr. Paul L. Williams
Dr. Paul L. Williams, PhD, is an American author, journalist and consultant on radical Islam and counterterrorism. He is also an adjunct professor of humanities. He is the author of six books, including The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World, in which he expands on the American Hiroshima scenario he believes to be imminent, in which simultaneous nuclear attacks on 7 to 10 American cities would create havoc in American society. Prior to this, he served for seven years as a consultant to the FBI about terrorist and mafia criminal organizations.

Read more excellent articles from The Last Crusade

H/T to The New Media Journal.us

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Hello, friends. It’s been a while.

The fact is, I’ve been having far too much fun to actually write about what I’ve been doing. I’m abismally behind in my written journal as well; according to my Moleskine, I’m still in Thailand at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo (a vegan’s nightmare! o jeez!).

Here’s basically what’s been up:

Thus far, my trip has been a series of legitimate Pittsburgh reunions, plus making new friends on the road.

My first stop was Japan, where I spent most of my time in Tokyo (and more specifically a suburb of its suburb Yokohama) with my friend Ram from college. Tokyo is a bit crazy, but I really enjoyed it. We did a lot of people-watching, which is quite fruitful in Japan. My favorite outing was one Ram sent me on one of the days he had to work, out to Kamukara, a small town on the ocean that has a number of shrines and temples in walking distance of one another, including (another) huge sitting Buddha statue! A very cool and relaxing area, just slightly off the tourist route of Tokyo. We also had a great time riding the Cosmo Clock in Yokohama, the largest clock in the world, which is also a huge ferris wheel. While we were in Yokohama, we bought panda-face dessert bao, which while not super delicious, were super cute. I also really enjoyed the trip Ram and I took down to Hiroshima (via bullet train, which is quite speedy) to visit my friend Kristin, who I know from high school. We spent most of our day on Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima with an enormous Shinto shrine, tame deer, and lots of monkeys. But, we also made our requisite trip to the A-bomb Dome, which was overwhelmingly depressing. Fifteen minutes was enough for me while on a short vacation!

Next was Thailand, where I met up again with “Bah Duh” Jon from Pittsburgh. He’s been on the road since the beginning of April, after spending about one to two months in southern Spain on a WWOOF farm. We stayed with one of his family’s old exchange students, Montira, and she and her family made sure we knew how to get to places of interest around Bangkok and were more than happy to drive us around themselves when they didn’t have to go to work. Jon and I went ourselves to the two major temples downtown, Wat Po and Wat Phra Kaew, on our first full day in town. Wat Phra Kaew has an enormous complex, including an expansive mural of the Ramayana, but Wat Po was my favorite of the two because it had (another) huge Buddha statue, the largest I’ve seen thus far. 46 meters long! That’s huge! On day trips with Montira and with Oui, a friend of my friend Grant’s from when he was doing mission work for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we went to a floating food market (plus boat trip to temples), the Sriracha Tiger Zoo (false advertising! so false! tigers jumping through hoops! eek!), and “Ancient Siam,” a drivable scaled model of the entire country of Thailand.  Lastly, I actually had a surprisingly difficult time finding vegetarian food. I’m wondering if, like in Japan, vegetarian options are just an American tourist/restaurant construction. Or, we just weren’t eating at enough street stalls. Anyway, I still ate lots of noodles and fruits, and that was fine by me.

