Blogs

Short version:

There were about 50 people gathered outside Governor Pataki's NYC office on 3rd Ave. between 40th and 41st last night to protest the proposed fare hike for NYC subways and buses. The demo was organized by NYPIRG's Straphanger Campaign, the Save Mass Transit Coalition, and Transportation Alternatives.

For those of you living in Birmingham (and even for those who aren't), have you seen this article about Rep. Gerald Allen attempting to ban books with "gay" content in them?

December 1, 2004
World AIDS Day
Women and Girls and HIV and AIDS

"Many women and girls are vulnerable to HIV because of the high-risk behavior of others. This year’s World AIDS Campaign, with the strapline ‘Have you heard me today?,’ seeks to raise awareness about, and help address, the many issues affecting women and girls around HIV and AIDS." (UN)

THANKSGIVING MASS

I am among the 10% of NYC Critical Mass participants who had a great ride last night.

I knew it was time to leave my apartment a little before 7 when I heard the helicopters. There looked to be about 400 cyclists assembled Union Square, but what dominated the scene was the police presence. In addition to there being a lot of them—both inside the park and lying in wait a block away in each direction with their orange nets, disposable handcuffs, and vans to hold our bikes—they were playing this obnoxious recorded message on loudspeakers about how we were required to have a permit (lie!), we didn’t have one (true!), and that if we rode our bikes in a “procession,

Well, I finally have a little time to write this up (between working full time, being a distance-ed library student at the University of Washington's iSchool, and being a parent).

I was invited to be a part of an event organized by the Peace Resource Center and the Associated Student's Social Issues group here at Western Washington University called "Beyond the Ballot", an evening of stories and discussion about experiences at the Republican National Convention in NY. I spoke along with photographer Orin Langelle (who works for the Global Justice Ecology Project)

This is a "personal blog entry," and although the tone of this section isn't so intimate, I would like to share some of the reading I've been doing since the election...
I'm reading the new Zizek, and I don't know if people are skeptical about this guy or what---I mean, he is fascinated by Hitchcock and psychoanalysis---still, he is observant, and sometimes a blase, generalized attitude is what one really, really needs to enlarge context. Here is a passage, for thought or comment, from "Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle" (Slavo Zizek):

Here's a
interesting/disturbing news item from the Register about the seizure of the IMC servers by the FBI last month. Evidently, the IMC (read, "Owner of said servers") has no standing in the case to find out who seized their servers. I seem to remember a little thing called THE CONSTITUTION that says, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. (Article VI)". Hold on to your hats folks; the world is getting wacky!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/05/voting.problems.ap/index.html


Well, everyone knew this was coming...
Is this a fluke, or an indication of a larger problem, in Ohio and elsewhere?

I just ran across this bunch of book reviews that I thought might be interesting for RR folks. Check these out!

National Catholic Reporter
Issue Date: November 5, 2004