buster update

For those of you following the Buster Saga, here's the latest installment. Those of you easily squicked by medical details, here's a post to skip.

First off, it's not Addison's. That would have been too easy.

Buster has inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic condition. We won't know what's causing it until the biopsies come back.

The internist (a veterinary specialist) is terrific. She is very thorough, extremely knowledgeable and competent, and warm, caring and very good at explaining things. These qualities don't always go together in doctors, and I'm very happy to have found them the full combination.

First she did a full medical history of all Buster's many health issues since the day we found him. No one has ever done that before. She said many of his behaviors which we put down to quirks or "sensitive stomach" were the classic early signs of gastro-intestinal disease.

It makes me sad to think Buster was walking around with untreated problems all this time. Of course this condition would only be diagnosed by a specialist performing an internal scope, and no one takes their dog to a specialist for what appears to be an every day issue, easily solved with a change of diet. So I'm trying not to blame myself for letting it go on for too long.

After our talk, the doc told us she suspected IBD, but a definite diagnosis was only possible from an endoscopy, an internal scope of the whole gastro-intestinal tract. She also explained that IBD could be caused by any of four conditions, which would then determine the course of treatment. That can only be known from biopsy results.

She gave Buster some sedation so they could deal with him (and his anxiety) more easily. Then she explained exactly what they would do, including a cost estimate, and sent us away.

Four hours later...

The good news: a full ultrasound revealed no tumors. So hooray for that.

The bad news: the endoscopy showed that Buster's entire stomach, small intestine and large intestine is "grossly diseased". She said it looked awful - red, inflamed, the lining flaking off, with several "pin-point ulcers" throughout the small intestine. Wow. As sick as he's been, it's a wonder he's been able to eat at all.

In the short term, the doc prescribed several medications for the ulcers and to soothe his system. When the biopsy results come back, she'll give us a more specific course of treatment.

She also told us that this condition should be monitored and treated by a specialist, not by a general vet. She's going to ask around about an internist vet in the Toronto area.

So. More meds added to Buster's already elaborate medication schedule. I'm not thinking much beyond that yet. Biopsy results later in the week.

As always, thank you so much for your support. I'm doing some NYC sightseeing with my mom today, and will report back later.

The patient, post-procedure.

maybe an answer

Today we hope to get an answer on Buster's blood tests. Fingers crossed (chanting, praying, whatever you like) that it's Addison's disease. Second best would be anything that can be treated with drugs as opposed to surgery.

I don't think I can blog about anything else this morning, my brain has only one
track right now. Instead I'll leave you with something to meditate on.

A very old pic, but one of my faves.



Buster's favorite position.



Hey, what about me?

****

RIP Peter Jennings. I did want to note the passing of Peter Jennings, someone whose work I appreciated. Before I gave up on TV news entirely, he was the only newscaster I found who brought a healthy skepticism to reports on WMDs, Iraq and the W administration in general. I also just personally liked his style and his wit. He was a fixture in New York City, and an wholly self-made man. Only 67 years old: a walking "stop smoking" advertisement. New York Times obit here.

the nutshell

I just received two emails at the movetocanada address. Kyle Couch says:

What are you waiting for? Get the hell out of this GREAT country. We don't need or want your cowardly attitude here.

And from a Canadian:

Welcome to the true melting pot.

Unlock your front door, grab a cold Canadian, exchange the uh for an eh & never forget what it means to be Canadian, & that's ... & that's...... Well, the answer won't come from some loud-mouth Rocker From Toronto, Living In Montreal with his beautiful, intelligent, American wife. She moved up here under the first King George. No, it will come from fine people like you. In fact, all of the immigrants sharing their culture with the natives, making them a little more intelligent & hopefully much more tolerant.

Yes sir America's loss is once again Canada's gain baby.

That's it in a nutshell.

Do you think Kyle Couch's grandparents, or great-grandparents, or great-great-grandparents, or however many generations back it goes (something tells me Kyle is not a Native American) were cowards when they left the country of their birth?

I thank Kyle Couch and all of his ilk: you make it so wonderfully easy to leave.

don't blame w...

...because nothing is ever his fault!

Reggie Rivers, a former NFL player, now a columnist for the Denver Post, always has interesting things to say, and often says them with great wit and humor. I especially like Rivers because he reaches an audience outside the already-converted, and because (as you may know) I have an interest in the progressive voices in professional sports. Rivers writes:

Each new Bush administration story reminds me of the scene in the movie "Good Will Hunting," when Robin Williams' character, a counselor, has a breakthrough with Matt Damon's character.

"It's not your fault," Williams says over and over to the brilliant but troubled Will Hunting, whose overly aggressive, angry, self-destructive behavior constantly lands him in trouble. Hearing that it was not his fault, Hunting eventually breaks down, sobbing uncontrollably. He's finally on the path to redemption.

In America's version of this drama, President Bush lacks Hunting's brilliance but he's got the aggression and destruction mastered. He insults, dismisses, attacks, denies and disappears - usually to his ranch in Texas, where he has so far spent 20 percent of his presidency on vacation.

For the full list of what's not Bush's fault, read Rivers's latest column, also found here on Common Dreams.

we love new york

Help keep our city safe from unapprehended icy* vendors. From the People With Nothing Better To Do files:

"Deponent states that he observed approximately four un-apprehended individuals surrounding defendant and said cart, and further observed one un-apprehended individual hand defendant a sum of United States currency."

"In exchange, defendant handed to said un-apprehended individual an icy."

The "un-apprehended individuals" were customers, many of them children. The defendant was the man selling them. The deponent was the policeman, and the sum of United States currency was one dollar.

Some would argue that selling an icy on a day as hot as July 19 was more a public service than an illegal enterprise. In fact, his customers tried. "They were saying, 'Dios mío! Leave the sellers alone'," Mr. Luna said on Thursday, back at his painted wooden cart, with children swarming around like flies.

Then Mr. Luna, a mild-mannered man wearing spectacles, admitted what was true: He did not have a license for his $60-a-day operation of ice and syrup. Not then, on July 19, and not now.

Here's how the police recorded that fact:

"Deponent further states that he approached defendant and asked defendant in sum and substance if he had a vendor's license and/or a tax certificate. And defendant stated in sum and substance: NO."

Read more about this public menace.



*Yes, in New York City, the flavored shaved-ice treats are now called icies, singular icy. I'm sure everyone will weigh in with what they called these things when they were growing up. We called them ices, or sometimes, Italian ices.

shall refuse to surrender

Anonymous Peter, proud lefty from Alberta (and longtime wmtc reader), asks Canadian readers to "help stop the US's intrusion on the Canadian justice system and our drug policies".

I've seen lots of blog posts making fun of Mark Emery, but honestly, the situation doesn't sound amusing. The US may have some things that are worth exporting and emulating, but drug policy is not one of them.

Interested readers can read and sign the petition.

random canadosity

Catching up on some links you guys have been posting...

First up, Canadian peace activists believe a visa was denied to an Iraqi doctor as a little US ass-kiss. (ALPF, good thing you sent the CBC link, the anarchists removed their story.) From the CBC:

The Canadian Peace Alliance invited Dr. Salam Ismael, 29, to Canada later this month to speak about his experiences as a doctor during both sieges of Fallujah. However, he was denied a visa by Canada's embassy in Jordan.

Salam heads a group called Doctors for Iraq Society and has frequently traveled abroad to raise money for food and medical supplies. He's known for speaking about the suffering of Iraqi civilians during the war.

He has also written articles and given photo presentations accusing the U.S. forces in Iraq of committing atrocities.

Salam said he was told he had failed to convince the visa officer his trip was legitimate, and that there were fears he might try to stay in Canada because there are few job opportunities in Iraq. He also said his credentials for his hospital job were not persuasive.

A spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration refused to discuss the case, citing privacy laws, but said that visa officers have discretionary powers to turn down any applicant.

A member of the Ottawa-based peace alliance said the doctor had already been to several other countries -- including Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom -- and always returned home to his family and his hospital job in Iraq.

"All of us know that there are many little ways in which our government tries to help the United States under the radar of Canadian public opinion," said Jo Wood. "I think this is one example of that."

Next, journalist Michaelle Jean was named Canada's new Governor General.

At 48 years old, the award-winning journalist will become one of the youngest governors general ever, the third woman in the job and the first black person to call Rideau Hall home. . . .

Jean is probably best known to English-Canadians as the host of The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts on CBC Newsworld.

She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She left in 1968, her family fleeing the oppressive regime of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, settling in Quebec with her family.

