Mmmmmm.... The Simpsons

Yes, we did. We went to see The Simpsons Movie. Let me be honest, I was apprehensive, and expecting mediocre at best. I was expecting the kind of quality that has been standard on the TV show for the past couple of seasons. It seems maybe they were phoning in the series lately so they can focus on the movie, because the movie was outstanding. The obvious caveat being that you must like the Simpsons and that style of humor, of course.

We were pretty much laughing the entire time, and there are a couple of Simpson's-style heartfelt moments.

Basically the story is this. Lake Springfield has become an environmental disaster, so the town cleans it up, only to have Homer screw it all up. The government quarrantine's the town and Springfield wants to lynch Homer. The Simpsons escape to Alaska to start over, only to find out they must return to save Springfield. In addition to that, there's a subplot involving Lisa and an environmentally conscious, smart, Irish boy named Colin; Homer adopts a pig as a family pet; Grandpa has a religious soothsaying moment; Satirical swipes at the government, the EPA, Halliburton, and Fox News; Bart takes on Flanders as a father figure; cameos by all of your Simpson's favorites; and of course Marge reaffirms her love of a fat, stupid, donut-eating oaf.

It's pure Simpson's fun.

Below are a couple pictures I took at the Kwik-E-Mart in Bridgeport a few weeks ago. Pure marketing genius....

Well, I'm off to enjoy a bowl of Krusty-O's cereal for breakfast....

Some perspective

These are stats I dug up for a paper a while back, and I always found the numbers fascinating.

The US and the USSR are the most
powerful countries
in the world
but only 1/8 of the world’s population.
African people are also 1/8 of the world’s
population.
of that, 1/4 is Nigerian.
1/2 of the world’s population is Asian.
1/2 of that is Chinese.
There are 22 nations in the middle east.
Most people in the world are Yellow, Black, Brown, Poor, Female, Non-Christian
and do not speak English.
By the year 2000 the 20 largest cities in the world will have one thing in common
none of them will be in Europe none in the United States.
--Audre Lorde, January 1, 1989


The stats as of 2003 for the most populous cities in the world. (I apologize if the alignment is off, I couldn't get tables to cooperate so I had to do it the old fashioned way).

1) Seoul, South Korea...........................10,231,217
2) Sao Paulo, Brazil..............................10,009,231
3) Mumbai, India....................................9,925,891
4) Jakarta, Indonesia.............................9,373,900
5) Karachi, Pakistan...............................9,339,023
6) Moscow, Russia..................................8,297,056
7) Istanbul, Turkey................................8,260,438
8) Mexico City, Mexico..............................8,235,744
9) Shanghai, China..................................8,214,348
10) Tokyo, Japan....................................8,130,408
11) New York, USA.................................8,008,278
12) Bangkok, Thailand...............................7,506,700
13) Beijing, China......................................7,362,426
14) Delhi, India..........................................7,206,704
15) London, England.................................7,074,265
16) Hong Kong, China.............................. 6,843,000
17) Cairo, Egypt.........................................6,800,992
18) Tehran, Iran........................................6,758,845
19) Santafe de Bogota D.C, Colombia................6,422,198
20) Lima, Peru...........................................6,414,500
21) Bandung, Indonesia............................5,919,400
22) Tianjin, China.......................................5,855,044
23) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...........................5,613,897
24) Lahore, Pakistan..................................5,143,495
25) Bogor, Indonesia.................................5,000,100
26) Santiago, Chile......................................4,788,543
27) St. Petersburg, Russia.........................4,678,102
28) Shenyang, China..................................4,669,737
29) Calcutta, India.....................................4,399,819
30) Wuhan, China......................................4,040,113
31) Sydney, Australia................................4,031,944
32) Guangzhou, China...............................3,935,193
33) Singapore, Singapore.........................3,894,000
34) Madras, India......................................3,841,396
35) Baghdad, Iraq......................................3,841,268
36) Pusan, South Korea............................3,814,325
37) Los Angeles, USA...............................3,485,398
38) Yokohama, Japan..............................3,426,506
39) Melbourne, Australia.........................3,413,894
40) Berlin, Germany................................3,388,000
41) Alexandria, Egypt..............................3,339,076
42) Bangalore, India.................................3,302,296
43) Hyderabad, India...............................3,145,939
44) Chongqing, China...............................3,122,704
45) Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam........................3,015,743
46) Harbin, China.....................................2,990,921
47) Ankara, Turkey.................................2,984,099
48) Buenos Aires, Argentina..........................2,965,403
49) Chengdu, China..................................2,954,872
50) Ahmedabad, India............................2,954,526

