http://melanie.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/6631 PUNKVOTER.COM
founded by Fat Mike, info on political figures in America, voting registration, election, downloads, pictures of the almighty, etc...

...because i know that there's a lot of apathy among young people

you might not think it matters now
but what if you are wrong
you might not think that there's any wisdom
in a fucked up punk rock song.
but the way it is
cannot persist for long
-bad religion "kyoto now"
]]> Wed, 13 Nov 2002 18:45:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/6631 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/6454 i never got to go to UMN this semester. no money; heh...surprise, surprise...

still at home in charleston, sc. may be taking a stone carving class starting next week.

jarra, i'm sorry about the other day. i was cut off. i was using a computer in a classroom and poof, the class finally showed up! the bastards... :p

beating myself up with school.

tomorrow's the anniversary of buddy and connie's death.

that's all]]> Thu, 24 Oct 2002 22:52:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/6454 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/5910 (and I plan to write an update about "arrested." i'm still pissed about the matter. it's still not resolved...)

What happened to the Rio Summit children?

Ten years ago the UN started to track the lives of eight babies - lives blighted by hunger, pollution, poverty and death.

Mark Townsend
Sunday September 1, 2002
The Observer

Their names may mean nothing. Erodo, Kay Kay, Visumzi, Panjy - four unknown children born when world leaders met in Rio de Janeiro a decade ago to draw up resolutions to solve the planet's woes.

But as thousands of delegates reconvened in Africa yesterday to try to put right what they failed to achieve in Brazil, the children's stories graphically illustrate the task facing officials deadlocked at the latest Earth Summit.

The children were among a group of eight tracked in a United Nations study to measure the effects on their lives since 1992, the year of the earlier summit and their births. The officials in Johannesburg - hurrying around last night with sheaves of documents, earnestly huddling in corners of the convention centre - would do well to study their stories.

They are of lives blighted by hunger, pollution, poverty and death. Erodo, born to nomad parents in northern Kenya, has been a victim of the arms trade. Bandits have attacked his family many times, stealing cattle.

There are more than 100 million guns across Africa today. Erodo suffers from nightmares and warns he would 'shoot anyone' he thought was a threat. A small boy with sad brown eyes, he is happiest when getting his hands on a tin of corn that occasionally reaches them from aid agencies. His dream is to have a 'clean water supply'.

Incredibly, his family are still alive. Not so for Panjy, whose father died from acute chemical poisoning days after she was born. He worked at a fireworks factory in the arid southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Panjy's oldest brother is bedridden with chemical poisoning, her mother slaves 80-hour shifts in the same building that killed her husband, while her best friend dips fingers into copper sulphate 12 hours a day to line firework fuses. Together they earn less than £2 a week, a sum that three billion people - half the planet's population - cannot match.

The threat of starvation ensures Panjy is under pressure to abandon school and become a victim of India's growing appetite for child labour. A hundred million youngsters are believed to be toiling in atrocious conditions in the country.

Despite the inevitability of a grim future, Panjy, a beautiful girl with wide brown eyes and delicate features, dreams of providing a free healthcare service for the sick people in her deprived area: 'I want to become a doctor and then I will treat people for nothing.' Critics claim the Johannesburg summit has ignored the issue of child labour. The instability of the global economy has also created insecurity for children closer to home, according to the study.

The effects of inequalities can be more subtle. Kay Kay lives in the overcrowded city of Guangzhou, China, where congestion is so acute that her parents were forced to live apart during the week so they could reach work on time because of heavy traffic.

A product of the one-child policy to curb population growth, Kay Kay sees her parents only a few minutes a day because of the demands to work a minimum 70-hour week to get on in China.

She is already planning an exit strategy, spending her evenings alone in her cramped flat playing solitaire or combing her hair in front of the mirror. Her dream is to emulate her hero, Miss Hong Kong. 'When I grow up I want to wear high-heeled shoes.'

As the summit in Johannesburg lurches towards its conclusion, experts have warned that the suffering caused by poverty and a lack of basic services appears certain to distort the lives of another generation.

The 10-year study, which has been filmed for a BBC documentary, has also exposed the lack of effort since Rio to control the biggest killer of children - disease. Within three months of the summit's conclusion, one of the eight children chosen for the study died without a name in the Amazon rainforests of Venezuela.

Her parents refused to name her until she was 12 months old, an indicator of the high infant mortality in the area.

But it is the host nation for this year's Earth Summit that offers the most startling insight into inequality. Justin - a white, privileged farmer's son - was brought up in a culture of fear. His bedroom windows were covered with grenade screens while his father kept a pistol under the mattress and a shotgun beneath his bed to guard against attack from the disenfranchised black community.

Justin's school, Queens College, is now desegregated for the first time in decades and will, according to his father, offer him enough opportunities to succeed in the new South Africa.

