Protests in Burma

In Burma (now known as Myanmar, though the change is not recognized by the US or the UK), Buddhist monks led a peaceful protest, triggered by the military government's doubling of fuel prices. The government responded with violence, with nine people, including monks and a Japanese reporter, reported dead.

This is Burma's largest pro-democracy protest since 1988, when thousands were gunned down by the government. The rightful leader of the nation, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest.

China's "non-interference" policy in foreign affairs, and its appetite for Burmese natural gas, are helping the Burmese military government stay afloat. China is also guilty of propping up the Sudanese government, despite its atrocities in Darfur.

W is imposing sanctions on the Burmese government, though it's too little, too late. He was quoted as calling the governments of Iran, Syria, and North Korea "barbaric," at a recent UN speech as well, but he is taking no actions against his buddies in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, who are just as barbaric and oppressive. And it goes without saying that W has shown absolutely no interest in Darfur. What's truly obscene is that W has encouraged the offshoring of American jobs to China, under the guise of "free trade," with the sole purpose of destroying the American middle class and the labor movement. The Chinese, flush with American dollars, are financing the Sudanese and the Burmese - let's remember that.

BBC

What's wrong with being single?

Here's an article I fetched off of Match.com, that says there is nothing wrong with being single.

I wholeheartedly concur. I just can't let go of the freedom that being single brings. This is despite the fact that singles get discriminated against at jobs, on insurance policies, and at tax time.

The truth is that marriages are not working, even with all the job and tax incentives; most marriages today end in divorce.

Match.com

Iranian president visits Columbia University

Columbia University, being the most reactionary Ivy League member as I know it, today brought in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran for a conference. While it was billed as an opportunity to listen to a foreign leader first-hand, it ended up only giving a platform of hate.

Ahmadinejad stuck to his program of denying the Holocaust, calling it an excuse made up by Israel to justify Palestinian oppression.

He also claimed that there are no homosexuals in Iran, lowering himself to the level of Chairman Mao during China's Cultural Revolution - or today's Korean-American church preachers.

The response from W was classic: America is great because even lunatics like Ahmadinejad get a platform to speak on. Indeed America is great - because even lunatics like W, who shares much of the Ahmadinejad agenda, can occupy the White House.

BBC

Racism in the Deep South

Today, there was a major protest in the town of Jena in Louisiana, in support of six black teenagers, who had been charged with attacking white teens. The white teens, in turn, had hung nooses from a whites-only tree and taunted black teens, when one black teen had dared to sit under that tree.

This is the biggest news items all day today. And unlike the unreported, "silent" war protests of this past weekend in DC, today's protests got the wide coverage they deserved.

Fellow blogger (and this blog's godmother) Christy Cole, who lives near Shreveport and is white, tells me that hatred of blacks is in the extreme. She has banned many relatives from ever visiting her, over the remarks they had made regarding Christy's couch, which blacks and Latinos had sat in.

Race tensions are not just a Louisiana issue. They are pretty bad in Southern California too, between immigrants and natives, and surprisingly (for white liberals anyway), between different immigrant demographics. I've always believed, and still believe, that it's the race tensions that will bring the American society down, especially as the former Dixiecrats who now make up the bulk of the Republican Party continue to exploit them.

BBC

US Dollar keeps dipping

Just how low will it go? Is a hyperinflation on the horizon, as the drop of the US dollar spirals out of control?

It now costs over $1.40 US to buy one Euro. Meanwhile the Canadian dollar has hit parity with the US dollar, for the first time since the 1970s.

Just a few years ago, it only cost 80 cents to buy one Euro, and 60 cents to buy a Canadian dollar.

Combined with the British pound now fetching well over $2, it will now be that much more expensive for me to go abroad, whether for a quick Canadian weekend or for a week in Europe.

One can only thank W's disastrous and irresponsible economic policies for making this happen. But then, destroying the American middle class, and preventing it from traveling abroad and getting enlightened, probably was in his best interests anyway.

BBC

Ivy League: Worth It?

I just read a very interesting analysis from Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia service, that concludes that Ivy League universities, while brilliant, may not be the best fit for a prospective student. Some facts noted in the analysis - and my comments as a Columbia grad:

• Ivy League schools are primarily graduate and research schools.
• Specific departments are NOT necessarily top notch. (For example, I know that Columbia's engineering school is only so-so.)
• Grad schools don't necessarily favor Ivy League grads over others. (I know this too well - I would've had much better chance at grad school, being the top of the class at an average state school, than what actually happened to me - barely graduating from Columbia.)
• Ivy League can be intimidating to some. (My parents never get this, but the fact is, even though I may have been among the smartest in high school, and would've been the top of the class at other colleges as well, I was in fact only average at Columbia, since there were plenty of even smarter people.)
• High-tech employers don't necessarily favor Ivy League grads either. (In fact, in some cases, lesser schools actually prepare their students better for a given job than the highly theoretical Ivy League schools.)

Although the experience of progressive New York and the East Coast was something I truly cherish from my college days - something the likes of UC Irvine and other schools of reactionary Southern California would have never provided - the fact remains that I would have done just as well at another progressive place, like Northern California. The only true East Coast edge, IMO, was the relative proximity to Europe, allowing me to take a cheap flight to London for spring breaks. (I will admit that this was absolutely priceless.)

Ivy League schools are also very expensive, though good financial assistance packages may be available depending on the school. However, I still count myself very lucky, to have paid off all my student loan obligations before age 30.

So the verdict is in. The only good reason, IMO, to go to the Ivy League, is if you really need/want that East Coast experience. (Or if you are rich and well-connected, like W at Yale.)