Top 50 total population..............278,370,917

Percent of the top 50 total population that is:

• Predominately English-Speaking: 9.35%
  
• Predominately Muslim: 23.98%
  

Percent of the top 20 total population that is:

• Predominately English-Speaking: 5.42%
  
• Predominately Muslim: 14.56%
  

Seems Audre Lorde wasn't that far off in her assumptions. Why is this important? It drives home the point that while the West might be the political and economic leader of the world, we had better start learning something about the rest of the world - and I don't must mean through token "diversity days" in schools and whatnot. We had better start incorporating non-Western philosophies and histories in our education curricula, or else we will be left behind in the new global world. The days are dwindling when one-third of the world's population can claim economic, political, military, and cultural hegemony over the two-thirds majority. Many of our current problems - terrorism, globalization, world poverty, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have come to pass in part because of our arrogant decision to simply dismiss the rest of the world as insignificant and not bother to attempt to see things from a perspective different than our own.

Just something to think about....

Harry Potter and The Master Race - No Spoilers

The last HP book has been read. Very satisfying. Without saying too much I hope that I can point out that there is a definite fascist regime in Harry's world. Although the book has themes of "We're all human, if not love each other, respect", I did find quite a few subtle and not so subtle jabs at non-whites and Jews.

1. The goblins that run Gringots are the magical Jews. There is one whose name is Griphook. This might as well be Griphooknose. If you have the book, look at the illustration for chapter 15. The only things that the goblins are missing is a dreidel and little black curls coming from under the hat! They're portrayed as money hungry, and not the kind that wizards would want as neighbours. I'll bet that when a wizard is pitching "Dumbledore! The Musical" to a producer, that producer is a goblin in Rowling's mind.

2. There's also a touch of stay to your own kind. By this I mean that a lot of the books have the pure vs. half breed. It's not just the evil wizards that believe this. This sentiment is shared by your every-man in this magical world. After all, they fear and are fascinated with Muggles. Another point of this are the rest of the magical creatures. The human kind do not share with the other magical creatures, but those creatures don't share with humans either. It's like the cold war on this regard. For more proof - look at Hagrid. He's a half-breed comic foil.

3. We all know that Harry and Hermione are half-blood. Ron is pure-blood. Ron has nothing good to say ever about any of the magical creatures that they come across. What's worse is that Harry Potter tends to agree more times than not with him! Only Hermione is vocal against it, but even then, not all the time. Sometimes she goes with the flow just to keep things civil.

4. Poor Cho - Harry's fuck toy. There's a good element of "pump em and dump em" when it comes to Cho since her debut. Harry gets his kicks and then moves on to Ginny. There's one last dig on this theme against Cho. The poor Indian girls couldn't keep his interest at all!

5. There are no non-Caucasian main characters.


So I reiterate that it was a good book. I love the story, but hate Rowling's writing style. I can see the racism in her stories to be her way of pointing out human foibles. The cynical side of me tends to think that the uber blond Rowling has some interesting issues. I'll bet that there's a jewish 13 year old who feels sort of dirty without reason after reading this story.

Better late than never

This past weekend we went down to Peoria for a wedding reception that I can only describe as a trainwreck from start to finish. I simply cannot bring myself to discuss the horrors that ensued. If John would like to elaborate beyond the bride getting stumbling drunk on Boone's Farm electric blue wine, and the fact that at any given moment someone in the bridal party was pissed off and not speaking to someone in attendance, he's more than welcome. Let's just say the highlight of the entire trip was our stop at the Kwik-E-Mart on the South Side on the way home.

