India'a courts have ordered the government to release the remaining funds (over $330 million) to the victims of the Bhopal disaster . Of course the accident was more than 20 years ago, so it's a little late for those who have suffered for a score of years with the death of family, horrible diseases, and chronic ailments (and of course those who still happen to live in the environment which has never been adequately cleaned up). If this is news to you Democracy Now! has been covering this for years . On December 3, 1984 a pesticide plant in Bhopal India owned by Union Carbide (later acquired by Dow Chemical) leaked toxic methyl isocyanate gas into the surrounding atmosphere. Poison clouds from the Union Carbide factory enveloped an arc of over 20 square kilometers before the residents could run away from its deadly hold. Thousands of people died immediately and thousands more slowly died over the next months/years from inhaling the toxic fumes. To this day the entire region is suffering from chronic illness, birth defects, and contaminated water. Bhopal.net has a good site about the disaster and its history .

sidenote: from my hometown of Las Vegas, NV. Linda Ronstadt was booted out of a hotel after dedicating her encore to Michael Moore and Farenheit 9/11 . Apparently some ardent Bush supporters were so riled up that they stormed out and ripped down posters. Guess we're more red-necked than I thought back home.

and finally (though the cuteness factor is slowly declining with these dumb internet surveys) I am:

Oh shoot and galdarnit! The books are late! The way it works at the library with renewing is you get an additional 3 weeks from the date you renew. So, in order to get maximum lending time, you wait until the day the books are due before renewing. I missed it! It was yesterday, and now I am stuck with a 75 cent fine and I may not be able to renew the two books I haven't read yet, one of which I'm in the middle of. Now I must off to the library to finagle with a hopefully nice librarian to please let me keep the books (usually they make some attempt at chastisement but then do it on a "only this one time" basis). Gotta go. I'll tell you what I'm reading next time.

I've heard the song on Democracy Now! a lot and thought it was fun, but there's a whole little movie that goes along with it. Bovine Freedom!

so my movie is also Fight Club, go figure.
And my Genuinely Divine Goddess Name is: Truly Empowered Realist who Reasons Youthfully (yes, like Holly I end youthfully, thank goddess). I think my favorite god to be would be Loki, the Norse god of change and mischief. Here's a quote from some random website about him:
"Loki... is the creature who transgresses all boundaries; even more significant, Loki represents the boundary itself... Loki may most properly be seen as representative of more than either the boundary or the boundary crosser; in the character and role of Loki, the boundary, difference itself, has collapsed. But to say that it 'has collapsed' implies its prior existence, and this does not adequately describe Loki. In Loki that opposition has never been created; what is elsewhere two is one in Loki." -- Karen Swenson

He's always switching sides and creating havoc. He births two monsters who play major roles in the destrucion of the world. Super-duper fun right?

As far as outing aides of congressmen, I don't think that is quite necessary. I mean, if you're black and you wanna work for the KKK that's your (albeit horridly fucked up) perogative. Mary Cheney is the perfect example of this specific case. Her father is the evil partner of Bush, and yet she is an out lesbian. How does she live with herself? You don't necessarily need to campaign to make gay marriage legal but you at least shouldn't endorse the idea of a federal amendment banning it. Sheesh. But, I agree that it is awfully hard to find work that is going to be 100% aligned with all of your particular values. Scuttlebucket!

But! The amendment hasn't been passed anyway YAY! Though it's kinda saddening that 48% of senators wanted to write discrminination into our founding document (though according to polls that figure roughly represents the number of Americans with similar views-yuk).

Why must reason succumb?
Is there something beyond?
Or just synapses gone haywire.
Which to trust,
which to deny?
Is there compromise?

I am distracted.
I turned onto a freeway offramp today.
You've got to try it at least once,
or so I told myself.
Emotion!
Can't you wait for more opportune moments
to instigate confusion?

My friend's mother died recently.
She had a dream about icy tunnels
and choices she had no control over.
It played into my frenzy;
coinciding irrationality.

It's hard ro concentrate.
I feel like a teenager again,
raging hormones inspired by traumatic whirls of unreasonable thought.
Does it stop?
Do I want it to?
What is life without chaotic foibles?

Is the pain worth feeling,
even for eventual release?
It must be, else I'd turn it off.
Let myself slide into apathy.
Unfeeling hate.
Yet I linger,
savoring my agony?

So oft I discourage my own emotions.
Turn it off.
Only the facts matter.
Put it in context!
There is no universal suffering.
But, again, why?

Why god(s) why?
I don't need to ask.
It's all here.
I feel the release already.
Thank you muses,
for restoring my equlibrium.
I had but to tell it to the pen.

sidenote: I'm feeling the blues in the night, just click on my userpic and hear.

In the event of a terrorist attack, US authorities are coming up with plans to possibly postpone the November presidential election. (Democracy Now reports on todays show as well ) That darned al-Qaeda network might try to disrupt our elections, or so some "intelligence sources" are claiming. So the plan is that if this happens we ought to be able to stop the elections, maybe in the hopes of preventing a Spain-like "panic vote" for the non-incumbant? I wonder though, just who would benefit (politically speaking) from such an attack. Would it make Bush look weak? Would it make us stand behind the leader? Who knows. I suppose the plan about postponing the elections will hinge on which way the public reaction is leaning: outrage=no postponment, fear=postponemet. I think it's kinda baloney. Let's get this shit over with ASAP. I wanna focus on the Olympics.

sidenote: new video by Moveon comparing Edwards to Cheney

since I've written a journal entry. I'm not counting this one since I'm not really saying anything, just announcing my renewed presence. I'm back. Trip was neat-o. New user pic embracing naked theme. Until tomorrow...

Well, you [inlink]maidencateyes,52[/inlink] can see it at the Dipson which are a bit more localer, but they do have it at the Regal. I'm a bit surprised that the total corporate hack has it, but maybe it's not so bad to see it there. It's all about statement (for me at least, since it's total reeducation and nothing new to my left-ass) so it might be good if one of their highest grossing summer flicks is a left-political dissident film. Check it out!

Keith, did I perchance leave a certain cinchable item of clothing/accesory at your place during the preweekend frivolities? I can't find the darn thing anywhere. Don't you hate losing belts? Bad enough to be out one article of clothing, but you're also out all the clothing that needs the belt to fit.

Sucks about the car ms. cateyes! [inlink]maidencateyes,47[/inlink] They're so much trouble. Let's all get trains instead. I want a caboose.

While watching the slow exectuion, she had recalled an old story of a prophet who at one point in his caeer was met by an angel who cut him open from throat to groin. The angel then washed the propet's heart with holy water, and filled it with gems symbolizing knowledge and faith. She had thought, absratcly, Wouldn't we all like to imagine that we are so within, filled with valuable, beautiful and indestructible things, not this vulnerable and stinking offal?

-a quote from some random novel I'm reading. Good though, right? Who wouldn't let the angel slice them open to replace the stinking mass that is our flesh? To be replaced by some irrefutable holiness. Some truth? Of course you wonder, whether truth is what we really desire, or just some kind of truth to make us feel better about the stinking bag of flesh we are.

Hey!

Look at this neat picture of our planet...


Oh America. Seeing you and being happy, but so not happy. Knowing your truth and seeing our truth. The truth of those with power and those without. Lights symbolising eternity, the gems we hope to find within our bodies, our souls. Does light really symbolize that which is desired, don't we all want a little darkness, a little fun? Give me back my rainforests. Take your fucking light. I don't need it anymore.





Oh, how the white world shines. Obviously, exhibting our divine glory. Oh the benefit of whiteness, so close to GOD!