She has a six-year-old daughter whom she adopted from Haiti, and she is married to filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond. As well, she is fluent in five languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian and Haitian Creole.

She sounds awesome. Will someone explain what a Governor General does?

And last, this is kind of nuts:

A visit by the Canadian defence minister to a barren island in the Arctic has sparked a row with Denmark.

Bill Graham landed on Hans Island, which is claimed by Canada and Denmark, during a tour of Canadian military outposts in the region.

The status of the island - an outcrop barely 100 metres wide between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland - has been disputed for more than 30 years.

The Danish government says it will send a letter of protest to Canada.

The dispute started in 1973 when Denmark and Canada drew a border down the Nares Strait, between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The sovereignty of Hans Island was left to be determined later. . . .

Discussion of this silliness is going on here and here, from which I've learned that Denmark sent troops to Iraq. We talked about the pastries, but we forgot about the really big dog.

never forget

Today is the 60th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb against a human population.

Let's pause and reflect.

Thanks to my brother for reminding me.

why they stay put

I'm back.

In comments here, ALPF asked:

What's your take on this one...
If so many Americans (six times the normal amount) were interested in moving here after the election, why do think so few have actually taken the big step?

[Story here.]

I can't believe it's because they are afraid of the cold! It must be because they realized it's just not as easy as they expected it to be.

Kyle speculated:

That's exactly it. Except for those fresh out of school, you tend to stick down roots where you live. It's hard enough to move to another city in a different state/province, let alone another country.

And also said:

That's something the wackos that call Laura a coward don't seem to understand. To actually pack up and move to Canada is an act of bravery, not cowardice.

Besides thanking Kyle and ALPF for their vote of confidence in me and Allan, I'll throw in my two cents.

I definitely agree that most people are put off by how much work is required to emigrate, and by how much it costs. Most Americans mistakenly believe - as we did, once upon a time - that they can move to Toronto or Vancouver the same way they can move to San Francisco or New York. When they find out what's involved, few are motivated enough to go through the process.

In my opinion, if you were going to be happy enough with the US had John Kerry been elected, your motivation is probably insufficient to leave the country. If it was only about the 2004 election, for the most part, you'll ride out the storm. As I am forever reminding nasty commenters, we were leaving no matter who was elected in 2004. Our problems with the US are greater than George Bush and the Republicans.

Also, those fresh out of school, as Kyle notes, might have lives flexible enough to uproot and begin anew, but most wouldn't be eligible. They wouldn't have the required work experience, stable life history, or money in the bank.

That's my take.

To answer some questions about Buster, read this, and if you really love dog stories, this goes even further back. Photos of our pups are here, photos of our first family are here.

soothing

Today I'm less frightened and more hopeful about Buster. I'll backtrack.

Wednesday night and Thursday morning were rough. Buster seemed critically ill. I had an appointment Thursday morning that would bring me to the Upper East Side, and since I'd be nearby, I had been planning on some museum-going from my New York City to-do-before-moving list. Allan was home with Buster and could take him to our own vet, for injections and meds to until we saw the specialist on Monday. Allan convinced me that there was no point in changing my plans, and even I could see that the distraction might be good for me.

I first went to the Met, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is the museum I grew up with, where I learned to appreciate art. My mother started taking me to the Met as a little girl, and only later did I realize how lucky I was to have one of the world's great museums only a day's outing away. Yesterday I wasn't trying to take in a large chunk of Met, only to purposefully bounce around. A Laura's Favorite Art Tour.

Mostly I wanted to see the Rembrandts and Vermeers. They weren't easy to find, which was fortunate, because on my way there I got a peek at some Matisse (one of my favorite artists), Picasso and Van Gogh, and wandered through some art by some new friends, the ancient Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians.

There was a special exhibit on Matisse and his textiles, which looked great, but it was as crowded as a subway platform, and I passed on it.

Walking through the galleries, I realized how much I had needed this respite. I felt like the art was not just distracting me, but soothing me. That it was healing.

Eventually I found Rembrandt and the Dutch Masters, including what is probably my favorite painting in the world, Vermeer's Young Woman with a Water Jug. I find this work beautiful beyond description. I just stood there drinking it in.

(I see the Met uses this painting on the link for its permanent collections. Nice.)

Then winding my way towards an exit, I spent some time in the incredible Michael D. Rockefeller wing, the Met's African art collection. I love the African masks and sculptures, I find them so powerful and expressive. Lovers of modern art should not miss this; it's the roots of Picasso and all the modern masters.

Then I walked down Fifth Avenue to my favorite museum, and one of the truly great spaces of New York City, the Frick Collection. The Frick is one of several New York museums housed in the former mansion of a robber baron. It's a small, brilliant collection of very fine paintings and sculpture. You can see the whole museum in an hour or two, which I think makes it the perfect size.

It also houses a serene courtyard with a fountain and pool, that is an oasis of cool and calm. I won't even attempt to describe the courtyard, because I can't do it justice. There are some nice photos of the Frick here, but none of the courtyard. And even a decent photo like this, can't capture how it feels to leave the sights and sounds of 21st Century Fifth Avenue and walk into this tiny slice of paradise. If I say it's one of my very favorite spots in New York City, you'll know how I love it.

It was blazingly hot outside, and I sat on a marble bench in the courtyard, thinking of Buster, my heart very heavy (and my eyes very wet).

After a while I roused myself to walk through the galleries. It's a very eclectic collection. There are Dutch Masters, Velasquez, El Greco and Goya, Turner, Constable and Gainsborough, Veronese, Medieval art, exquisite Limoges. The great calling card for me is New York City's other three Vermeers, including Mistress and Maid, now known as "the girl with the pearl earring," from the book of the same name.

I was sorry to see admission to the Frick has become so expensive. I'm sure $12 is prohibitive to many people. There's a $5 student admission, and admission includes an audio guide, which is nice.

Though still very worried, I felt much restored. It was nice to be alone. But more than that, the art itself restored me. Neat how that works.

****

Later in the evening, I had a phone consultation with the internist (specialist vet). She had reviewed all of Buster's records, and believes she sees a pattern. She said all of Buster's many health issues may be caused by a hormone imbalance, an auto-immune disease like Addison's (which is similar to Lupus). She listed the typical profile of a dog with Addison's and it exactly described B. What's more, she said the condition is highly treatable. It's corrected by a synthetic hormone; many dogs with Addison's live happily into old age. Music to my ears.

All this time, I have been wondering if Buster's various problems could all be caused by one underlying disease, and asking if we were perhaps missing a big picture. Finally, someone answered yes.

This morning we are taking him to this specialist for a blood test. She doesn't even have hours today, but she's coming in to the animal hospital for us. She'll take blood, then we leave for an hour, then come back and she'll take another sample.

We'll have the results on Monday morning, when our appointment for colonoscopy was originally scheduled. If the blood test is positive, we'll discuss treatment and start him on the hormone. No scope, no surgery. If it's negative, she'll do a colonoscopy. Naturally I'm hoping the test is positive.

Just knowing this is a possibility has given me great hope. B's stomach is finally quiet and he is less sluggish and more himself today. And we'll know a lot more on Monday.

Thank you all so much for your good wishes. They mean a lot.

get your stories straight, guys

Forget TGSAVE.* TWOT lives.




* Not a conservation organization run by transgendered persons.

the price

Bob Herbert writes about the price one man has paid for Bush's lies.

Specialist Fourth Class Hugo Luis Gonzalez knows that he will never be the same. He can barely see now. The sight in his right eye is completely gone, and he sees only faintly with the left. The damage from the head wound he suffered plays games with his moods, and there are glitches in the tape of his memory.

"We got ambushed," he said softly. "I have to say I was very, very, very blessed that night. The angel of death put his cloud over my body. But I am alive."

Specialist Gonzalez is one of many thousands of American troops who have suffered disabling wounds in Iraq. Their harrowing ordeals do not get much attention. For most Americans, these troops - many of them armless or legless, or paralyzed, or horribly burned - are out of sight and way out of mind. Jennifer Aniston's marital woes are viewed as a much more compelling story. [Column here.]

Is it true the MSM is blathering about war fatigue, as in, we're sick of thinking about this war? This is obscene. Celebrity marriage fatigue, yes. Pretty white women in distress fatigue is way overdue. But the war? For most Americans, the war is out of sight and out of mind. (Sorry, magnetic stickers on SUVs do not count.) I saw the CNN story in the Bob Herbert column I linked to above. I stick my nose in MSM for a moment, and the stench reeks for days. How dare they.