So I take myself to the land of happy thoughts and recount my trip to the Aquarium with Donna.

Here's some pictures from my trip to the Aquarium with Donna last weekend:

The whole reason we went was to see the baby penguins.

You can see in the middle here the mother feeding the baby, which is just a grey fuzzy ball.

A wider shot of the Penguin Cove.
I liked this one because you can see the one swimming in the foreground.

A little teeny Gecko lizard in the lizard exhibit.

No, this frog wasn't dead. We could see it breathing.
What the hell it's doing, I honestly don't know.

The Komodo Dragon. This is one giant lizard.
You can't tell from the picture, but the enclosure he's in is very large.
They love to run, and they can run fast.

This is the dolphin area.
The Oceanarium was built just over 10 years ago and it was built so that it
jutted out over Lake Michigan, creating a kind of seamless view of the exhibit and the Lake.
It's really a nice view

They had some Spongebob movie (in 4-D) I think that means motion or something. We didn't go in, but I had to take a picture of the ridiculous entrance.

My favorite view of the skyline is from the Museum Campus, which is just about 2 miles south of the Loop. This isn't the best picture because it was taken while we were waiting to get into the aquarium, but it was such a nice day out I had to take one.

Later I'll have the pictures we took of the Kwik-E-Mart. All I have to say is that plan is pure marketing genius.

Worthy Causes

(July, 2007)

I finally put up a non-exhaustive list of what I consider to be causes worthy of your time, money, and/or moral and verbal support. The easiest way for a problem to remain invisible is for people not to talk about it. One mistake Bob Geldof made in criticizing Live Earth by saying everyone already knows about global warming is forgetting that people already "know" about poverty in Africa as well. We already know about Darfur. We knew about Rwanda. But the one way to ensure inaction is to let an issue escape to the margins rather than keeping it in the front of our minds. The only way to ensure people don't forget is to keep talking. That's what Live Earth was about.

I am setting a rule this year for myself that for birthdays and Christmas/Yule, I really don't need any more 'stuff' and what I do need, I normally buy for myself. Instead, I am going to urge those who are on my gift list and those from whom I am likely to receive gifts, to rather select a worthy cause (one of these, or another) and make a donation instead or, if that is uncomfortable or impractical for whatever reason, to purchase goods from local businesses that practice fair trade and/or give proceeds to charities or just make something rather than buy something. The one exception I have to add to this is books... books are not in the same class as "stuff".

I know I've forgotten organizations - that's how I am with lists. So as I think of things, I'll add them. Feel free to make suggestions too. I've tried to choose causes and organizations that do not have specific political party orientations, but rather are organizations that work to help people. Of course, the organizations chosen reflect the issues that I feel are important - so you can't completely eliminate politics - but I mean I'm not putting specific political action groups, candidates, ect. on here.

Here's a brief explanation of each organization and why I think it's a worthy cause. Some portions of the descriptions are lifted right from the "about us" sections of websites, because, well, they can describe themselves a lot better and more concisely than I can:

Amnesty International: An independent non-governmental organization dedicated to the investigation, reporting, and prevention of human rights abuses around the world. AI is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It does not support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to protect. It is concerned solely with the impartial protection of human rights.

Arghand: I've posted about Arghand before. It's a cooperative of farmers in the Khandahar region of Afghanistan who make soaps out of local crops in an effort to provide a market for crops other than poppies. Arghand employs men and women and helps to provide economic stability to local farmers. Their soaps are available from various merchants across the US. Domus in NY is the only one I've seen so far that you can order online - and it's a cooperative, fair-trade shop. Win-win there.

ASPCA: Most of you know I have a much bigger heart when it comes to animals than when it comes to people. Maybe that's because a dog never hooked an enemy's nuts up to a car battery. The ASPCA helps rescue, care for, and find homes for homeless and abused animals, as well as investigates and prosecutes abuse and neglect. They provide informational services about pet safety, and were one of the only organizations that really pushed for emergency evacuation plans that included pets after the Katrina tragedy.