Then Jon and I made the long flight to Egypt, and his jetlag was fully messed up   However, Egypt was awesome in all ways, so we still had a great time. We tried couchsurfing for the first time, which means I signed up for a website and found a host family for us in Cairo. Very cool! We got a couple family dinners and some very relaxed time playing with the two young daughters and the kitten of the family. It was a great situation after long days of being tourists. Our first day we drove out and saw the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara, which were AWESOME. The Lonely Planet describes the Giza pyramid area as a site which “never fail to disappoint,” but they are full of crap. Pyramids are AWESOME. I cannot express that enough. Hilariously, the city is built up right to the edge of the Sphinx, so you’re just driving around thinking you’re not about to see an enormous pyramid, but BAM, then there it is. I hope my use of capital letters shows how cool they are. The step pyramid at Saqqara was also pretty neat, and though it was too late in the day for us to make it out to the other pyramids at nearby Dahshur, we could still easily see them in the distance. We made time in our last two days in Cairo to go see the Egyptian Museum (King Tut was pretty cool), the Citadel (another cool place disrespected by the Lonely Planet that was very close to where we were couchsurfing), Islamic Cairo (with a big touristy market among big mosques… uuuugh touristy markets), and Coptic Cairo. Coptic Cairo was probably the best, because while we got there too late in the day to go in any of the churches (oops) we ended up following a big marching band parade to St. George’s Convent’s church, which was fun and the church was gorgeous. Despite what I had heard about Egypt and women travelers, I didn’t come across trouble at all. Part of this was that I was with Jon, my surrogate brother/husband/whatever, but a bigger part was that I wore long sleeved shirts and ankle-length skirts. Jon called my makeshift headcoverings “instant respect.” Do you know whose legs and arms you see in Egypt? Tourists. Don’t go to Egypt in shorts and sleeveless tops! You will be the only one in town showing off those parts! Culturally inappropriate! Sheesh.

Our trip to Jordan was a little nutty, but worked out well in the end because we made new friends and saw Petra, which was Jon’s favorite monument (except maybe the pyramids, which again, are too cool). We took a bus across the Sinai and spent the night in a small hut along the Red Sea at Nuweiba. Then, we took the very not fast fast-ferry to Aqaba, on the Jordanian side, which left four hours late and thus we arrived in Jordan around 10 pm. This would have deterred some travelers from the extra two hour car ride to Petra, but not Jon and I! We made friends with an Australian living in Britain, a Chinese-Australian living in France, and an Indian-Fijian living in Britain and had an insane trip out to Petra.  Of course, in the process, we became friends. The Australian-in-Britain, Mary, ended up coming and staying with us in Jerusalem as well! Anyway, we got up reasonably early and went to Petra, which was also SO COOL. It’s way more than what you see in Indiana Jones. The canyon is enormous, and there are tombs all over the place. The two best preserved things (the Indiana Jones Treasury facade and the Monastery) are at opposite ends, but both well worth the walk, if the hundreds of facades in between didn’t do the trick. We all got sunburnt, but otherwise it was a delightful day. Like in Egypt, the people in Jordan were really hospitable and friendly. I think my favorite compliment was when one of the hotel guys said, in reference to me, “This girl is not like other Americans! She knows some things!” Oh dear, America. Lastly, this Jordanian journey made us Moses Jones. Hoorah!

After a long taxi ride and wait at a contested border, we made it over the King Hussein Bridge and into Israel. My first impression of Israel was not great: there was a kid maybe my age in sneakers and a polo shirt standing outside the customs office with a machine gun, and the girl who was interviewing Jon and I (who was maybe as old as Jon, but I doubt it) was girlishly delighted over our Lonely Planet… but stuck out her tongue in girlish distaste when she saw the title included the Palestinian Territories. Ah, 18-year-olds… with weapons. Eesh. However, my opinion was shifted because Jerusalem was really, really great. I dragged Jon to all sorts of religious sites, which he was very gracious about. Of course we visited the Temple Mount (though non-Muslims can no longer go see the Rock in the Dome of the Rock — alas!), but there’s so much more in Jerusalem, especially if you’re interested in Christian history. One afternoon we just spent walking the Stations of the Cross, which lead into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a very interesting and zany Crusader church that supposedly is built on the cruxifiction and burial sites of Jesus.

Probably the coolest thing I thought we did in Jerusalem was actually outside the city, in the little town of Bethlehem. I was reluctant to go there because it’s in the West Bank (ooooh noooes) but then my dad offhandedly informed me that the His Holiness the Pope himself was visiting Israel and would be in Bethlehem the day after we arrived. All fears gone aside! I was so excited to go and see him. Jon and I linked up with a Canadian guy named Cameron at our youth hostel, and made the (surprisingly easy) bus journey to Bethlehem, only to discover on arrival that you needed tickets. Drat! But, Providence provided us with two nice young Catholic ladies who were volunteering at the papal office in Jerusalem, and one of them had extra tickets in her purse. Hoorah! We got to see the smallest public papal mass, and, AND, most importantly, the Pope driving around in his Popemobile.  A great day.