For Visumzi, a black child, the future is bleak. Trapped in a spiral of poverty and violence, - 15,000 South Africans were killed by violence in nine months last year - his quality of life has failed to improve since he was born. His township, Thornhill, in the Eastern Cape, is a cruel, unforgiving place to grow up in.

When asked what changes he would like to see in 10 years' time, Visumzi said: 'I would stop the grown-ups from raping children. People are all right until pay day, and then they get drunk and and act like grown-up thugs.'

HIV has ravaged the community. Visumzi's aunt died from the virus last year and although it infects one in nine South Africans, the issue has been largely ignored by the Earth Summit.

Barry Coates, director of the World Development Movement anti-poverty campaign, said real reforms, not bluster, would have to emerge from the Johannesburg talks.

'Our leaders cynically turned their backs on pledges made in Rio,' he said.
]]> Tue, 03 Sep 2002 00:36:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/5910 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/5341
it takes us 2 hours to leave savannah, usually a 20 minute drive, because of heavy traffic. we were five minutes away from my house when a cop pulls my friend over. the entire trip, i made him drive behind me so no one could pull him over for speeding. i pulled over behind the cop car and got out of my car. another cop comes up to me, flashes his flashlight directly in my eyes and tells me to get back in my car. i tell him that the man that they pulled over was a friend of mine who was escorting me home. he tells me again to get back in my car. i ask him what the problem was, and i was being considerate the entire time because that's just the kind of person i am, ask anyone. he tells me that if i do not get back in my car in 3 seconds, he will arrest me. i ask for what charge, why? he counts to three. i stand there, considering whether or not i will go back into my car, what charges he could possibly charge me with. he all of a sudden grabs my left hand and puts it behind my back, telling me to stand up against the car. i had not even moved towards him. why had he twisted my hand behind my back in a restrain hold? i am in a little pain so he asks me if i'm going to go back into my car. i of course, do because i did not want to be harmed.

i call several people, asking them what i should do. no one knows. how could they? no one learns their cities' laws in school or anywhere else. only when they get pulled over. therefore, because no one knows, everyone can be a victim, everyone can be abused by the police or any other law enforcer because they do not know how to handle situations like this.

my friend is currently in jail. i have to go to a bond hearing tomorrow morning to see whether or not i have to pay a fine, and to see how to get his car out of the pound. he was arrested for driving without insurance, which is illegal in south carolina. i did not know this. this was not something that i was taught in drivers education in high school, nor was i tested on this information when i took my driving test.

so i ask you since i dont' know.
the cop told me that he could have had me arrested for abstructing justice, among other things.
i had not even moved 2 feet away from my door when i was restrained. i had merely asked questions in a formal, respectful manner, as i would any adult. plus another cop car had pulled up, so there were 3 policemen questioning my friend, searching his car, pulling him out, handcuffing him. how would i be obstrucing justice by asking questions.

this is all my fault. i convinced my friend, who has no job, no money, to come up with me to charleston for the weekend. he has to still unpack his stuff plus his roommates stuff into their new apartement, pay some bills and get a job. is it a crime to escort a friend, a young woman driving alone at night? the entire trip, we saw 2 cop cars. we drove through 3 highways. cars were speeding over 20 mph the entire trip. at the time that my friend was arrested, the car ahead of me was speeding. granted, my friend did not have a license plate on his car (i have no idea why he didn't). yes i understand that it is illegal to drive without insurance in south carolina, but was it necessary to handcuff him and restrain me?

what is the purpose?
what can i do now?
what should i have done?
what can be done?
what can WE do to stop this?]]> Sun, 04 Aug 2002 00:10:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/5341 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/5013
shit.

great movie that brings about valid points from both sides. edward norton was nominated for an academy award for best actor in a leading role as the leader of a racist skinhead movement in california. it's about his reformation after being in jail for 3 years for killing two people, and it's consequences on his family.

my parents are watching it now. i love this movie, but i can't stomach to watch it again until a few hours from now. gotta let it sink in.

and also, there is the anti-racist action. they have chapters all over north america. i've been told that there are about a million ARA skinheads in Jacksonville, FL alone and they're all cool as hell.]]> Sun, 14 Jul 2002 12:54:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/5013 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/4386 Go to Holland Before It's Too Late
Pete Brady, Cannabis Culture
May 29, 2002

In earlier articles published in the last few weeks, I advised friends to visit Holland this summer to enjoy its cannabis shops, culture, ganja tourism cruises, beaches and European charm.

Now, my travel encouragements have taken on an urgency that I would never have anticipated. If you want to enjoy the famous Dutch policy that allows marijuana coffee shops, you better go to Holland soon, because Dutch voters just elected a right-wing government that has vowed to shut down all marijuana coffee shops as quickly as possible.