One antidote to this supposed fatigue might be something I found at our friend The Curmudgeonly Crab. Crabbi links to An Open Letter From Harvey Tharp, Former Lieutenant (Resigned), US Navy, found on After Downing Street.

middle of the night fears

I am worried about Buster.

His intestinal issues have not responded to any of our vet's new ideas. Once again, things have spontaneously worsened. In the immediate sense we have it under control, but we're taking him to a specialist on Monday. My vet wants him to have a colonoscopy, so we can find out with certainty what's going on.

My own condition has been downgraded from concerned and somewhat stressed to officially worried.

I'm afraid he may have a serious illness. I'm afraid of losing him.

These fears may be premature, but tonight, here they are.

****

I had dinner tonight with one of my closest friends - it was the last time we'll see each other while we both live in New York. NN and I met in college, traveled in Europe together after we graduated, then both moved to the city, and have been here together since then. That little sentence encompasses 26 years. We've known each other longer than we've known our life partners.

I know a lot of people, but I have only a few close friends. Of course we'll see each other, hopefully a few times a year. But it's a big change. The end of an era.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a little emotional tonight. Gulp, sniffle, etc.

cool comment

Pearl says:

I just read your post on the reasons for your move. We moved to Toronto over a year ago from the San Francisco area from almost identical reasons and logic. On the whole it has gone well and is meeting most of our expectations. I wish you a smooth transition too!

Ah, that's gold. Thank you, Pearl!

back from interview

Lone Primate, who's been blogging about Highway 401, said: "I hope you'll tell us more about the interview when you get back, LK." Who am I to turn down such a request?

The author of this essay (which I linked to here) wanted to speak to Allan and I about our reasons for leaving, and our thoughts about the future.

He's thinking in generational terms, of older people making war for younger people to fight, and what young people can do to change things. I think more in terms of class: people with power making war for their own profit, sending the powerless to fight for them. I feel more in common with progressive-minded people both 20 years younger and 20 years older than me, than I do with people my own age who are wealthy and conservative. Phill asked us questions about "Generation X", but I confess, I don't know what that is supposed to represent. His perspective isn't wrong, but it's different than mine. So it made for some interesting conversation.

This is the second interview we've done. (I don't know if the Japanese journalist's piece ever came out?). It's an interesting exercise, to try to articulate one's thoughts out loud - even more so than blogging. People are especially interested in our response to our detractors, from both the left and right.

I don't know what else to say about the interview, so if you want to know something, just ask. And of course if the article runs, I'll post it.

After the interview, I was supposed to do some city stuff, but the heat is really knocking me out. I still have a sightseeing list to accomplish, things I was planning on doing in May and June. Suddenly I had my hands full with writing deadlines, and everything had to wait. Now it's just too hot and humid. I'm still trying, but I'm not sure how it will go.

Newer readers, if you're interested, I first blogged about this a little over a year ago, here, then followed up here. Subsequent follow-ups are here, here, here and finally here.

I notice I start many posts with "I haven't been doing a good job with my New York City to-do list...", but I see that cumulatively, I've done a lot in the past year. Maybe some things will be fun to do when I come back for visits.

see you later

I'm rushing out the door for an early appointment. Someone wants to interview these soon-to-be expatriates, then more New York City sightseeing is on my agenda.

For now, just a quick note. Fourteen more American lives wasted; make that 15.

Right after we chatted about the 401, that highway figured prominently in this scary story. How amazing and wonderful that no one was killed. It's on the front page of all the papers here, too.

More later, including replies to comments.

un-meme

AndyM at funcentral (one of my favorite blogs) tagged me for a meme, and being the killjoy that I am, I declined. What can I say, it's a blanket policy. I just don't want to do them.

But being a very nice guy, Andy decided not to shun me for this breach of blogosphere etiquette, and asked me to pass along the meme anyway.

So what's the deal with this? If I don't write the meme, am I allowed to tag other bloggers with it? Please advise.

****

On a related note, wmtc has some new blog friends. Welcome to the accordion-slinging Mr Anchovy, who I found through Zydeco Fish (who is currently taking shit for a really good political post, you might want to check in). Catalytic Converter is working for the Resistance in my home town, and Brett, although he doesn't know me yet, is bringing liberal values to my alma mater, through his excellent Canadian Liberal @ Penn.

we're number two

You're supposed to chant that in the "U-S-A" style, pumping your fist and sounding like a gorilla.

ALPF has informed me that Canada was ranked the second best country in the world, behind only Australia. This is according to the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index, "the only analytical ranking of the world's nation brands". (Um, nation brands?). Anholt-GMI surveyed 10,000 people in 10 countries, asking questions about 25 countries in areas such as investment, tourism, people and culture.

Canada, a new country in the poll, overtook second place from the UK, which ranked number two in the first NBI in May 2005.

In most areas -- best places to work and live, expand business, people, and governance -- Canada came in right after Australia, showing that the country's positive reputation continues to remain strong.

Unlike Canada's neighbor and close ally the United States, which ranks 11th; globally, the government is seen as neutral, with the majority of those polled describing the government as trust-worthy. Adding to this perception, is the fact that Canada ranks number two, after Switzerland, on overall governance, as well as on how much people around the world trust the country's government to make responsible decisions and uphold international peace and security. But, it might appear that a large part of the world's perception of Canada can be attributed to how they feel about Canadians: the people came in second place in the hospitable category, right after Australians.

So to all those nasty wingnut commenters: nyah, nyah, I'm moving up in the world!

simcoe day

Marnie wished me a Happy Simcoe Day. Thanks, Marnie! Of course I hadn't the slightest idea what she was talking about (though I loved the "next year in Port Credit" line.)*

I found this somewhat confusing explanation of Canadian civic holidays, and this history of Simcoe day, but explanations from wmtc readers are always so much more helpful. Hint, hint.



* On Passover, Jewish people often end the Seder (the ritual Passover meal) with the saying, "Next year in Jerusalem". One could hear that literally, as, one day we'll celebrate Passover in Israel. But I've always heard it as a symbolic expression of, one day, may we be in a place where we can be a free people.**

** Why am I so Jewish lately? Elsewhere in comments, I'm explaining Yiddishisms to David Cho. I wonder if I'm falling into that leave-New-York-and-become-more-Jewish syndrome. Hmm.

dictatorship

I thought I should at least acknowledge what happened in the US while wmtc was chatting about dishwashers and snow shoveling.

As I'm sure you know, W installed John Bolton as the US ambassador to the UN over the strong objections of Senate Democrats.

Here I am complaining about the Dems' spinelessness, and when they show some gumption, W says, Fuck you, I'll do as I please.

more progress

1. Allan just booked the movers. Most of our stuff will move to Canada on Friday, August 26.

2. Allan gave notice.

Onward!

personal post alert

Some of you have asked if I'll continue blogging after we move. Mais oui! I originally started this silly thing as a way to update friends and family, and as a way for me to process (by writing) the many changes we're experiencing. I had no idea it would take on a life of its own, but these two purposes still stand. I will absolutely be reporting on our new lives, our impressions of our little corner of Canada.

Our little corner of Canada. That has a nice ring to it.

However... many of the changes we'll experience after we touch down in Port Credit will have little to do with Canada.

It's very common for one's standard of living to rise dramatically after leaving New York City. It's expensive here. In the US, probably only California's Bay Area rivals the cost of living in New York.

Every New Yorker has had a friend, co-worker or neighbor who visits [insert name of smaller city here] and comes back raving about how they could rent a three-bedroom house for what they're paying for their apartment. I've been hearing this half my life. My answer has always been, yeah, but then you have to live in [smaller city]. This is not to put down that city. It may be perfect for the person in question. Just not for me. The idea of renting or owning a home in Austin, Minneapolis or Charlotte (all fine cities) was never appealing.

But now that we're leaving the city, certain advantages are thrown in the package. We don't have a dishwasher and we do our laundry in a laundromat. (Does this sound barbaric to you? It's not at all unusual in NYC.) We don't own a car. Although in recent years we've been financially able to rent one whenever we need to, most shopping and errands involve schlepping around with packages, often on the subway. And of course, we don't have a backyard or any outdoor space, the only aspect of life in a private home that I've ever missed.

In the last few years, I've been finding all of this more tedious. We've put up with it without much question, because we wanted to be in New York City. But as we get older, the trade-off that is New York for the not-rich has become less obvious. I was seriously considering leaving the city when the idea of moving to Canada came up, and the two ideas dovetailed.

Now all this will change when we move. Dishwasher, washer/dryer, big backyard - and car. Cumulatively, our lives will become a good deal more convenient. I am reeeeeally looking forward to it!

american dna

Bob Herbert is on a roll. In this morning's New York Times, he explains a simple concept for the democracy-challenged.