Habitat for Humanity: Habitat for Humanity helps to build thousands of homes in the US and abroad for people in need. The homes are built with volunteer labor, which brings the overall cost of construction down, providing affordable housing - these are not "give away" homes - they are made available to qualified applicants at affordable prices. You can donate money, or volunteer your time and labor. Though technically a religiously affiliated organization, they provide help and services to anyone in need.

Human Rights Campaign: The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC seeks to improve the lives of GLBT Americans by advocating for equal rights and benefits in the workplace, ensuring families are treated equally under the law and increasing public support among all Americans through innovative advocacy, education and outreach programs.

Live Earth S.O.S.: Different than the other organizations, Live Earth S.O.S. does not want donations or volunteers in the traditional sense. What they want is for each individual to recognize that the little things matter. They want us to change our habits and our consumption. To pay attention to how what we do affects the environment. The mission of the SOS campaign is to empower individuals to change their consumer behaviors and motivate corporations and political leaders to enact decisive measures to combat the climate crisis. The message of S.O.S. is that everyone, everywhere can and must "Answer the Call" to solve the climate crisis.

Millennium Promise: A bold initiative to end world poverty by 2025. The Millennium Promise sponsors selected villages in countries with relatively stable governments and helps develop sustainable solutions to poverty, disease, and hunger by providing economic aid, education, health care, and by respecting the local people's right to self-determination. One of the sister projects is to provide bed nets to help curb the spread of malaria in Africa.

National Coalition for the Homeless: Their mission is simple: end homelessness. The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) engages in public education, policy advocacy, and grassroots organizing focused on 4 areas: housing justice, economic justice, health care justice, and civil rights.

National Endowment of the Arts: The NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

National Public Radio: NPR (National Public Radio) is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. NPR and its affiliates are important because their news coverage is not beholden to any sponsors. They are funded by membership and public funds. Each NPR Member Station serves local listeners with a distinctive combination of national and local programming.

Project Ijtihad: We all know that Islamic extremism is a problem in the world. Most of us also know that they represent a small fraction of all Muslims. However, as Irshad Manji, in my opinion, rightly points out, moderate and reformist Muslims in the West, where they have freedom of expression, speech, and thought, are remaining silent. Project Ijtihad is a charitable initiative to promote the spirit of Ijtihad, Islam’s own tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent. They support a positive vision of Islam that embraces diversity of choices, expression and spirituality and work to build the world’s most inclusive network of reform-minded Muslims and non-Muslim allies. There's a great MySpace page that includes open debates on various issues involving Islam, Muslims, religion in general, and anyone is invited to participate. The solution to this issue involves Muslims and non-Muslims speaking out against injustice together.

PBS: Similar to NPR, PBS provides non-commercial television broadcasting. This non–profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 354 public television stations. A trusted community resource, PBS uses the power of noncommercial television, the Internet and other media to enrich the lives of all Americans through quality programs and education services that inform inspire and delight. Available to 99 percent of American homes with televisions and to an increasing number of digital multimedia households, PBS serves over 75 million people each week.

RAWA: RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977. Yes, well before the Taliban and the war on terror, these brave women have worked to improve the lives of Afghan women for decades. Risking their own lives, during the brutal reign of the Taliban, RAWA activists would smuggle video and pictures of the conditions inside the country to the media. Now with the Taliban "gone" and renewed hope for progress, RAWA needs more help than ever.

Save Darfur: A coalition of private citizens, NGOs, and other organizations came together to draw awareness to the genocide in Darfur. There are many things we can do to help. Talk about the human rights violations with others, donate money for supplies, or help in the divestment campaign.

V-Day: V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. It is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery in the United States and internationally. Events benefiting V-day often, but not always, include performances of the Vagina Monologues.

Warm Up America: Here's one for all you knitters. Warm Up America takes donations of individual knit/crocheted squares or full blankets and donates them to victims of natural disasters, battered women's shelters, the homeless, and others in need. You can knit simple squares and send them in. Or you can knit entire blankets. There's also another organization similar to this called Mile of Hugs.