I first heard the bad news from legendary cannabis campaigner Nol Van Schaik. Nol has had a very exciting year, openly defying the British government by opening a pot shop in England, making savyy pro-pot appearances on international television, and staving off the wiles of a greedy developer to open his esteemed "Willie Wortels" coffee shop in a new location in the town of Haarlem, Holland just outside Amsterdam where Van Schaik also owns two other coffee shops and the "Global Hemp Museum."

Van Schaik today predicted that he might have to "go to the barricades" to defend the Dutch marijuana industry from 46-year-old Jan Peter Balkenende, the leader of the Christian Democrats party that will hold the most power in a new coalition government to be formed based on the results of voter choices. Balkenende is almost certain to become the Netherlands' new prime minister.

Balkenende is a geeky-looking guy whose policies include homophobia, anti-environmentalism, interfering in medical choices made by patients and doctors, and ending the long-standing Dutch policy that "tolerates" the sale of marijuana and hashish in licensed pot coffee shops.

The likely prime minister will gain power by building a coalition with an ultra-right political party, LIST, that received the second highest number of votes in recent elections.

LIST was led by Pim Fortuyn, a demagogue whose hardline stance against immigrants resembled the stance of Belgium fascist party Vlaams Blok.

Last year, Van Schaik and hundreds of his suppporters stood down Vlaams Blok when its members tried to intimidate pro-marijuana efforts that Van Schaik was carrying out in Belgium.

Pim Fortuyn did not live to see the election -- he was recently assassinated. His assassination, and the terrorist bombings that took place in the US on September 11, apparently made some Dutch voters cast their vote for LIST, out of sympathy for Fortuyn, and because of rising Dutch hatred and fear of Holland's Muslim immigrant population.

Van Schaik hopes that the fact that Haarlem's mayor is an advocate of coffee shops, and that Haarlem's system of coffee shop regulation is a model for the rest of Holland, will protect his businesses and customers from persecution, at least for a while.

But a coffee shop owner in Amsterdam, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said that Amsterdam's 400 coffee shops, as well as coffee shops in other locales, might be closed within a year.

"This is totally fucked situation," the owner said. "The mayor here is against us, and the police don't help us either. Like, they come in our shops too often to make sure we are following their rules, and they won't let us advertise on the internet, but when we get robbed or need some other kind of help, they ignore us. Now, with this new dictator type person who is likely to run the government, with him already stating that he wants to end the soft drugs experiment, it is a lot of people that I know shaking their heads and saying, 'Is this the end of the dream?'"

The coffee shop owner said that many marijuana industry leaders and others believe that the election outcome was engineered by the media and by the US.

"Over in America, they are just now having the courage in their journalism to say what we in Europe have already been saying, that Bush and the CIA employees bin Laden and their Taliban and the others knew and planned together on what was going to happen on 9-11, and that the Americans and their CIA helped it happen because it was the way for the Bush types and their bedmates to scare everybody into disliking Muslims and to be accepting all these new police powers into everybody's lives, and to elect right wing people," he said. "In this election season we saw the media do everything possible to assist the right wing, and this assasination of Fortuyn is very suspicious. It was probably CIA. It only helped his party. This is, how do you say it in English, a 'set-up.'"

A jubilant Balkenende bragged to journalists that one of his goals was to shut down the coffee shops, but he admitted that it might not happen overnight. Observers say that tne putative prime minister might not have it so easy- LIST reportedly supports a legalization-taxation scheme for marijuana, and other members of a likely right wing coalition also appear to be reluctant to kill the multi-billion dollar cash cow that is the Dutch marijuana industry. Even Balkenende agreed that it could take a few years before his goal of eliminating coffee shops is realized.

None of this is of any comfort to the Amsterdam coffee shop owner, who said, "It will be interesting to see if the Dutch cannabists and the marijuana tourists will rise up to stop these fascists."

"All the studies show that the Dutch drugs policy is the best in the world," he said. "We let people use the drugs, they find out if they like them, they handle it. It's the same with prostitution. These people who say they are Christians are no more than little Hitlers, they would crucify Christ as a Middle-Eastern foreigner if he was to come here today. They want to ruin what is best about Holland. The people who voted for them are stupid, scared or dangerous, but it's also the fault of the marijuana people in my country who have not worked together, who have not voted, who have not built coalitions with Greens, gays and lesbians, and others who want to move ahead. We have been lazy and passive. Now we will see what we are made of. Tell your readers to make it over here now, because our coffee shops may soon become as extinct as icebergs and everything else we are losing."
_______________________________________

I was also surprise to find out that MOST of my friends here staunchly believe that Global Warming is a myth and that the US's unilateral, strike first approach to the War on Terror will bring about peace!]]> Thu, 06 Jun 2002 23:13:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/4386 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3888 Can you say, "idiotic?"