Now we’re in Haifa on our last day in Israel, and about to go out and see the Shrine of the Bab and Baha’i Gardens. We’re couchsurfing again, and to say that our host’s apartment has a fabulous view of the Mediterranean is a great understandment. We’re having a great time so far, and plan for this last day to be just as good. Then Jon’s headed back to Pittsburgh and I to Ghana to see my high school friend Mike, who’s been in the Peace Corps for almost two years now.

About the Children’s Village, I’ve heard from our friends out in India that five of the older children were able to participate in the annual youth conference, which happened earlier this month. Possibly because of their presence there, the UUNEI Youth Wing is planning to have a “volunteer day” at the orphanage soon! It would be great to have more people from the UUNEI community out at the Children’s Village to help out. Bahun, the eldest of the two Mukhim sisters, has also brought a doctor out to Mawsynjri to meet with the kids, and he recommended that they go through deworming medication and vitamins as their first course of healthier living. On that note, the Meghalayan government supposedly gave out a mass meningitis vaccination to villages including Kharang about a week ago; still waiting to hear if that actually went through (ahh, the Indian government). I’ve also heard that construction has “slowed,” which is worrisome because last time I heard that, construction had come to a full halt for three weeks. Eesh. But let’s all pray that that’s not actually what’s happening and that the septic tank is finished. It’s strange only getting this information second-hand when I used to be the main contact about the kids, but that’s how it has to be now. I can just hope that I can return soon to visit them!

Phew, that’s the long of it. Maybe I’ll post again from Barcelona so that Ghana will be in a reasonably sized chunk

Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford), the U.S. version of Bond.

IMDB: Indiana Jones and the Alien Skull Thingy

“Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.“

For Christmas, my son, Alex, presented me with the entire Indiana Jones series. I Heart Indie. Well, the first three anyway. We watched all of them over the New Year’s break. The first three are as follows:

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Each of these movies are classics that every movie lover should be made to watch at least once in their lifetime. They were movies that made kids a little more interested in history. They explored ancient lands, tombs and booby traps. What all young boys (and adventurous girls) love to hear about. In retrospect, they were cheesy. But that cheesy is what I love about the first three. In these movies you had at least one scene that was of a construction paper cut out of an airplane flying over a map to show us just where in the world they were headed; there was one scene where Indie dangled in front of a moving vehicle (tank, truck) in perilous jeopardy; then the bad guys meet a terrible end (melting faces and all); and then there was a different girl in each movie (like Bond) which was familiar to the plot and who Indie bedded before the end of the movie. The theme was played in the background throughout and by the end you where whistling it while the orchestra played it.

*****Spoiler*****

Then there is the one with the Skulls and Aliens. Yes, you read correctly, ALIENS. Since when did the Indiana I know start to be involved with the mystical? Was that necessary? Heavy sigh.

We have moved from German bad guys to Russian. The lady bedded (played by Cate Blancchett) turns out to be one of the bad guys. AND Indie realizes he has a son by Marion (from Raiders of the Lost Ark, still played by Karen Allen). His son, who goes by Mutt – nice dog reference – and is played by Shia LaBeouf.

They are double crossed by a double (or triple) agent and in the end the bad guys were sucked into another dimension along with the aliens and their spaceship.

Not sure. I know that the first three won my heart, cheese and all. This fourth one though – maybe because it is made in this decade that makes it hard for me to accept the cheese they have spread. Not sure.

Watch it, let me know what you think.

Ciao.

Called Home

By:
Master Paul Xavier

With banners floating, trumpets bleating,
an echo throughout the heavenly hall.
A brave man has been summoned here,
a young knight has been called back home.

He humbly makes his way before,
the Holy and righteous, King and Lord,
His eyes hung low in silent prayer,
as he kneels before the throne.