You won't find many people willing to accuse John McCain, John Warner or Lindsey Graham of being soft on terrorism. But the three Republican senators are giving the White House fits with their attempt to get legislation approved that would expressly prohibit cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

There was a dramatic encounter during the floor debate last week when Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, spoke out against the legislation, saying there was no need for it because, as he put it, the detainees are not prisoners of war, "they are terrorists."

Senator McCain, of Arizona, argued that the debate "is not about who they are. It's about who we are."

This is not an argument of semantics. These three members of the Armed Services Committee, including its chairman (Warner), will not approve the 2006 Pentagon authorization bill (nearly half a trillion dollars!) unless these amendments are attached.

The White House has been pressuring them, but the three Republicans are holding fast. When it was clear the appropriations wasn't going nowhere without these amendments, Bill Frist tabled it until September. The White House has threatened to veto the defense bill if the amendments are approved.

Herbert continues:

A few days ago I spoke with John Hutson, a former admiral who is now president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H. He was one of the signers of the letter to Senator McCain. He stressed that this is a very big issue for the country. If the United States fails to get its act together with regard to the humane treatment of detainees, he said, we will "have changed the DNA of what it means to be an American."

Bob Herbert column here.

karl rove on welfare

Thank goodness this conservative government is so fiscally responsible and free of fraud. On Common Dreams, Ralph Nader writes about the architect's free ride.

Remember the day after the election last November, a triumphant newly elected (for the first time) President George W. Bush introduced to a national television audience a beaming Karl Rove as "The Architect" of his winning campaign. Did you know that you, the taxpayers, paid for his salary and benefits while he was running George W. Bush's political campaign day after day inside the White House?

Isn't this illegal, you may properly ask? It would be if it were a staff member of a Senator or Representative in the Congress. Any such staffers would have to take an unpaid leave of absence, leave their office and set up shop somewhere else to work on their boss's re-election campaign. To do this on the Congressional payroll would be illegal.

So what about Rove?

Nader explains why the White House, since 1993, had been technically exempt from this prohibition - and how they broke the law anyway.

So what can be done? A reporter could ask the question at a White House press briefing. For whatever it is worth, a complaint can be filed with the Office of Special Counsel. A request can be made of the Counsel to the President, Harriet Miers, for an allocation separating his expenditures in time and resources on political activity from the time spent as a staff assistant to President Bush. We made such a written request two weeks ago.

Or members of Congress can ask the Government Accountability Office to investigate and report back to them.

Meanwhile, Karl Rove continues his very political activities and travels around the country raising money for upcoming Congressional campaigns. It is a very convenient career, so long as you can get away with it. The self-described conservatives in the White House are on welfare in the midst of their warfare against the American worker.

For more information, log onto Democracy Rising and help get Karl Rove off of welfare and out of the White House.

Note that the link at the bottom of the Common Dreams story is wrong. It's DemocracyRising.us.

belated congratulations, canada

Getting caught up over at Rob's place, I realized I never congratulated Canada on The World's Stupidest Government Award. As you can imagine, competition was tight, what with the U.S. and North Korea in the running.

Fear not, America Firsters, your guy didn't go home empty handed. W won Stupidest Statement of the Year with one of my personal favorite Bushisms: "They never stop thinking of ways of harming America, and neither do we."

In a surprise, sexist upset, Ann Coulter won Stupidest Man of the Year. Yes, I still call out sexism, even when it's against anti-feminist, wingnuttified women who I hate. It's like being against the death penalty for Donald Rumsfeld. Oh yeah, just call me Mahatma.

liberation

Don't you hate when people say "more later," then disappear? I've had a busy day, actually working for my salary today.

Have you heard that the new Iraqi constitution, as presently drafted, compromises the rights of women? It would actually take away some rights Iraqi women had under Saddam's secular dictatorship.

David Cho was surprised I hadn't blogged about this, with good reason. I find thinking about women's rights on an international level so depressing. It makes me feel sad, and helpless. Also very grateful. There but for some random chance go I. Geography is destiny.

From the Feminist Majority Foundation:

Iraqi Women May Lose Rights Under New Constitution

In response to provisions in the draft Iraq constitution limiting women's rights, approximately 200 women protested in Baghdad last week to demand full equality between women and men. Activists have also met with constitutional committee members to lobby for women’s rights. Iraq’s new draft constitution draft would allow Islam to play an important part in the making of civil law. While Shiite Muslim leaders are promoting a larger role for Islam, women’s rights groups express concerns about provisions that would take away rights they already enjoy including marriage, inheritance, and divorce rights for women. Activist Hanaa Edwar said, "We are a pluralistic society and this constitution will determine our future. It is crucial for us. We cannot allow it to move us backwards and make a mockery of conventions that Iraq has signed on human rights," reports BBC News.

The draft currently being considered by the constitution-writing committee states that, "The state provides all rights for women to make them equal to men according to Islamic sharia laws and to help women to make a balance between their family and societal duties," according to the Los Angeles Times (emphasis added). It is this very language that would take away rights already enjoyed by Iraqi women. The Los Angeles Times reports that US officials have criticized the provisions on women's rights, but have not commented on the references to Islam. US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told the Times, ". . . A society cannot achieve all its potential if it does things that prevent . . . half of its population to make the fullest contribution that it can."

Initially, the draft proposal also included phasing out the guarantee included in the interim constitution that women make up one-fourth of the seats in Parliament. However, secular members of the constitution committee won on this issue and the provision has been reinstated, reported the LA Times.

August 15 marks the deadline for the completion of Iraq's new constitution.

Much closer to home, the MLB trade deadline passed uneventfully, and I am glad.

wmtc in less than 30 days

The counter is under 30 days! We are getting really excited. Time is very tight, my schedule is packed, the days are flying by in a whoosh. Butterflies are flitting in and out of my stomach.

More later.

click at your own risk

Look at this.

Don't be scared, it takes two clicks to get to the really scary stuff.

tourist trap

Perhaps you haven't all heard about this. On July 26, a supervisor with the Gray Line bus company reported that five "suspicious men" had just boarded one of the company's double-decker tour buses.

Here's why the men were suspicious: they had purchased their tickets in advance, they carried backpacks, and they were wearing something else that caused bulges to appear around their waists. Oh, did I mention they appeared to be South Asian? The men were British citizens, and Sikhs.

The Gray Line ticket-taker called his supervisor. The supervisor called the police. The police cordoned off the area. That is, Times Square.

The five men were ordered off the bus, handcuffed, and forced to kneel on Broadway while bomb-sniffing dogs searched the bus. The bulges were fanny packs. The men were questioned and released.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized to the tourists, defended the police, and criticized the Gray Line employees for overreacting. This in a city with posters and public-address announcements everyfuckingwhere repeating, "If you see something, say something." What was he expecting?

Post-apology reports from the New York Times, BBC News, The Telegraph (India) and The Hindustan Times. An interesting contrast.

Please spare me the most obvious comeback: at least they weren't shot. No harm done.

Thanks to Kyle for reminding me to blog about this.

what i'm reading: silver rights by constance curry

I recently started reading Silver Rights by Constance Curry. It's the (nonfiction) story of a family of African-American sharecroppers who pioneered desegregation in 1965, in the rural Mississippi Delta.

Most of us are somewhat familiar with the stories of the brave black Americans who desegregated Ole Miss and the high schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. They had enormous courage. They also had a supportive community, the protection of federal troops and national media coverage. The people of the deep rural south had none of this.

Mississippi had used a clever bit of fiction to skirt the desegregation order mandated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964: the "Freedom of Choice" law. All a Mississippi family had to do was sign a paper, and their children could attend any school they wanted. Naturally, it was a hoax. In a climate of lynchings, house burnings, midnight shootings and no end of physical and psychic harassment - that is, in a climate of terrorism - few African-American families could allow their children to attend "white" schools.

What were their options? In 1965 - 1965!! - public schools open to black children in the Mississippi Delta were one-room cabins. Children of all ages were taught at the same time. There was no running water; the restroom was an outhouse. There were little or no supplies. The teacher often had little more than a fourth-grade education herself. And - get this - school shut down during the cotton picking and planting seasons. Black children were supposed to be in the fields.

This falls against the backdrop of the sharecropping system, a modern feudal indenture. The sharecropping system was designed to keep labor tied to the land, constantly in debt, essentially working without pay. Slavery being illegal, families were technically free to leave - about as free as their children were to attend white schools.

Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter didn't want to be pioneers. But they wanted their children to have a shot at being something more than human cotton-picking machines. They wanted them to have an education.

On September 3, 1965, the seven Carter children who were old enough for school became the only African-Americans to attend the all-white public schools in Sunflower County, Mississippi.

Constance Curry was a civil-rights worker with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. Her job was to investigate reports of intimidation and reprisals against black families like the Carters that were attempting to exercise their rights.

Based on the evidence she collected, the AFSC and the NAACP were able to bring suit against the state of Mississippi. After a four-year court battle, they won. A U.S. District court threw out "freedom of choice" and order Mississippi to desegregate its public schools. The attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund was Marian Wright Edelman.

The Carter family's courage and determination is endlessly inspiring to me. This is true moral courage.

Mae Bertha Carter went one step further. Along with the encouragement and support she gave her brave children, she constantly counseled them against hate. Wright Edelman says in her introduction: "They only things she wouldn't let them say were that they hated all whites or that they wished they'd never been born. Ruth, the eldest daughter to desegregate the schools, said to Connie [the author], 'Mama was right about hate, because you don't feel good about yourself when you hate someone else.' Imagine all they were faced with, and imagine the strength it took not to hate."

the urge to know

In many cases the urge to know surpasses what can be known; questions without answers. Many people, finding this impossible to accept, seek solace in mythic expressions. So attuned is the human mind to look for and find answers that sometimes it extracts meaning where none exists: the face of an old man, a witch, or the image of a monster, seen in an inkspot; psychic portent attributed to mere coincidence; the cry of "why me?" when natural disaster strikes, as if the agent of disaster chooses its victim; the perception of supernatural anger expressed in the violence of an earthquake. Human consciousness demands explanations about the world and is resourceful at creating explanations where none naturally exist.

From Origins Reconsidered, by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin

A nice review/tribute here, my previous post here, the Leakey Foundation here.

dreams of empire die hard

Bob Herbert says, It's the oil, stupid.

It is now generally understood that the U.S.-led war in Iraq has become a debacle. Nevertheless, Iraqis are supposed to have their constitution ratified and a permanent government elected by the end of the year. It's a logical escape hatch for George W. Bush. He could declare victory, as a senator once suggested to Lyndon Johnson in the early years of Vietnam, and bring the troops home as quickly as possible.

His mantra would be: There's a government in place. We won. We're out of there.

But don't count on it. The Bush administration has no plans to bring the troops home from this misguided war, which has taken a fearful toll in lives and injuries while at the same time weakening the military, damaging the international reputation of the United States, serving as a world-class recruiting tool for terrorist groups and blowing a hole the size of Baghdad in Washington's budget.

. . .

What has so often gotten lost in all the talk about terror and weapons of mass destruction is the fact that for so many of the most influential members of the Bush administration, the obsessive desire to invade Iraq preceded the Sept. 11 attacks. It preceded the Bush administration. The neoconservatives were beating the war drums on Iraq as far back as the late 1990's.

Iraq was supposed to be a first step. . . .

The point here is that the invasion of Iraq was part of a much larger, long-term policy that had to do with the U.S. imposing its will, militarily when necessary, throughout the Middle East and beyond. The war has gone badly, and the viciousness of the Iraq insurgency has put the torch to the idea of further pre-emptive adventures by the Bush administration.

But dreams of empire die hard. American G.I.'s are dug into Iraq, and the bases have been built for a long stay. The war may be going badly, but the primary consideration is that there is still a tremendous amount of oil at stake, the second-largest reserves on the planet. And neocon fantasies aside, the global competition for the planet's finite oil reserves intensifies by the hour.

Lyndon Johnson ignored the unsolicited advice of Senator George Aiken of Vermont - to declare victory in Vietnam in 1966. The war continued for nearly a decade. Many high-level government figures believe that U.S. troops will be in Iraq for a minimum of 5 more years, and perhaps 10.

That should be understood by the people who think that the formation of a permanent Iraqi government will lead to the withdrawal of American troops. There is no real withdrawal plan. The fighting and the dying will continue indefinitely.

Read the column.

mais oui

Paul Krugman asks, "Senator Rick Santorum, are you reading this?"

Americans tend to believe that we do everything better than anyone else. That belief makes it hard for us to learn from others. For example, I've found that many people refuse to believe that Europe has anything to teach us about health care policy. After all, they say, how can Europeans be good at health care when their economies are such failures?

Now, there's no reason a country can't have both an excellent health care system and a troubled economy (or vice versa). But are European economies really doing that badly?

The answer is no.

Read "French Family Values".

****

Local columnist Clyde Haberman notes that when New York State Governor George Pataki announced he would not seek re-election, he managed to utter four words before invoking September 11th. That was probably a first for Pataki; he usually doesn't waste that much time.

what i'm watching: murderball: see this movie

We saw Murderball yesterday, the movie I mentioned here. It was terrific. I think most of you will find it moving, entertaining and eye-opening. Plus one of the story lines is a US-Canada rivalry, with surprising results.

what are they hiding?

From Black Box Voting:

Jim March, a member of the Black Box Voting board of directors, was arrested Tuesday evening for trying to observe the Diebold central tabulator (vote tallying machine) as the votes were being counted in San Diego's mayoral election (July 26).

According to Jim Hamilton, an elections integrity advocate from San Diego, he and March visited the office of the registrar of elections earlier in the day. During this visit, March made two requests, which were refused by Mikel Haas, the San Diego
Registrar of elections.

1) March asked that the central tabulator, the computer that tallies up the votes from all the precincts, be positioned so that citizens could observe it. According to Hamilton, this would have required simply moving a table a few feet.

2) March also asked for a copy of the ".gbf" files -- the vote tally files collected during the course of tabulation – to be provided for examination after the election.

During the tallying of the election, the Diebold computer was positioned too far away for citizens to read the screen. Citizens could not watch error messages, or even perceive significant anomalies or malfunctions.

Unable to see the screen, March went into the office where the tabulator was housed. Two deputies followed him and escorted him out.

According to Hamilton: "He was not belligerent, not at all. After he went inside the tabulator room he came [was escorted] out and he said clearly 'I’m not resisting.' They handcuffed him, took him out of the building. They put him in a squad car.
They’re going to take him to the police station, book him and take him to jail," said Hamilton. "He’s getting charged with a felony, 'interfering with an election official.'"

March's actions are the culmination of two years of increasing frustration with the refusal of election officials to respond to security deficiencies in the voting machines. The software that tallies the votes in San Diego is made by Diebold Election Systems, a company that has already paid the state of California $2.8 million for making false claims, due to a lawsuit filed by March and Black Box Voting founder Bev Harris.

On July 4, a report was released by European computer security expert Harri Hursti, revealing that the Diebold voting system contains profound architectural flaws. "It is open for business," says Hursti, who demonstrated the flaws on Leon County, Florida Diebold machines. He penetrated the voting system in less than five minutes, manipulating vote reports in a way that was undetectable.

Despite the critical security alert issued by Hursti, San Diego County sent 713 voting machines home with poll workers, increasing the risk that the "memory cards" housed in the machines could be hacked, and removing the argument that "inside access" was carefully safeguarded.

The arrest of Jim March underlines a fundamental problem facing Americans today as, increasingly, they lose the ability to monitor, verify, or watch any part of the counting process.

The San Diego registrar of elections knew of the security flaws in the voting system. Diebold has never denied the vulnerability identified in Hursti's report, found at http://www.blackboxvoting.org/BBVreport.pdf.

Despite knowledge of the increased risks, Haas made the decision to create additional vulnerability by sending the machines home with hundreds of poll workers.

While San Diego officials will no doubt point to a small seal on the compartment housing the memory card (the component exploited in Hursti’s study), Black Box Voting has interviewed a former San Diego poll worker, who reported that all that is necessary to dislodge and then reaffix the seal is a small pair of pliers.

IN A NUTSHELL:

- The machines have been demonstrated to be vulnerable to undetected tampering
- The San Diego registrar of voters chose not to take appropriate precautions
- The main tally machine was placed in a location that was impossible for citizens to observe
- Many voting integrity advocates have come to believe that voting machine reform now rivals the urgency of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

Jim March acted on those beliefs.

Of course San Diego is a tiny piece of an intricate puzzle. In the newest Harper's, Mark Cripsin Miller writes about the 2004 election: "None Dare Call It Fraud". I haven't read it yet, so more to follow.

a post-roe united states

Should we give up on Roe v Wade? Many people think so. As Katha Pollitt writes in her most recent column, "A chorus of pundits--among them David Brooks in the New York Times and the Washington Post's Benjamin Wittes writing in The Atlantic--argue that Roe's unforeseen consequences exact too high a price: on democracy, on public discourse, even, paradoxically, on abortion rights."