Apparently some people don't remember how it was like when they were that age or ever in that situation (not the suspended part, but the getting pissed from a bad grade part).

she would have been better off flipping the bird at both teachers...

Girl suspended for stick-figure doodle
May 2, 2002 Posted: 3:01 PM EDT (1901 GMT)

MOUNT LEBANON, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A Pennsylvania school suspended an 11-year-old girl for drawing two teachers with arrows through their heads, saying the stick figures were more death threat than doodle.

Becca Johnson, an honor-roll sixth-grader at Mellon Middle School, drew the picture on the back of a vocabulary test on which she had gotten a D.

"That's my way of saying I'm angry," Becca said, adding she meant no harm to the teachers.

The stick figures, on a crudely drawn gallows with arrows in their heads, had the names of Becca's teacher and a substitute teacher written underneath. Another teacher spotted the doodle in the girl's binder Tuesday and reported it, prompting the three-day suspension.

Becca's parents, Philip and Barbara Johnson, denied the school's contention the drawings were "terrorist threats."

"She had done poorly on a test that was handed back to her. We've always told her that you can't take your feelings out on your teacher, so write about it or draw it, as a catharsis," Barbara Johnson said.

She accused the school of applying a zero-tolerance policy that "does away with due process and inflicts a penalty without a hearing or investigation."

The district said its zero-tolerance policy applies only to gun or drug possession, and denied that no investigation was done.

"All I can say is that when we have taken action related to the activities of students in the schools, we have done so after a thorough investigation," Mount Lebanon School District Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
]]> Thu, 02 May 2002 20:46:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3888 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3818 Christian Science Monitor

UN Gambit: 'A Little Child Shall Lead Them'
United Nations Launches an International Movement to Tap the Peacemaking Creativity of Young People

by Alexandra Marks

NEW YORK -- Krista Riley turns and reaches for Akello Betty Openy's hand. The two teenage girls, one Canadian the other Ugandan, smile, then slip easily through the crowd outside an auditorium at the United Nations.
In a few minutes, they will stand onstage and explain to several hundred adults why policymakers should consult young people like themselves if there's to be any real hope of ending the brutal and deadly conflicts brewing around the world.

"There's a lot of creativity, a lot of insight that can be brought to it," says Krista. "Often, adults try to do the same things that they've done in the past – they don't always work."

With the energy, determination, and innocence that young people bring to a seemingly intractable problem, a small group of teenagers from around the world gathered last week at the UN to launch an international youth movement. But this is not the model UN of generations past where students mimicked their seniors to learn about what they do. Instead, this program is designed for the benefit of the international policymakers themselves, who for the first time in recent history are trying to harness the power of the young to bolster international peace efforts and improve their own decisionmaking.

"Young people share deeply and instinctively the ideals of the rights and well-being of other children – instinctively, they relate to that," says Olara Otunnu, the special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict. "What better way to use that connectedness of young people than to link up young people from this country [and others] to young people in Sierra Leone, in Kosovo, in Somalia to work for the same cause."

The teens' first chore is to raise international awareness among their peers about the toll that war takes on millions of children each year. And they hope to do it with the help of the United Nations. The Office of the Special Representative, in conjunction with the Muhammad Ali Center, Global Kids, and several other international groups, has launched the Schools for Global Peace Program. It provides a high-school curriculum based on stories and role-playing that vividly illustrates the pain and chaos inflicted upon children and their families caught up in armed conflicts.

Once a school finishes the course, it will be designated a "Global Peace" school and be linked to others around the world.

"We believe that this will become an international movement with 10,000 schools around the world all discussing, reading, and becoming active," says Laura Miller, a New York City educator who designed the curriculum. "So far, children in Mexico, Germany, and the US have read and raved about the first book in a series of eight [that are part of the program]."

An estimated 300,000 children under 18 in more than 30 countries are currently fighting in either government or rebel organizations, according to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. And those wars have claimed the lives of more than 2 million children and left more than 6 million injured or permanently disabled over the past decade.

The lives of war-affected children, as Betty Openy can attest from her own experience, can be terrifying. She was raised a refugee in a poverty-stricken camp where jobs were scarce and healthcare even rarer. In school, she lived in constant fear of being abducted for sexual servitude or forced into military service.

"The pain of children caught in war around the world is difficult to imagine. Without help, the next generation of leaders are doomed," Betty says. "But solutions to these problems are in reach."

Betty cofounded Gulu Youth for Action, which is working for the education and protection of children, particularly girls, in the northern part of Uganda, where at least half of the residents are refugees.

It's exactly that kind of energy and enthusiasm that Mr. Otunnu hopes to tap. Betty is one of eight youths who are working with him to develop a youth advisory council with young representatives from both war-ravaged and peaceful countries. The group will advise and help shape the policies of the Office of the Special Representative.