The angels surrounded the silent man,
harmonious in their prayerful cause,
they sing of the knight who stands before,
the Everlasting One, their King and Lord.

“Almighty Lord, O hear us now,
here before You, stands the one,
that young man which fought so well,
the faithful knight who took the vow.

We have put him to the test,
proved his valor ‘yond the quest,
an example to the world,
Here before You, stands he now.”

A graceful smile, the King bestowed,
gazing down from His glorious throne,
the One He always, knew so well
upon the knight, His very own.

“My God, My King,” the knight began,
“Why have You called me to Thee now?
I am, and will, remain Your servant,
I beseech, to know, the task at hand.”

“Faithful knight, you know Me,
followed Me throughout the world.
My words inscribed upon thy heart,
etched as upon a stone.

The earth is now engulfed in sin,
yet hope remains for all mankind,
My Blessed Mother has warned them,
Yet still, a shadow covers the land.

Yet through this storm you followed,
My ever Holy Light,
Neither fire, Wind, nor water,
could extinguish thy holy fire.

Your father taught you well,
as you are now his brother,
Like him you have completed,
all that I have desired.

You strove to follow after Me,
and followed Your Lady’s guidance,
Harken to the great call now,
and continue ‘long the path.

War has come, and Satan triumphs,
yet victory is not final,
Their time shortens, as I grow weary,
only One withholds My wrath.”

And with great love He turned aside,
and faced that loving Woman,
The Queen of worlds, heaven and earth,
the Mother of mankind.

“Out of those who follow after,
That great and wondrous message,
Of holy pray’r and penance;
Only you my eyes could find.

You sought Me through your life,
and chose the path of love,
to take the robe of virtue,
and leave the world behind.

The youth are now in danger,
of falling into sin,
you stood alone, an example
to the rest of that dark world.

Your task on earth was plenty,
but you consent your will,
again I ask of you now,
My ‘mmaculate banner, unfurl.”

Upon these words he spoke,
that brave and fearless knight,
drew his sword from sheath,
and lifted it on high.

“My Lady and My King,
I swore to you before,
I offer you my sword,
to do with as You will.

My family and my friends,
all need me back at home
but my heart is yours as always,
to do with as You will.”

The King reached for the sword,
and took it in His hand,
touching the lad by shoulder,
now a knight of all the land.

“Brave young knight I thank thee,
your valor I will never forget.
Your family and your friends,
will surely understand.”

“The final war is coming,
when all must choose a side,
to join the Holy Victrix,
and raise the banner high.

Many will now suffer,
the Church will prove Her strength,
to arms with Holy Mary,
The Last Crusade is Nigh.”

As he finished speaking,
the King bid him to stand,
and with kind ushered words,
the throng of guests dispersed.

And then spoke Holy Mary,
to that brave holy knight,
“There is one who still will help you,
with whom you have traversed.

A man, a knight, a father,
the one who led you here.
Who brought ‘long the path,
his son with joy and care.”

In stepped another knight,
all clad in white and blue,
his armor shining brightly,
a vision all too true.

The two knights met with kindness,
as tears of joy now grew,
that loving bond once broken,
has now been ‘gain renewed

The above is a composition which I put together Friday morning. In my English Class, I had to read several of the poems in my workbook (by Poe, Keats, and whatnot), and attempt to imitate their style. But on further analysis (which I usually do with this blog,) I can’t help but think about the style of their works in itself. Most of the poems are on the basic level of depressing, with a secular world view, devoid of Catholic Thinking or Understanding of Life. Hence, reflecting the dark side of human nature without the light and guidance of Mother Church. I have read several poems in the past, with a Catholic story or moral, that reflect Our Faith.