Women & Children First Bookstore: OK, yes, this is a Chicago-based business. I had to put it in there though, because it is a fantastic independent bookstore with some of the best selection of feminist, and GBLT-friendly titles and they're in danger of being put out of business. You can order books online... hint... hint...

Women for Afghan Women: Women for Afghan Women (WAW) is an organization of Afghan and non-Afghan women from the New York area who are committed to ensuring the human rights of Afghan women. They create safe forums where Afghan women can network, develop programs to meet their specific needs, and participate in human rights advocacy in the international sphere. They raises funds for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, particularly schools and health facilities for women and children. Recognizing that the ability to earn their living is fundamental to the empowerment of women, WAW supports the development of vocational training programs for women in Afghanistan who have been denied access to education and professional training.

Women for Women International: Women for Women International supports women in war-torn regions with financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives. Women are often the invisible victims of war, but are among the most affected civilians in war torn regions.

New Additions (8/2007)

The Nature Conservancy: A leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

Kiva.org: Microloans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Microloans are small amounts - a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, that help people start and maintain businesses and put them on the path to economic independence. Microloans are extremely helpful to all people in developing countries, but are specifically beneficial to women who often experience social and political barriers to economic independence.

Heifer International: Working to end poverty and hunger by providing sustainable resources to impoverished people. Donations are used to buy livestock for villages to provide food and other resources such as wool for clothes.

New Addition (9/2007)

Click to Give sites: Animal Rescue, World Hunger, Breast Cancer, International Literacy, Children's Health, and Rainforest Preservation groups all banded together to create the "click to give" sites. All you have to do is click the button and their sponsors give money toward each cause (food, shelter, teacher salaries, etc). Each has a shop where you can buy tangible things, such as Pawprint logo shirts for animal rescue, or fair-trade woven goods from people in developing countries. They also have intangibles, such as a donation to pay a teacher's salary in Afghanistan, buy books for kids in schools, sponsor a homeless animal, buy food for the hungry, etc. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of shopping on this site this holiday season.

Whirlwind

Man, I had a busy week.

On the 4th, Donna came out and we went to see Transformers. It was pretty good. It's a summer popcorn movie. There were several places that I couldn't help but laugh and roll my eyes, including the guy a few rows over who cheered with his arms up in the air at various points... what a nerd. Donna was right in her assessment that certain portions of the movie could be served on a Triscuit. Also, the Davis Theatre switched out the Spongebob toys for something else, so now there is no Spongebob machine for John to play with. I did find a site where we could order the capsuled toys - it's a gumball machine supply company. However, we'd have to order a box of 250 figures, complete with plastic bubbles... talk about a complete waste. We made some burgers on the grill and comforted Annie from the big booms of fireworks. She was hiding in her "tent" we made out of a blanket and a couple of chairs.

I had the 5th off work, just because. I discovered that the fan-shaped lace wrap I started knitting about a week prior was all fucked up. I tried in vain to fix it, but I ended up having to start over yesterday. I'd rather have it right than have it look stupid. I was only 40 rows in (and there's like 500 rows, so....). I think I went swimming that evening too. It's getting easier and easier for me to get my ass to the pool - so that's good. I also notice that the muscle/joint tension in my hips and lower back lessens when I swim.

I don't think I did anything on Friday. I think we BBQd chicken when I got home from work. John was working all weekend trying to get some code to work.

Saturday I went with Donna to the Shedd Aquarium - the largest indoor aquarium in the world believe it or not. Donna has some great pictures posted. I haven't gotten mine off my camera yet. They had baby penguins and sea otters, and then we went to see the Komodo Dragon and lizard exhibit and an exhibit on coral reefs. We skipped the dolphin show, but spent some time just watching them swim around afterwards. The trainer was around taking questions from onlookers and I almost asked him if the dolphins picked Enya as part of their soundtrack by popular vote.