It's one of several UN programs that are designed to embolden and empower young people. There's the Youth Network, which links schools and churches in Western countries with those in various war zones. A media program called the Voices of Children gives youths video cameras to tell their own stories as well as to produce educational and health programs.

"In situations of war, one of the hungers I see in the faces of so many young people is the absence of any information – entertainment, music, drama – things we take for granted, they don't have," says Otunnu. "The Voices of Children is trying to fill that vacuum."

From the young people's perspective, the growing number of programs represent an excellent beginning. But they're just that – a start. "Our aim here is to build a youth-to-youth network that can create face-to-face exchanges with youth in war-affected countries," says 20-year old Alexandra Meierhofer of Switzerland. "We found that youth listen more to youth than to grown-ups. We can tell them that you don't have to turn 30 to be able to change something, or be wise, or come from the US to change something. We can do it ourselves."

Copyright © 2002 The Christian Science Monitor

(the photo is of dancers taken by Barbara Morgan)]]> Mon, 29 Apr 2002 15:40:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3818 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3743 discovery channel about body piercings and body modification practices throughout the world.

wow.

NOTE: i highly recommend that you do not read on if you have a weak stomach or, at the moment, a closed mind

one form of body modification is suspension. you stick hooks through your body and suspend yourself in the air a couple of feet above the ground. (some people even like to swing around a bit.) some hang for just minutes while others for days.

the people who do this claim to become enlightened, reach higher/different levels of consciousness. they claim that the feeling is euphoric, even an outer-body experience.

there are...
suicide suspensions - suspended by 2 or more hooks in the back
coma suspensions - facing up, hooks in your knees, thighs, stomach, chest and arms (this is what i want to do)
o-kee-pa's - suspended by hooks in the chest (and back)

etc...

in America, they even have an organization, TSD (Traumatic Stress Discipline)

any questions?

]]> Thu, 25 Apr 2002 00:32:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3743 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3690 Nick said it all in his update about the French elections.

How did Le Pen beat the socialists?
A low turnout combined with a large number of minority candidates weakened Mr Jospin's support and allowed Mr Le Pen to translate his usual third place into second. The election was seen as a two-horse race between an incumbent president and prime minister seeking an office that had lost much of its power and influence.

It is not just a result of increasing far right support but a failure on the part of Mr Chirac and Mr Jospin (and the wider French political establishment) to engage enough of the electorate in presidential politics. Mr Le Pen may not have actually polled more votes than in previous elections - he won 4.5m in the first round of the 1995 election (15%) which, with a lower turnout, could have become 17% in 2002.

and Jarra, hon, don't worry; you'll be fine!
oh, and i think i have three brown recluse spider bites on my left leg. I was taking pictures of the flowers on Buddy's grave in the backyard yesterday morning when I was bit.

I'm going to the doctor's today to get it checked out.

Call me vain, but I couldn't bare to have a crater of dead skin in my leg or to have it amputated. This'll suck royally now since I won't get to go to the beach and strut my stuff in a bathing suit this summer :P]]> Mon, 22 Apr 2002 11:33:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3690 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3670 and frightening...
______________________________

Published on Saturday, April 20, 2002 in the Washington Post
DeLay Criticized for 'Only Christianity' Remarks
by Alan Cooperman

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) told evangelical Christians last week that only Christianity offers a reasonable answer to basic questions about the purpose of life.

Speaking to about 300 people at the First Baptist Church of Pearland, Tex., on April 12, DeLay said that God is using him to promote "a biblical worldview" in American politics, and that he pursued Bill Clinton's impeachment in part because the Democratic president held "the wrong worldview."

"Ladies and gentlemen, Christianity offers the only viable, reasonable, definitive answer to the questions of 'Where did I come from?' 'Why am I here?' 'Where am I going?' 'Does life have any meaningful purpose?' " DeLay said. "Only Christianity offers a way to understand that physical and moral border. Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world -- only Christianity."

A recording of DeLay's speech was released by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy group. Its executive director, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, said the remarks show that DeLay "lacks appreciation for the religious pluralism" of the United States.

"This is particularly disturbing because he, as a top-ranking member of Congress, represents people from the whole spectrum of religious faiths and nonbelievers, not just Christianity," Lynn said.

DeLay, the House GOP's third-ranking official, is in line to take the No. 2 spot next year.

DeLay's spokesman, Stuart Roy, said the congressman respects people of other faiths and has worked closely, for example, with Jews in support of Israel. "Obviously, he's a Christian, and he was speaking about his own testimony, his own experience and his own personal beliefs, and how they've changed his life," Roy said. "He wasn't giving a speech on the House floor as majority whip."

DeLay issued a statement yesterday saying: "Millions of Americans take comfort in their faiths. People are welcome to believe like me, or they're welcome to believe in their own religion. I respect people's right to have their own beliefs and practice their own religion."