Pollitt examines if this would be a good idea for the people who it will effect: American women. Please read her excellent essay here.

the real party of reframing

TWOT is over. (Thanks Kyle, I might have missed it.)

"We" are now fighting a global struggle against the enemies of freedom.

Where's George Orwell when you need him?

If you wonder why I always invoke the spirit of Mr Orwell, please read (a) 1984 and (b) "Politics and the English Language". If it's been more than 10 years since you read 1984, it's time to read it again. I promise.

Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

George Orwell, from "Politics and the English Language," 1946.

buncha stuff

Random notes today.

ALPF found two more Americans making the move. By coincidence, I registered at 43things.com a few months ago, just so I could encourage yet another American thinking about Canada.

A commenter has an alternative view on Costco.

After reading the lyrics to "The Toronto Song", Wrye had this to say, reprinted here because I enjoyed it so much.

Ah, marriage... Y'know, Canada does turn up in nineteenth century novels and early feminist/suffragette works as the place of last resort to flee to when escaping marriage and/or the patriarchy (normally invoked, as near as I can tell, in the same tones as Siberia would be, if it had been the British hands).

DISCLAIMER: Wrye makes no claim, explicit or otherwise, that Canada is currently patriarchy free. Do not consume patriarchy if pregnant, able to become pregnant, or if prone to high blood pressure, ulcers, or underemployment.

Emigration to Canada is a major step and should not be attempted without first consulting a physician or other medical professional. Discontinue emigration to Canada immediately if frostbite develops.

The first part fits right in with something I've said elsewhere, as well as comments by LonePrimate and others, about Canada as a place of refuge. The rest is just funny.

Kyle was reading early wmtc posts, and asked:

So when exactly did you make the decision to move to Canada? (I looked through the archives, and found your reasons why Canada, and why now, but not when you made up your mind)

When you started saving up money a couple of years ago, had you already decided where you were going to go?

The answer is buried in there somewhere, but since I never expected anyone to read it, I guess I didn't make it very clear.

We started talking about moving to Canada in July 2003. In response to some Moron Administration travesty - possibly involving John Ashcroft - I repeated the old American lefty cliche, "That's it, it's time to move to Canada". And Allan said, "Could we? I mean, seriously, if we wanted to, could we do that?" He said he'd been thinking about it for a while. I had been seriously considering leaving New York anyway, so it didn't seem like a far-fetched idea. At work that weekend, I started looking at CIC info.

Now, simultaneous to this, we had recently gotten out of debt. We had a sizeable chunk of writing income due in, and for once, it wasn't being used to pay off a past vacation. I'm not talking a fortune here - about $6,000. For people who've always had credit card debt, and who've never had a dime in savings, this was very significant.

We had been planning on using that money for a special trip we wanted to make. I suddenly thought, maybe we should hold off. Maybe we're about to make a big change, and that money will be the foundation.

I started to gather information every weekend at work. (I told you this was a great job - tons of down-time for net surfing.) On Sunday night, over wine and the ESPN baseball game, I'd report back on what I learned. The more we talked about it, the more we liked the idea. By September, we pretty much knew. By November, we were starting to plan.

****

And last, has the heat wave in Ontario lifted yet? We are in the midst of one here, temperatures in the high 90s, heat index 105-110. Tonight it's supposed to rain and cool down to mid-80s. Selfishly, I would like the Toronto heat wave to lift before Marnie's birthday. Which happens to be the day we're moving. Please see what you can do.

just say no

...to violations of your rights. I saw some subway-search cops for the first time yesterday. I also saw a woman stride purposefully towards them with her bag open. Sheeple. I wasn't carrying a backpack, just a small bag. I just avoided eye contact and walked through the turnstiles.

A commenter named Matt has some better ideas. Matt stopped by to tell us about the Flex Your Rights Foundation, which has created The Citizen's Guide to Refusing New York Subway Searches. You can also download it as a flyer in .pdf form.

From the intro:

In response to the recent London terror attacks, New York police officers are now conducting random searches of bags and packages brought into the subway.

While Flex Your Rights takes no position on the usefulness of these searches for preventing future attacks, we have serious concerns that this unprecedented territorial expansion of police search powers is doing grave damage to people's understanding of their Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In addition, as innocent citizens become increasingly accustomed to being searched by the police, politicians and police agencies are empowered to further expand the number of places where all are considered guilty until proven innocent.

Fortunately, this trend is neither inevitable nor irreversible. In fact, the high-profile public nature of these random subway searches provides freedom-loving citizens with easy and low-risk opportunities to "flex" their Fourth Amendment rights by refusing to be searched.

If you're carrying a bag or package into the subway, here's what you need to know and do in order to safely and intelligently "flex" your rights:

Then they list strategies, do's and especially don't's (DON'T RUN!), to help you with your lonely bit of civil disobedience.

I'll be on the subway more than usual this month. I'll let you know how it goes.

i did it

As of August 28, I am officially unemployed!

girlcott costco

Costco is the anti-Wal-Mart.

In a New York Times business story (now unavailable), captured and commented on by The B.S. Corner, we read that Jim Sinegal, the chief executive of Costco Wholesale (fifth-largest retailer in the US) has a radical notion. He does the right thing.

Sinegal pays his employees a decent living wage, he doesn't force them to pay their own health-care costs, and he doesn't fight them if they choose to unionize.

He rejects Wall Street's assumption that to succeed in discount retailing, companies must pay poorly and skimp on benefits, or must ratchet up prices to meet Wall Street's profit demands.

At Costco, one of Mr. Sinegal's cardinal rules is that no branded item can be marked up by more than 14 percent, and no private-label item by more than 15 percent. In contrast, supermarkets generally mark up merchandise by 25 percent, and department stores by 50 percent or more.

Mr. Sinegal, whose father was a coal miner and steelworker, gave a simple explanation. "On Wall Street, they're in the business of making money between now and next Thursday," he said. "I don't say that with any bitterness, but we can't take that view. We want to build a company that will still be here 50 and 60 years from now." [Full Times story here, thanks to LonePrimate.]

To say this is a stark contrast to business practices at Wal-Mart is the definition of understatement. The folks at BuyBlue rate Costco a whopping 99%. (Wal-Mart rates 22%.) Definitely: Girlcott!

If you're not familiar with the expression, a girlcott is the opposite of a boycott. The idea is to reward ethical business practices with your spending dollars. Some people dislike the faint sexist overtones (girls = shopping), but I like the positive action, and the playful name. I first heard the expression a million years ago, when the anti-nuke movement was urging people to buy New Zealand lamb, because of the country's anti-nuclear policies.

And do you know where the word boycott comes from? In the late 1800s, Captain Charles Boycott was an English landlord notorious for raising rents and evicting his tenants. His workers, organized by Charles Parnell and the Irish Land League, organized a campaign against him. Local people were encouraged to ostracize Boycott and his family. People stuck together and it worked. The Boycotts soon found themselves without servants, farmers, even mail delivery. Their crops failed, their household crumbled, and they were driven back to England.

As Casey Stengel said, You can look it up.

So: shop Costco. (And I thank Crabletta with reminding me, by example, to Buy Blue.)

In other, related news, Paul Krugman discovers what we already knew: Canada is good for business.

canadian wingnut

Who says wingnuts don't grow on maple trees? I must thank AndyM at funcentral. Without Andy, I never would have found Richard Evans, Canadian Wacko. I thought this was a parody. But no, the guy is just a parody of himself. Richard baby, I'm a'comin' to ruin your country!!! Mwaaaahahahaha... Poking fun of Evans is only one of many reasons to visit funcentral.

Hey, check out my nifty new countdown clock. Redsock found it and was quite keen (Britishism there) on my using it. It was originally a countdown to the MLB trade deadline, which we eagerly await. Although not nearly as much as we await wmtc.

I never did get to give notice yesterday, my supervisor must be on vacation. (What a job, eh? I never see my supervisor, and I speak to her about three times a year.) I'll keep trying.

I feel so free and happy, despite having a zillion things to do. One month of seeing friends, enjoying New York City, making lists, doing errands, packing up. "I love it when a plan comes together." I must be getting really silly, I'm quoting the A-Team now.

Do not, I repeat, do not, do a Google image search for Mr. T. It is very frightening. Don't say I didn't warn you.

fourth amendment? what's that?