Encarta

US Military - becoming Crusaders

The Muslim world has known this already for ages, that the US military's ultimate goal in the Middle East is to impose Christianity on behalf of the evangelical nutjobs that have taken over the US government.

And the following TruthOut article is the proof. An atheist soldier stationed in Iraq is suing the DoD for retaliating against him, when he refused to join coercive Christian activities for Thanksgiving.

As much as I want to support the troops, it's very difficult to do so, when they are busy forcibly spreading a religion, one that I strongly disagree with, and one that I see as being so weak that it must pound itself as being "the only truth" all the time.

TruthOut

American Girl

While I was at the Seattle Times website, I came across another article - this one, on the American Girl line of dolls, including a new doll, Julie, representing San Francisco in 1974, just introduced this month.

I've been intrigued by this idea of historically based dolls, with real stories behind them. But even as I visited the American Girl Place in Los Angeles, and saw fellow blogger Marianne Wood shop for her young daughter at another American Girl Place in Chicago last spring, I haven't really gotten the real deal behind the American Girl dolls. That is, until now, as I just discovered all the dolls - and each doll's story - on the official website, ranging from colonial era to slavery to immigration to Great Depression to, now, the hippies era. This is a great way to let little girls learn history, and make stories up (as each doll comes with a storybook).

The only other time American Girl dolls caught my serious interest was in my early blogging days, when its links to Girls Inc. drew the ire of Christian conservatives.

Just about the only turn-off is the price ($87 and up per doll and book), but it may be money well spent, considering the wholesome image and the historical lessons involved.

American Girl
Seattle Times

Travel as a Political Act

I would probably still be a right-wing Mann Coulter or Michelle Malkin wannabe today, if it were not for my travels, which opened my world up to a whole slew of new ways of thinking and influences.

Travel guru Rick Steves says the same thing, in essence, turning from a hardcore Reaganite to a hardcore progressive as he explored Europe and beyond, for work and for pleasure. He says that America would be a much better place - and a much better global citizen - if Americans actually cared to travel abroad, and take in the local culture at the destination.

Below is a wonderful interview he recently did for the Seattle Times. Fellow blogger DiAnne Grieser shared this interview on her own blog and on Democracy Cell Project.

Seattle Times

Hillary's Universal Healthcare Plan

It's out today. Meanwhile, her chief rivals have had it out for a while already.

Hillary's proposal requires everyone to carry health insurance, and it will be subsidized through tax credits. Businesses will also be required to offer health insurance, or pay into a government pool; they will also be given tax credits to help make this happen.

For people lacking employer coverage, Hillary proposes that they will be able to join either Medicare or the current healthcare plan for federal employees. No new bureaucracy will be created.

For me, this works out rather well - I would love to have even the bare-bones Medicare coverage. And while I haven't studied the Edwards or Obama plans, I am sure that they will also work out better than anything the Republicans have to offer, which will continue to leave me out. There is one question, however: what will be done to curb the soaring insurance rates for the insured? The truth is that with the market rigged, rates are soaring to a point where existing insureds are losing their coverage.

I won't consider the healthcare mess in the US resolved until the costs are contained, but this is a starting point, with the government insurer picking up where the private sector fails, much like the workers compensation world in most states.

MSNBC

Odds and Ends

I did make it to Las Vegas this past weekend, to make up for the cancelled NorCal trip a few weeks ago. I did nicely - I won several hundred dollars at the casinos, and managed to squeeze in some shopping too.

In the meantime, I am also enriching my personal life, by resuming novel writing. I'm taking an online class right now, which is turning out nicely. (I'll discuss it more in my novel blog.) Let's see how things turn out.

W at APEC in Australia (or was it OPEC in Austria?)

The annual Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit discusses various issues of interest to Pacific Rim nations (especially free trade), and is also a major security concern, given W's attendance and the world's increasing hatred of him. Two years ago, I had the misfortune of visiting Busan, South Korea, as it was hosting the APEC summit then - made for a lot of hassles and closed-down attractions not only in Busan, but even in faraway Seoul as well.

This year's talks are being held in Sydney, Australia, where entire city blocks and sections have been turned into fortresses and no-access zones. Based on what I am reading off of various news sites, it makes Busan look like a picnic. I am not surprised, as Prime Minister John Howard has been the world's most loyal puppet of the W regime.

W rewarded Howard by calling the summit an "OPEC" meeting, showing his true colors as a greedy oilman. He further thanked the presence of Austrian troops in Iraq - never mind that Austria never sent anyone to Iraq, and it was his puppet Howard and Australia that sent troops. It appears that Howard is sucking up to the W regime on every topic - from "war on terror" to immigration to gay marriage - but is proving to be futile, as W can't even remember the name of Howard's country.

The only silver lining in this is that the Australians are about to hold an election very soon, and most likely Howard and his Liberals will be gone, replaced by a Labor government. Overthrow of Howard has been long overdue. Australia, please do the right thing.

MSNBC

Bin Laden to America: Convert to Islam

That's what is supposedly being said, according to a new supposed Bin Laden videotape analyzed by the US and released today. It is very close to being the sixth anniversary of 9/11.

Bin Laden chides the American people for re-electing W to allow him to continue killing Muslims. He gives America two choices: suffer at his hands, or reject Western democracy and embrace Islam.

Looks like it's a choice between radical extremist Christianity and radical extremist Islam, neither of which will let me exist.

BBC

Travel plans postponed

I didn't feel too well, so I scrubbed my planned itinerary to Northern California.

I am looking forward to making the trip for the Thanksgiving or Christmas weekend.

In the meantime, to make up for this lost Labor Day weekend, I will again visit Las Vegas in a few weeks, partly to take in a show.