DeLay's Texas speech came at a time when the United States is engaged in contentious, high-stakes dealings with several Islamic nations as well as with Israel. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, several Republican leaders have urged Americans to show tolerance toward people of different faiths.

In Texas, DeLay's speech drew strong protest mainly over his advice concerning higher education. He urged parents to send their children to colleges where they will get a "godly education" -- not to Texas AM or Baylor universities, two of the state's major schools.

"Don't send your kids to Baylor. And don't send your kids to AM," said DeLay, who was kicked out of Baylor because of his acknowledged fondness of drinking and carousing as a student. Baylor, located in Waco, bills itself as "the largest Baptist university in the world." Texas AM has a strong military tradition, with more than 2,000 students in the school's Corps of Cadets.

"Texas AM used to be a conservative university," DeLay said in his speech. "It's lost all of its conservatism. . . . My daughter went there. You know, she had horrible experiences with coed dorms and guys who spent the weekends in the rooms with girls, and all this kind of stuff went on there."

The speech took place at "Worldview Weekend," a gathering at which speakers emphasize the need for evangelical Christians to get involved in politics and not to segregate their religious worldview from their daily lives.

DeLay said Christians sometimes are criticized if they express their faith openly in public life. Believers "are told, 'You can go in the church . . . and stay in it, but if you stick your head out and you say anything that reflects your worldview, we're gonna knock your head off,' " he said. "And they do. And they come after me like you wouldn't believe. I'm the most investigated man in America. Especially when we impeached Bill Clinton. It was incredible. . . . If I wasn't walking with the Lord, I would have been destroyed."

He continued: "I was totally consumed with holding this man accountable. . . . He was undermining everything that I believe in and everything that I have been working for. And he was standing for the wrong worldview."

© 2002 The Washington Post Company
______________________________

in other news (if you get this far)

- almost 75,000 people peacefully marched on the Capital in Washington, D.C. most of them protesting the US's aid to Israel and a call for peace.

- "More than half of Britain's 16- to 24-year-olds have taken illegal drugs, according to one of the most extensive studies undertaken into the growing drug culture."

- Heroic Pit Bull Journeys 2,000 Miles To Attack Owner

(the image is from http://www.skateboardgraphics.com and Whip's official site)]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2002 23:52:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3670 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3553 say for instance, you pay $7 to see a movie. 10 minutes into the movie, you realize that it sucks; you want to leave. yet you don't because you don't want to have spent that $7 "in vain," although by sitting there, you won't get your money's worth nor will you get the money back. you would have a better time by leaving the theatre or sneaking into another movie.

the $7 in this case is the "sunk cost." i just learned this in cognitive psychology (great class, by the way). so by being influenced by this "sunk cost," you are doing the opposite of what logic dictates, which would be to use your time wisely instead of sitting in the theatre because of "principle." what is the purpose of that? what will that prove?

another example is staying in a 2 year relationship although after the first 2 months you realized that you should bail out, yet you don't. is it for security reasons? sex/companionship without questions? mental masochism? or because you've spent so much time with that person, you have interest in that relationship like a stock bond? but the past is the past; you can't change that. you can live in the past, live in the memories, but that can only go so far in helping you deal with the present and the future.

look to the present and the future; learn from the past, but don't be tied down by it because to do so is futile. yet people do it all the time! it's not logical!

following your heart would be the thing to do if you're sure what's in your heart.

"I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me." - Herman Hesse, Demian



and so....eh
]]> Sat, 13 Apr 2002 22:49:00 EDT http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3553 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3414 Cracker, Jacques!

France's presidential campaign may be the most distressingly insipid and uninspiring electoral race in the country's recent history, but thanks to the internet it is not entirely devoid of humour, writes Jon Henley.

i've been spending my time playing the mindless game, CHIRACOPOLY; it's a Pac-Manesque game where you play Chirac, using your keyboard cursor keys to help him spend all your money, escape the magistrates and fly away to an exotic foreign country.

this article from the Guardian has some really silly links, all criticizing Jacque Chirac who is running for re-election. however, all the links are in French, but not to worry, Translate Now! to the rescue!

Happy Chirac Money Chomping!]]> Thu, 04 Apr 2002 18:00:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3414 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3381 from The Guardian

Britons join 200 in human shield

Peter Beaumont in Ramallah and Martin Wainwright
Monday April 1, 2002
The Guardian

More than 200 international volunteers, including some 50 Britons, deployed themselves in Ramallah and two refugee camps at Bethlehem last night in an attempt to form "human shields" for Palestinian families.
The British contingent, ranging from a retired nurse from Kent to a group of students from Manchester, joined Americans and Europeans dispersed among houses close to Yasser Arafat's headquarters and Israeli army tank formations near Bethlehem's Azar and Aida refugee camps.

Israel ordered all foreign volunteers and journalists to leave Ramallah yesterday, as another media worker was shot and wounded while covering the fighting in the city.