I love the aquarium. I try to get there every few years. There's also a really great exhibit on Darwin at the Field Museum next door that I have to go see one of these days. We came back to our place, kidnapped John away from his code to go grab some lunch. Donna and I then ran up to Devon & Western to the Indian neighborhood to get our eyebrows threaded. That was the first time I had that done, it didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought and it's a helluva lot cheaper than waxing. The woman also asked if I'd like her to take care of the mustache... {blink, blink} Um YES. Then she said I should do my whole face and I was like - UM NO, but thanks for reminding me that I'm hairy. I have Italian and Eastern European blood, what can I do?

We went back to our place and Donna molested her new Otter Jeffrey while we watched some of the Live Earth coverage.

Sunday was going to be a relaxing day, but then I ended up getting a last minute call from a friend who had an extra ticket to the Sox game. So I went with them. Thankfully our seats were in the shade - which is a real rarity in Comiskey Park (I refuse to call it US Cellular Field). The people 4 rows in front of us were baking in the sun the whole time. The Sox won and it was a fun game.

I got home and was so beat that John and I ordered in dinner.

Now I'm back at work - horray!

And I just learned this morning that our good friends V & M have a brand new bouncing baby number three. Congrats kids!

It's not easy bein green...

when you rent.

A lot of the tips that Sundance and NBC were suggesting for reducing consumption were easy things that "anyone" can do. Anyone, that is, that has control over their home and its structure.

John and I drive way less than the average person, I try not to leave lights on and I turn fans off when we're not using them. We do have one LED bulb in the kitchen (a tester to see how it works out). A lot of the other things are beyond our control.

I'd love to get compact florescent bulbs in all our fixtures. Problem is - we rent. Not only are some of our fixtures not big enough for CF bulbs, but the bulbs burn out in our place just about as often as regular bulbs. Why? Probably because the building is old, the landlords don't give a shit, and the wiring is outdated and bad. So the one easy thing that everyone is pushing to be more green is the one thing we can't do. Well we could do it, but it would be really friggin expensive and it would also cause more harm than good because CF bulbs contain mercury and are not supposed to be thrown away with your regular trash. So we'd have to drive more, to a recycling facility, to throw away all the bulbs that are supposed to last 3 times as long as a regular one...

It's very frustrating too - not to have the power to, for example, fix the windows and doors to prevent drafts. Or be able to install central A/C so that when it's nice enough out we can turn off the AC and open the windows. There have been several days this summer where I wish I could have simply opened the windows. Right now, we have three windows that we can open for ventilation - and two of them have window AC units in them. In order to get any airflow, we have to basically have the AC running constantly. Especially in the front room where John has all his computer stuff (that he can't turn off b/c others need access to his FTP at any time). That room gets very hot unless the AC is running.

Oh, and you know the tip about ceiling fans right? About how you should run them and they'll circulate air. Well, the idiot that installed ours didn't wire the lamp and fan power separately, so in order to run the fan, the light has to be on... kinda defeats the fuckin purpose, eh?

In the winter, since we control the heat for the entire 3 flat and the upstairs third floor is poorly insulated, we have no choice but to keep the heat up so the third floor tenant doesn't freeze. What does that mean? It means sometimes in the winter John and I are running the heat with the windows open. At the same time, we have to run a space heater in the basement at night because it will be 78 in the upstairs but only 55 in the basement. Some proper ventilation and insulation would solve that for sure. But what can we do? It's not our building.

I certainly don't want to be a naysayer, so I'll leave you with some good news. Our ward (Chicago is divided into wards, each governed by an alderman - a member of city council) is one of the test wards for the new recycling program. See, about 10 years ago, Chicago started this brand new "Blue Bag" program for recycling. It sounded great - until people started figuring out it was a crock of shit and wasn't doing anything. The way it worked was, you would buy these blue bags (I think they're made of biodegradable plastic) and you would throw all your recycling in them - all mixed together - paper, cans, ect). Then you would throw it in your regular trash and people in a sorting facility would sort out the recyclables.