The decision last week to have police officers inspect the belongings of thousands of subway riders has opened a thicket of legal and constitutional issues, involving criminal procedure, transit security and concerns about potential misuse of the new tactic.

Yesterday, Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the organization had begun work on a federal lawsuit, which could be filed this week. Such a challenge will most likely claim that the policy violates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against "unreasonable searches and seizures."

And at a news conference in Brooklyn, Capt. Eric Adams, the president of a group of black police officers, said its members were worried that riders of Middle Eastern, African or Asian descent would be disproportionately targeted in the searches, despite official assurances to the contrary.

The Fourth Amendment has always been one of the more elastic clauses in the United States Constitution. It's violated constantly, under a variety of excuses, both legitimate and fabricated.

If I thought random searches of backpacks would keep us safer, I might support the idea. But it's a joke. Since you can't be detained for refusing to be searched, anyone with bomb-laden backpack can just turn around and go to a different subway stop. And since they're searching backpacks, wouldn't the would-be terrorist simply use a different method? I'm surprised they're not asking us to take off our shoes.

I haven't been stopped yet, since I don't ride the subway every day. But damned if a New York City cop is searching any bag of mine. I don't think so.

New York Times story here. And here's the story when the new policy was announced.

big step forward

I take another big step today: I'm giving notice on my day-job.

I know I speak for Allan, too, when I say these are tough jobs to leave. Not that we love our work so much, but we have the perfect day jobs. We don't expect to see the likes of them in Toronto, at least not for a while.

After making the decision, in the mid-1980s, to pursue writing more seriously, I've held an array of different jobs. I've been a nanny, a proofreader, a teacher, an assistant to a crazy artist, a data-entry operator, a political organizer, and probably a few things I don't even remember - and usually more than one at a time.

Once I gave up nanny-ing (which I did in exchange for rent), I needed something much higher paying. There's a whole culture in New York of writers, actors, musicians and students who "temp," and I heard the money was good.

I didn't even have a computer in those days - very few people did. I had one friend who was cutting edge! I would go to her place while she was at work and teach myself WordPerfect. (I know there are a few wmtc readers old enough to remember DOS-based WordPerfect.) Then I lied about my experience to the temp agencies, and went out and got some real experience. Soon I taught Allan what I learned, which rescued him from his deli-counter job.

Word-processing turned out to be the perfect writer's job. It's skilled enough so that it's not mind-numbingly boring, yet uses no creative energy. And word-processing in a corporate law firm pays better than anything else I've done. (Which is a sad commentary in itself.)

That was 15 years ago. We kept our skills top-notch and I made sure we never got too comfortable. I was always jockeying for a better spot - something that paid more for less hours.

Now we are at the top of the heap. We each work only 24 hours a week (in two days), but are paid the equivalent of a good full-time job. My job is virtually stress-free, and I am often paid very decent money to read the Sunday Times and catch up on all of your blogs. I work alone, which I love - no one bothers me, and I am my own supervisor. Allan's job is slightly more demanding, but hey, it's over in two days. He also gets health benefits (which also cover me).

And now, goodbye. No more jobs.

We have every reason to believe we'll find good work in Toronto. On our first visit to the city, we met with the two biggest legal staffing agencies, and they were practically salivating over our resumes. They assured us that we'll work. But we won't earn nearly what we're earning now - which means we'll have to work more hours.

We've been dreading this.

We will eventually work our way into better spots, with less hours. But not right away. And - she says whiningly - we love our lives the way they are now! Boo.

This is one huge down-side. But so be it. Staying put in order to keep a day-job is ass-backwards. The job is supposed to make your life possible, not the other way around.

I call my supervisor in one hour! Then I send an email to my friends at the firm who don't know anything about this. I'll be expecting a slight upsurge in page-views, along with a lot of questions...

the future of fear

Our friend B.W. Ventril has some interesting thoughts on where we might be headed. He lived in the UK during the IRA bombings, so his perspective is different than that of Americans or Canadians.

I'm not big on predicting the future - somehow it always turns out differently than we think. (Unless we're George Orwell.) But history is our only guide, and this is an interesting recent historical perspective.

Check out his post.

shout-out

Maybe this is something you all can help me with.

I am trying to get an essay published, and am looking for places to sell it. I am looking for:
- as wide a readership as possible,
- either print or web or both,
- if print or the website of a print magazine, then a paying market (i.e. they pay me).

The essay is:
- personal, with a political overtone, and
- pegged to the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

So as not to be cryptic, it's an essay comparing my recovery from rape to New York City's recovery from the trauma of 9/11, and our fear of terrorism to the fear of the "every day terrorism" of sexual assault.

Don't freak out, it was a long time ago. I speak publicly about my recovery and have written about it for national media. I also write about sexual assault and related issues for teens. It's just never come up here. So there it is.

Here's what I've done so far. The essay is currently being read for the "Lives" column of The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek's "My Turn" (where I was published for the first time!) and Ms. The New York Times Op-Ed has already passed. I've also spoken to Salon, but what they want doesn't work for me. After that, I draw a blank. I've searched for sites, but haven't found a good fit.

If I can't find any takers, I'll post it here. But frankly, the essay is too good, and I've worked too hard on it, to not try to sell it somewhere else.

All ideas welcome. Don't be shy.

remember abu ghraib?

I can't even comment on it yet. I have no words. I just feel sick.

I knew about this from reading Seymour Hersh, but I guess I left it behind for a while. Thanks to Redsock for reminding me. No sarcasm intended there, we can't let this fade from our consciousness.

If Donald Rumsfeld calls an act sadistic....? I can't even finish that sentence.

mapping the blogosphere

Here's an idea that I wish someone else would implement.

I would like to see a map of the blogosphere. Who links to whom.

It could take the form of a Venn Diagram, or a road map, with different color lines for two-way and one-way communication, or some other form that I can't visualize. It couldn't take in the entire blogosphere - I suppose that would be impossible, as it's fluid - but it could represent a good-sized chunk.

I was thinking how when I visit a blog, that blogger and I share some readers, and not others. And how a few clicks will land you in an entirely different blog country. When I visit Crabletta, I see G, Rob and Sleepybomb, who read wmtc, but I also see arse poetica, who probably doesn't. I visit Zydeco Fish, who also visits G, but maybe doesn't visit Crabbi. A new reader, Niobium, found wmtc through (I think) Barbara from California (who I found randomly), and is now turning up at Library Bitch, among other places. Barbara has a completely different readership - Niobium is the only link there. And so on, and so on.

And this, of course, is just one tiny corner of blogdom, the corner I see. Someone like Redsock adds an entire universe to the diagram, because he forms an intersection between leftist politics (and 9/11 inquiry) and baseball. He has two distinct readerships, with a small subset of overlap. A few of his baseball readers have found wmtc, and in turn, have found some of you. And so on and so on and so on.

I think a diagram of the blogosphere would be fascinating to see. I wish someone with the proper knowledge and resources would take it on. Perhaps someone is already working on it. If they are, I hope they find us!

P.S. If you want to try it on a small scale, you can create a Venn Diagram here.

one smart dog

The Amazing Wonderdog asks, Now are we all Egyptians?

My only quibble is that this isn't about the blogosphere (which, after all, is only made up of people - good, bad and stupid). Many of us were decrying the "today we are all Londoners" shit. But still. TAW is correct.

the price of our fear

The man shot dead in Stockwell tube station yesterday was not connected to the attempted bombings of London on July 21, police said tonight. Police said the shooting was a "tragedy" and they expressed "regret".

I bet his wife and kids regret it even more. Tragedy? I call it a crime.

Guardian story here. Thanks to B.W. Ventril of It's Time.

tim hortons north

A recent comment from G, and a link to his post about this craziness, reminded me of something I meant to tell you guys.

Driving to Boston the other day, we stopped for some caffeine, and noticed a Tim Hortons off the highway. It was the first time we saw one in the US! Naturally we chose Tim's over the other fast-food choices. Along with the iced coffee (for me) and hot tea (for Allan), we gave in to temptation and got a couple of donuts. But they were not real Tim Hortons donuts!

The Tim Hortons donuts we had in Canada were heavy and cakey. The Tim Hortons donut we found in Connecticut was of the Dunkin' Donuts variety - not as airy and overly sweet as a Krispy Kreme, but not the heavy, cakey kind either. I suppose Tim Hortons (owned by Wendy's) doesn't want to introduce Americans to a new breed of Canadian donuts.

We were disappointed!

the toronto song

As sung by Groucho Marx, actual composer unknown.