So my decision rested on imitating a mixture of styles, yet not following along the same path of these ‘master’ poets. It came to me during Mass and Holy Hour, “What would it be like if Marc entered Heaven?” (I say ‘if’ because there is no great declaration stating he is, though I firmly believe so.) Something to seriously contemplate. A young man, taken from this world. Yet, his mission was not of this world, but to be an example and to shine forth for others, especially the youth. He died in a heroic attempt to save his father, after rescuing his sister from danger, going down with his father, Thomas. Back to the mission part. He lived the Faith in Life, he was going to enter the Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate. He had his goals set. And that goal was Heaven. But what necessarily does the entire accident mean? So much good has come of it. The example of wearing the Brown Scapular (Which Mr. Girard reminded his children to wear when they went swimming,) the witness of his family in the ER to the Doctors and Nurses when Marc passed away, the funeral at St. Mary’s in Baltic, and even more important, the inspiration story of Marc’s heroism, casting a light on his Knighthood, and the Knights of Lepanto. I feel that his mission hasn’t ended. He is still with us. He will always be with us. Someone who will be praying for us from up above, as we struggle and begin this final battle with the Immaculate at our side, in order to reclaim the world for the Two Hearts United, that battle, being the Last Crusade.

Току-що прочетох нещо, което предизвика фатално претоварване в ирониметъра ми. Май ще се наложи да инсталирам някакъв бушон или друг вид предпазител. Просто горката машина не може да понесе неща като това:

Topastrolog’s Weblog » ШАШМАТА, НАРЕЧЕНА ЯСНОВИДСТВО (ЧАСТ I)

“Топастролог”-ът е Апостол Апостолов, познат на много хора със спама си по форуми и блогове. Аз лично го смятам за някакво българско превъплъщение на ССПГ Диблър. А въпросният пост започва с разказ за… Ури Гелер и Изумителния Ранди, като дори съдържа препратка към фондацията на втория. Нещо повече, това е последвано от “НЯМА, НЯМА НИКАКВИ СВРЪХЕСТЕСТВЕНИ ФЕНОМЕНИ!”, написано точно по този начин, и от предизвикателство към “новоизлюпените доморасли “феномени”” да се пробват да вземат милиона на Ранди. Зачудих се дали пак не са му хакнали блога, но в крайна сметка се оказа, че просто нашият… човек не включва астрологията към свръхестествените феномени, защото я смята за… Нека си каже той:

Астрологията е една древна научна дисциплина, която ни дава възможност да доловим и набележим БЪДЕЩИ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ. Но само за ОТДЕЛНИЯ ИНДИВИД!

Това е ЕДИНСТВЕНАТА сигурна, научна възможност за предсказване на бъдещето. Толкоз! Останалото е от Лукавия…

Бонус точки за религиозната препратка… Да не говорим, че целият пост е написан с размер на шрифта, подходящ за речите на Живков…

Не съм особено изненадан – и преди съм виждал псевдоскептични изяви на Апостолов, но иронията в случая е толкова убийствена, че направо съсипа метафоричната ми електроника. На т’ва му викам наглост – да използваш името на Ранди, за да си промотираш астрологичния бизнес, предвид че предизвикателството за милион долара е отправено и към професионалните астролози като Апостолов, а и самият Ранди многократно е изразявал отрицателното си отношение към въпросната дисциплина. Някои хора наистина не се спират пред нищо…

Ако на някого му е харесал Captain Disillusion – в последния подкаст (#160) на The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe има интервю с човека, който го прави. Подкастът е доста дълъг и затова който иска да чуе направо интервюто трябва да превърти до 41:52. Препоръчвам обаче да се изслуша от самото начало. Току-виж на някого му харесало…

   Only two months too late, but here it goes. I like the Indiana Jones series, so this may be a little biased. Most critics put Raider of the Lost Ark as the best Indiana Jones film, followed by The Last Crusade, Temple of Doom, then  Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I think this list is correct except I would put Crystal Skull ahead of Temple of Doom. They are all great films but Temple of Doom just seemed different than the others. 

   I thought Crystal Skull was good, but the main thing and in my only opinion only thing it had going against it was the Special Effects. Everyone these days has to have some kind of CGI mixed in or it can’t be an action movie, or at least that’s how it seems. That said Steven Spielberg seems like he has moved passed this kind of movie in his career and this was a little side project to keep him busy. The acting was great, the story kept you involved. All around it was a great popcorn movie and don’t expect it to win any awards, like almost all summer blockbusters. 