The warning came as Anthony Shadeed, an American reporter for the Boston Globe, was wounded in the back and shoulder after being shot near the city's main square. He said he was walking along one of the main streets with his Palestinian "fixer" when he was hit from behind by a single sniper shot. Israeli soldiers denied that he had been shot by their forces.

Israel warned that any foreigners who chose to remain in Ramallah did so at the risk of being mistaken for Palestinian gunmen and shot.

But speaking above gunshots and the clatter of a surveillance helicopter, Rory Macmillan, an international business lawyer from Scotland, said he was at the Aida camp in Bethlehem to offer non-violent resistance to any attempt by the Israelis to arrest Palestinians or threaten families.

"I decided to use my Easter holidays to come out with a group to dig up roadblocks and block tanks in the occupied territories," he said. "There are 15 or more tanks close by and there's a general expectation that they'll move in.

"The soldiers don't use the streets - they move from house to house, blasting holes in the wall to get through. We're here in the hope they'll hold back if there's a foreign national."

In Ramallah, Osama Mutawa from Brighton said his group of human shields asked the British consulate yesterday to evacuate them but had been told there were no plans to do so. He said: "The British public has no idea what is going on here. We decided we should come and try and stay with families to protect them."

Sarah Irving, 26, a Manchester University MA student in political economy, who is also staying at Azar, said: "You can't go anywhere at the moment, it's too dangerous, but we are each staying with a family. There are 38 tanks at the nearest checkpoint and we can hear an Israeli Cobra helicopter overhead."

Dr Mortaza Sahibzada, another British volunteer, said that despite the deteriorating situation, he planned to stay on at Aida until the second week in April, when he had to get back to his work as a research fellow in engineering at Imperial College, London.

Most of the British volunteers travelled to the Middle East with the International Solidarity Movement, a coalition of groups concerned about the plight of the Palestinians.


other sources:
Jerusalem IndyMedia
Le Monde (in French)
thestar.com
New York Times]]> Mon, 01 Apr 2002 17:01:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3381 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3380 from commondreams.org

Published on Monday, April 1, 2002 by Reuters
'We Want Peace Not War'
Foreign Peace Marchers Hurt as Israeli Troops Open Fire

BEIT JALA, West Bank (Reuters) - Five foreign peace activists and a Palestinian television cameraman were injured by shrapnel Monday when Israeli soldiers opened fire at their feet during a march, officials and witnesses said.
Firing started when about 100 demonstrators, including Palestinians and foreigners, marched near a church in the center of the West Bank town of Beit Jala, carrying a sign saying "We want peace not war," witnesses said.

The director of Beit Jala hospital, Dr. Peter Qumri, confirmed five marchers had been wounded. He said one woman was undergoing an operation to remove shrapnel from her abdomen.

A Palestinian cameraman working for the Associated Press was also wounded in the leg, colleagues said. He had been covering the march.

The Israeli army said it was checking the report.


Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd


###

]]> Mon, 01 Apr 2002 14:27:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3380 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3231 zefrank.com

last, late saturday night, my sister and i were hyped up on coffee.
i showed her the site earlier and she suggested that we do something for it.
here are the results
two of the pics are on zefrank.com

i don't really care about winning the digital camera
my sister and i had a lot of fun doing this
it was the last day of her spring break and we had a blast
thanks again, breslin and susheela!]]> Thu, 21 Mar 2002 21:43:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3231 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3205
21 March (this thursday) NOFX, Mad Caddies, Fabulous Disaster, and Frenzal Rhomb are going to be playing at the Kool Haus/The Warehouse.

NOFX - one of the most influential punk bands around; they'll be on the Warped Tour this summer. I was going to see them in Jacksonville, FL when I was there but I heard that they suck live (really! i'm not trying to make a stupid joke referring to their live album!)

Mad Caddies - i've never seen a ska band do a bad show; my friends who've seen them say they play a good show, and of course they're kick ass

Fabulous Disaster - They're on Pink and Black Records; I don't know any of their stuff, yet.

Frenzal Rhomb - "From the land of criminals (Australia) comes Frenzal Rhomb. Probably the only band named after a light refracting box..." I've been listening to them a lot lately and the more I listen, the more I like. These guys are AWESOME!

I'm not sure if this show will sell out (as quickly?) as Bad Religion (see below), but I recommend checking it out. "Punker" or not, it doesn't matter. It never has...

Good music, good people, good vibes/times.

As for me, if all works out, I'll be going to North Carolina this weekend seeing Anti-Flag (one of my favorites...), Good Riddance, etc. on the A-F Records Fat Wreck Chords "Mobilize for Peace" North American Tour. Anti-Flag will be with Millencolin in Europe at the end of April.