Mr. and Mrs. Klein,
They lived a life so fine,
Until the relatives came.
Uncle und tante Wolf,
Brought over the little Wolfs,
Like wolves they lived up to their name.
One week went by,
Klein started to cry,
It looks like the Wolfs mean to stay.
So he tells his wife one night,
That while they were sleeping tight,
Let's leave them, and we'll run away.

Say, it's better to run to Toronto,
Than to live in a place you don't want to.
With twenty wolves in front of me,
My house looks like a menagerie.

Imagine the cheek from the tante,
To bring all the Wolfs from Toronto,
And, oy, how they can eat,
At least a pound of meat.

Say, they take what they want, when they want to.
Just think what the bills will amount to.
Every day they are growing more and more.
They eat one meal a day, that's right,
They start in the morning and finish at night.
It's going to be a cold cold winter,
And I can't keep the Wolfs from the door.

mirror, mirror on the wall...

The MORONs are at it again. That is, the Main Organization Revealing Obvious Numbskulls are handing out the annual World Stupidity Awards. Who will be declared Dumbest Of Them All? With W in the running, there is some mighty tough competition.

The United States will face tough competition from Canada on Friday but this time it has nothing to do with hockey or softwood lumber.

The two countries are going head-to-head for top honours at the World Stupidity Awards, where doofuses get their due.

"This is a year where Canada could do very well and, as a Canadian, I'm very excited," enthused Albert Nerenberg, of the Main Organization Revealing Obvious Numbskulls, which organizes the event at the Just for Laughs comedy festival.

"The Canadian government has been nominated in the dumbest government of the year category and this is one year where we feel we've got a chance."

Canada will be vying against the United States, Iran, North Korea and the United Nations for that particular Oscar of idiocy crown.

But Prime Minister Paul Martin has already been outshone by President George W. Bush, who is nominated in three categories - stupidest man of the year, stupidest statement of the year, and stupidity award for reckless endangerment of the planet. Martin didn't get nominated for anything.

Bush dominated last year's awards, taking the stupidest man prize and the award for reckless endangerment of the planet. Nerenberg admitted the organizers do limit the number of categories featuring the controversial Texan.

"He would essentially be nominated in every category had we not interfered," Nerenberg said. "We want to give other people a chance. We just feel some of the other great stupidity in the world would go unrecognized if Mr. Bush was allowed to run rampant. But he is doing very well."

The show's host is no stranger to W's stupidity - he's practically made a career out of it: Lewis Black. Black says of W: "He's always a big one and it just gets worse every day with him. . . . His stupidity is almost on a Hall of Fame level." Almost? Black must have been feeling generous.

John Kerry was also nominated for a MORON award. "He should be," says Black. "What are the chances of finding someone who could actually lose to Bush? I mean, you almost had to search. The Democratic party should have been nominated too."

More info and the full awards categories here. Thanks to ALPF! Welcome back, and I hope you had a great vacation.

i'm done

I just turned in the final chapter of the ancient civs book. All I can say is...

I'm done, I'm done, I'm done done done done done, done done done done-done-doooone... (Sung to the tune of the "Dallas" theme song.)

This weekend I'll start catching up on the outside word, so expect comments on your blogs, or at least a uptick in page views.

Whooofuckinghooo! I'm off to pour myself a glass of wine.

payback

Well, isn't this convenient.

U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts provided legal advice to Gov. Jeb Bush in the weeks following the November 2000 election as part of the effort to make sure the governor's brother won the disputed presidential vote.

Roberts, at the time a private attorney in Washington, D.C., came to Tallahassee to advise the state's Republican administration as it was trying to prevent a Democratic end-run that the GOP feared might give the election to Al Gore, sources told The Herald.

The maneuver, which the Democrats never attempted, might have kept the state from sending its list of official "electors" -- the Electoral College members who actually cast the votes that count -- to Congress and the National Archives.

If the names were not forwarded to Washington in a timely fashion, Republicans feared, Gore might be declared the winner because Florida's 25 electoral votes wouldn't be counted -- and the Democrat had garnered more electoral votes than George W. Bush in the rest of the country.

Roberts, himself a noted constitutional lawyer, and an unnamed law professor spent between 30 and 40 minutes talking to Bush in the governor's conference room, sources told The Herald.

Roberts' perceived partisanship during the recount has been enough for some Democrats to suggest that his nomination should be rejected by the U.S. Senate.

. . .

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat, seized on Roberts' participation in the 2000 recount and suggested it should be grounds for rejecting his nomination. Wexler suggested the nomination "threw salt on the wounds of the thousands of Floridians whose voting rights were disenfranchised during the 2000 election.

"Judge Roberts worked to ensure that George Bush would become president -- regardless of what the courts might decide," Wexler said, relying on news accounts that suggested Roberts gave the governor advice on how the state Legislature could name Bush the winner. "And now he is being rewarded for that partisan service by being appointed to the nation's highest court."

Story from Miami Herald (registration required), or Common Dreams.

thank you for wasting our time

I wonder how long this will last.

The police last night began random searches of backpacks and packages brought into the New York City subways as officials expressed alarm about the latest bomb incidents in the London transit system.

The searches, which will also include commuter rail lines, are not a response to a specific threat against the city, said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who authorized the searches shortly before he announced them at a morning news conference.

The police have previously inspected bags at major events like parades and demonstrations, and the authorities in Boston conducted random baggage searches on commuter rail lines during the Democratic National Convention last year, but officials here could not recall a precedent for a broad, systematic search of packages in the New York City subways, which provide 4.7 million rides each weekday.

At some of the busiest of the city's 468 stations, riders will be asked to open their bags for a visual check before they go through the turnstiles. Those who refuse will not be permitted to bring the package into the subway but will be able to leave the station without further questioning, officials said.

. . .

William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, an industry group, said comprehensive coverage of any major urban transit system would be next to impossible. "If you were going to try to check a very high percentage at every station or on every train, it would be incredibly labor-intensive," he said.

Still, he said, the searches could deter would-be attackers and improve the public's confidence. "The public wants to feel safe, as well as be safe," he said. "So this has a benefit of perception."

New Yorkers don't tolerate being inconvenienced very well. Or I should say, we don't tolerate being more inconvenienced than we already are. According to this story, reaction was fairly supportive. But that's before anyone missed a train because a cop was pawing through their bag.

The reaction story quotes the great Gene Russianoff, who serves as the subway riders' voice:

Gene Russianoff, a lawyer at the New York Public Interest Research Group, said searches would invade people's privacy. "We'll see what riders think," he said. "I think you have the same odds of protecting people through random searches as you do of winning the Lotto."

Then the Times makes a rider who opposes the searches sound stupid by quoting her word for word:

Annie Simon, 24, a costume designer from Fort Greene, Brooklyn, called the random searches "completely stupid."

"It's a good way to catch people for other things," she said as she rode the uptown A train in Manhattan. "It's a complete obstruction of, like, freedom."

Perhaps Annie Simon doesn't want her freedom, like, compromised, and she knows that random searches of backpacks won't make her any, like, safer.

It will be interesting to see how long this lasts - and who gets stopped. If this happened in London, how long will it be until it happens here?

one day we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny

I'm late this morning, because we spent a good portion of last night at the emergency vet with Buster.

He's OK. (And thank you for your concern.) It wasn't exactly an emergency, but he needed to see a doctor, and our vet is on vacation. Apparently so is everyone else's vet, because the place was packed. This brings us further complications, because Buster can't be around other dogs (except his Cody). So we waited outside: I stay on dog-alert, while Allan runs Buster back and forth across the street as all the dogs in the neighborhood go out for their walks. Eventually an exam room opened up, so we could wait in there. This too brings complications: Buster spends the whole time shrieking and crying. Ah yes, a very pleasant four-hour wait.

As for Buster, he's having the same intestinal trouble we've been battling off and on for two months. Through it all, he seems perfectly happy, not distressed in any way or in pain. But he's losing weight, and his coat, normally shiny and lustrous, is dry and brittle. I am worried about my B.

When our regular vet comes back from vacation, we're going to step this up a notch: sonogram, radiograph, possibly an endoscopy. I was hoping to avoid another labor-intensive veterinary process. I kind of don't need one more thing to do, y'know? But the easy stuff clearly isn't working.

More than any of our dogs, I worry about Buster. He's been high-maintenance since the day we found him. He almost didn't make it then, and something inside me still half-expects to lose him.

I can't explain the love I have for this animal. His love for me is so intense. Of course, that's how dogs love, it's what they do. But a dog who was alone, frightened, on the edge of death, whose life begins again - their love is beyond human comprehension. Buster's devotion to us, and his neediness, makes me love him even more.