   In short I thought it was good enough to stand up with the rest of the Indiana Jones films but just didn’t seem quite right with all the CGI in it. I would still recommend seeing it if you are a Indiana Jones fan or like Sci-Fi movies in general.

The fourth installment of the Indiana Jones mythos was adequate and entertaining, but failed to capture the charisma of earlier films.

I thought something that worked particularly really well was the pairing of Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf.  LaBeouf takes a lot of flak from the internet community, and I’m not sure why.  He’s got a charm about him that complimented and even augmented Ford’s.  I was also glad to see Ford pretty loose in this film.  He’s played a few of my all-time favorite characters, but he can at times come off fairly stiff on the big screen, especially in The Last Crusade.  As with Sean Connery, LaBeouf helps to add another dimension to Indiana Jones that gives Ford a little something more to work with and enriches his performance.

Furthermore, I appreciated that while Indiana Jones is much older in this movie, he’s also much wiser and has a sense of confidence and aptitude about him that really resonated.  Though always a professor, it wasn’t until this film that he really came across as a mentor as well, especially to Mutt Williams, LaBeouf’s character.  (Very funny that both characters named themselves after some aspect of a dog.  Remember, Indiana was the name of Jones’ dog when he was a boy.  Mutt … well, that speaks for itself.)

The dialogue in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull also wasn’t quite as rigid as in previous films.  While I loved The Last Crusade because of Connery, some of Ford’s dialogue really grated on my nerves.  This film had a sense of wit and fun about it that really helped the actors with their delivery.

The addition of communists as Ford’s antagonists seemed totally appropriate.  They acknowledged so much of the time period, from atomic bomb testing to the King, it really felt like a logical progression from where Indiana Jones was last film.  I loved that they peppered some of what he’s been up to over the last few decades into the story as well.  That was a very nice touch.

So while the acting and chemistry between LaBeouf and Ford was a positive, and the dialogue was a bit more organic, and the story had some enjoyable nuggets of times past, there were a few negatives.

First and foremost, it really bothered me how they took Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood, a tough, spunky character from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and basically made her into an ogling space cadet.  Nearly every time they had her on screen she had a goofy grin on her face like she’d been hit on the head too many times.  Marion was a character that was almost tougher than Jones, and they didn’t stick to that blueprint in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  It takes more than a flighty grin to win the heart of Indiana Jones.   

Also, I can appreciate that this is a family film trying to lighten things up for a broader audience, but there were moments in this movie that had me rolling my eyes.  I can handle mainstream appeal, but it had some really blatant lunacy that I couldn’t get past.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

For example, Jones escaping a nuclear explosion by climbing into a lead-lined refrigerator and luckily getting blasted clear was a bit hard to swallow, but I managed.  Later, though, they had LaBeouf swinging from tree vines with a troop of simians in the jungle like he was Tarzan.  That … was impossible to overlook.  Finally, the mystery of the crystal skulls is revealed to be a race of inter-dimensional beings that we had previously believed aliens.  Now, I can handle aliens, no big whoop.  But, when it comes to Indiana Jones, I like him chasing down religious artifacts or some other mystic collectibles.  Seeing him face-to-face with an alien, it just didn’t completely work for me.

(END SPOILERS)

But even with all those issues, the overall movie was fun to watch and greatly entertained.  I felt like I wouldn’t be “wowed” by it and I wasn’t, but I enjoyed the evolution of the Jones character, his world, and the dynamic of his supporting characters. 

On a side note, I really hope they’ll continue on with the Indiana Jones movies, especially considering Jones’ new role.  I think they’ve left the future wide open for some potentially fun movies.

So while I wouldn’t say you MUST go see this movie in the theatre, it is definitely one to rent and if you’re willing to put up with a little silliness, I think you’ll find yourself entertained.

Is that the proper way to spell mo fo?  Can anyone enlighten me?

Looking back, my first clue that I was pregnant should have been the sudden onset of heart burn.  At first, I had no idea what it was that I was experiencing.  I had never had heart burn before.  When I figured it out, I shrugged and thought “Well, I’m getting older”.  If only I had known what really was causing the heart burn.  Of course, if it were just the pregnancy, why do I still have heart burn now?  Why?