_______________________________________________


q: why update on shows/about bands at all?

a: music is such a powerful art form.
most art seeks to inspire and inform
this provokes involvement depending on the message given.

we're all products of this in some respect

e.g. Bad Religion has set up a research fund, giving grants to students to pay for field-oriented research projects.

Beastie Boys and the Tibetan Freedom Concert, however...]]> Tue, 19 Mar 2002 19:53:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3205 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3166 i just found out that there's a show tonite in TORONTO.

BAD RELIGION, Less Than Jake and Hot Water Music are going to be at the Kool Haus (formerly The Warehouse).

You can't buy tickets online anymore. Hopefully they're not sold out (which is probably the case) because I HIGHLY recommend seeing them.

Bad Religion is fast, edgy punk rock; they're one of my favorite bands/groups of all genres of music.

Less Than Jake is a ska-punk band from Florida. I'm in love with them, too.

Hot Water Music is more mellow and emotional. I'm not very familiar with their stuff.

if you don't make it, you can catch Bad Religion (i'm not sure about the other bands) on the Warped Tour this summer in Australia, the US, and Canada

GO, GO, GO!]]> Sat, 16 Mar 2002 16:55:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3166 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3164 Translate Now!

i think that this online translator may be useful for many when reading messages or....whatever (some of the translations may be incorrect)

Filipino/Tagalog: ako isipin atipan ng pawid ito online tagapagsalin mayo maaari mahalaga dahil sa marami kailan pagbasa kalatas o.... ano man

Portuguese: eu penso que this online tradutor pode ser útil for muita quando lendo mensagens ou.... qualquer que

Finnish: i-kirjain ajatella tuo tämä online kielenkääntäjä voi olla hyödyllinen jnk hyväksi moni milloin lukeneisuus sanoma tai.... mikä

]]> Sat, 16 Mar 2002 14:20:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3164 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3152 overpriced developing

bastards

but decent results

oh, the power of the photo ...
]]> Fri, 15 Mar 2002 14:20:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3152 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3127 12 year old subject in a 1985 photo taken in an afghani refugee camp in pakistan)

there is no reason to repeat what's been written:

Bhutanese Refugees (Amherst)
another Bhutanese Refugee Site, the most updated
Hari Acharya's Story, A Bhutanese Refugee - includes more links
ben saul's photos

i'll put a photo up soon...within 2 weeks]]> Wed, 13 Mar 2002 16:15:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/3127 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2759 ack

1. Bush seeks to oust Hussein

2. Bush comes up with own Global Warming Plan (this article makes him look more idiotic; the plan is crap, but atleast he recognizes that global warming is a FACT)

3. Drug War: San Francisco Medical Marijuana Raids (screw the highly explosive crystal meth lab down the block, let's fine these AIDs patients smoking weed!)

so...

]]> Thu, 14 Feb 2002 15:16:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2759 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2633 Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century--Stories from a New Generation of Activists by Neva Welton and Linda Wolf.

looks really interesting/enlightening

"Global Uprising is an exciting piece of contemporary history. It brings us the voices of some of the finest young people of this generation, accompanied by the commentaries of veteran activists and scholars. There are inspiring personal stories and thoughtful reflections on the tactics of direct action. For anyone despairing of the rule of money and power over human life, here is a testament to the spirit of resistance, a reason to hope."
-Howard Zinn, historian, activist, and author of A People's History of the United States

there is also a place on the website for you to submit your own stories]]> Tue, 05 Feb 2002 21:20:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2633 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2454 written by wes anderson and owen wilson

very good movie
i'm planning to see it a second time
and i'm planning on buying the dvd when it comes out

the website is amazing

great directing (wes anderson who also did rushmore and bottle rocket)
and cinematography
and soundtrack

so gene hackman plays royal tenenbaum, the head of the tenenbaum family.
his children are played by ben stiller, gwynth paltrow, and luke wilson
wife played by angelica huston
(the pic is missing pagoda, sorry about that)

etc etc

go see it

and i also saw orange county tonite
eh...it was ok
jack black deserved a lot more
and there were cameos by kevin kline (a stanford professor) and chevy chase (high school principal)

i can't stand movies (or any other media) about upper middle class teens driving around in SUVs, impersonating/idolizing carson daly and britney spears; especially when they complain about school

but that's just me]]> Tue, 22 Jan 2002 01:37:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2454 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111 http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2406 on the cover of this weeks issue of the Nation is the picture of little huey freeman, the main character in Aaron McGruder's comic strip The Boondocks. This comic was/(still is?) on the comic pages of several major newspapers in the US including the Washington Post.
Like Doonesbury, who during the Nixon Watergate scandal declared him "Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!" The Boondocks has become a controversial strip due to its criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism.



etc etc]]> Thu, 17 Jan 2002 10:41:00 EST http://melanie.tigblog.org/post/2406 32.7763889 -79.931111132.7763889-79.9311111