1. Ew.
2. How easy is it to sort when the garbage truck crushes all that together?
3. How much potentially good recyclables are wasted by being smashed, broken or contaminated?
4. There are reports that bluebags are ending up in landfills more often than not because the sorting process is failing.
   

Then there was the problem of the homeless people who would root through the trash for the cans to bring to recycling centers - they'd rip open the blue bags, take the cans, and leave the rest to mingle with the trash - thus ruining the other recyclables. Granted, it's great that the cans are getting recycled, but all the rest is wrecked.

Well now, finally, after much complaining, the city has decided to test the use of actual recycle bins. A blue trash bin, that looks like a regular trash can only it's blue (so stupid people will still throw their trash in it I'm sure) is given to each house/building. You still put all of your recyclables together (plastic, paper, cans, etc), bagged or unbagged, and it still goes for sorting, but at least it's picked up in separate trucks, every other week as opposed to every week.

So props to my alderman for getting us in for the test case. I always feel horrible throwing away cans and bottles, but really have had no real choice until now.

Live Earth

So everyone's heard about this right? A worldwide 24 hour concert to raise money to fight global warming? If not, go here.

Sundance channel appears to be airing the entire thing from 4am Saturday (tonight) to 2am Sunday. Similar to Live 8, there's 7 concerts that take place one right after the other for an entire day, each in a different city.

Among the participants:

Roger Waters
The Police
Smashing Pumpkins
Kanye West
Madonna
Beastie Boys
Duran Duran
Damien Rice
Metallica

The list goes on.

I am going to watch the broadcast of the New York show and probably wait for the DVD (you know there will be one) for the rest.

Also, I've been thinking about re-working my blog template and I think I'm going to add a section called "Worthy Causes" where I'm simply going to provide links to charities and organizations that I think are worth my (and your) time and money. Once that's up, feel free to offer suggestions as I'm sure I will have inadvertently forgotten someone. It's easy to take a cause, think about it for a few hours and never act on it. It's more difficult to commit yourself, especially when you have limited time and resources.

That's why I love it when celebrities take up causes. They have the freedom that time and money allows. They also have the public eye. Rather than wasting that being some clubbing, pill-popping tramp like Paris, some celebs use their popularity for a good cause. If you can get more attention, and raise more awareness because of who you are, and your occupation and life circumstances allow you the time and access to make a difference - then god dammit, do it.

Some people roll their eyes and criticize celebrities for vocalizing their concerns. They're people too. They have opinions, and the right to voice them. The microphone is simply a little louder. And all this hubub about how artists should just keep their yaps shut... Tell me something - what art is apolitical? Art - whether visual or musical, paintings or films, has always been infused with political meaning. Sure, some of it is vapid, some of it always will be, but there have always been artists who used their art to send political messages.

Execujudicilative Branch

In light of yesterday's commutation of Libby's sentence by King George II I was reminded only of one quote from the movie Amistad where John Quincy Adams is arguing before the Supreme Court about the fate of a few dozen slaves:

"These are transcriptions of letters written between our Secretary of State, John Forsythe, and the Queen of Spain, Isabella II. And I ask that you accept their perusal as part of your deliberations.

... I would not touch on them now except to notice a phrase which is much repeated. The Queen again and again refers to our incompetent courts. And what I wonder would be more to her liking, huh? A court that finds against the Africans, I think not. And here’s the fine point of it…what her majesty wants is a court that behaves just like her court. The courts this eleven-year-old child plays with in her magical kingdom called Spain. A court that will do what it is told a court that can be toyed with like a doll. A court, as it happens, of which our own president Martin Van Buren would be most proud."


Editor's note: Before you start typing - yes, I know it's totally different circumstances, and that it's the President's right to commute sentences and pardon people he feels have been treated unfairly. However, added with all the other abuses of power this administration has committed, and the relatively few pardons and commutations granted by Bush in comparison to every other president in the past 100 years, this simply looks to me like Bush taking care of another one of his cronies. I'm personally waiting for Libby to get a medal pinned on him for being a good lapdog.