Anyway, my sister just informed us that she lost her mucas plug, so I might be disappearing sometime soon.  She had talked her doctor into scheduling some kind of induction like procedure in which she would be hooked up to some drip (not pitocin, she said, but something) to make her cervix efface in which she’d have to be strapped to a hospital bed for 12 hours, then they’d check her, then she’d wait for another 12 hours, etc.  It sounds not only miserable, but expensive.  Does she have any idea how much a 12 hour hospital stay costs?  And she pays 20% of her medical bills after deductable.  Not a choice I would make when I’m not even a week over due, but thats just me.  Not to mention all the risks of interventions such as this, and how it increases her liklihood of needing further interventions, eventually dramatically increasing her chances of getting a C section.  I worry about all this for her, but its her baby and her body and her choice, so I’ve been trying to be supportive.  She has PUPPP really bad, so I guess I can understand.

Of course, if she just lost her mucas plug, she may go into labor naturally before she gets the chance to be induced, and that would be great for her and the baby.  In the future, I will blog about natural birth and try to do it without sounding like one of those natural birth Nazis.  You can read the story of my natural birth here.

In other news, I’ve been working on finding a cure for Elijah’s seasonal allergies.  Its been a rough few weeks of noses too stuffy to nurse, followed by a few days of realization of common sense.  I needed to dust.  So I spent a good portion of the day yesterday dusting and vacuuming, which has already made a world of difference.  I still need to dust and vacuum my room, which is where Elijah sleeps, but I can already see an improvement in him.  It would be nice to get a HEPA filter vacuum, and even nicer to get rid of carpet all together (since carpet is a breeding ground for dustmites and the best collector of allergens known to man – not to mention a chemical nightmare, off gassing toxins and VOCs like there’s no tomorrow), but until then, I need to make it a point to be extra dilligent about dusting and vacuuming.  It helped my allergies also (after a temporary worsening during the dusting).

I’m looking into buying a bicycle used.  Craigslist seems to have a lot of bikes listed every day, so maybe with my next paycheck…  Also, looks like I can get a trailer for Elijah pretty cheap there too.  And maybe a bike rack for my car.  Yes, I’ll finally be one of those Coloradoans who looks really outdoorsy everywhere they drive.  I don’t want a rack on my roof though, for fuel efficiency reasons (that roof rack adds the most drag, from what I understand), and I certainly wouldn’t be riding around with my bike on my car all the time.  But it would be nice to have, wouldn’t it?

Finally, Indiana Jones and the Search for the Crystal Skull was no where near as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, but it beat the hell out of Temple of Doom.  Even if the newest Indiana Jones was way more cheesey and even less realistic than Raiders and Crusade (yes, the newest one was less realistic, even, than the melting faces in Raiders), at least it didn’t have that irritating chick from Temple in it.  It was awesome to see it at the drive in, though, because I could eat a Qdoba burrito and nurse my son through the whole movie.  Bring back the drive in!

Долуописаният гаф е илюстрация на една от причините да не вземам въпросния блог насериозно. И да не го чета – на това попаднах чрез “Блогосфера”-та на “Дневник”.

Gorichka.bg » Денят след утре

…от това следва 85% спад на популацията на крил. Този вид риба пък е основната храна за китове и тюлени…

(получерният е в оригинала; червеното от мен; screenshot)

За протокола – всъщност крилът е вид планктон, зоопланктон, ако искаме да бъдем точни – малки ракообразни, които се носят във водата. Тази информация може да бъде открита в Уикипедия (дори и на български) със съвсем малко усилие.

Простимо е това да не се знае. Но не мога да проумея как е възможно в едно и също изречение крилът да бъде наречен риба и да бъде посочен като храна на китовете. По-голямата част от китовете не се хранят с риба, а с планктон*. Това е толкова основен факт, че го има дори и в детските енциклопедии. (Или поне го имаше, когато аз бях дете.)

Въпреки че написването на този пост ми отне повече време от обичайното, статията все още не е поправена. Към момента има само един коментар и той не е свързан с тази тема.