Margaret, I got a lot of crap. How about you? If it’s the thought that counts then I want to know what some of my family members were thinking? Candles and exotic soaps are gifts that tell me the giver didn’t give much thought. To all my loved ones: Please stop buying me things for the sake of buying me things. In the future, bake me something nice and if you don’t bake, a hug will do just fine. And for the record, Harold hasn’t done anything that requires a screw driver set for almost twenty years. We have people for that now. And speaking of people…
Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a wonderful holiday. We had a lovely time with family stopping by for long overdue visits. It was even good to see the vegetarians, but I couldn’t get them to try some stuffing. Honestly, how can someone not like bacon? It just doesn’t make any sense.
But I was so happy to see my nephew home from Iraq. At least that is where I think he’s been. As a member of the special forces, he can’t tell me what he’s been up to. Instead he gave me a hug and told me he’s been getting the bad guys. I hugged him back and held my tongue because I support the troops.
Support the troops. You know saying those words takes about as much energy as putting one of those god awful yellow ribbon stickers on your car. It’s meaningless unless you follow it with action. When dealing with war, it’s more than the thought that counts.
If you want to support the troops then you do everything you can to work for peace. You march… you write letters to your editor… you call your elected officials…. and you teach your children that bad guys are rarely found on the field of battle.
When it comes to war the real bad guys are usually hundreds of miles away surrounded by men with money to gain and power to loose. It’s a shame that the guns are almost never aimed at the bad guys. But I understand why the army has to convince my nephew and other soliders to see it that way. I imagine it would be hard to pull the trigger if you realize the guy you’re aiming at is probably just like you. Yep. You don’t win many wars that way. Instead you have to turn “us” into “them” and “we” into “they”. It’s hard to hate people. It’s much easier to just hate a country or a regime. It’s hard to kill someone’s son or father or brother, but pulling a trigger when you are aiming at a terrorists… well that’s another story entirely. You know, I can’t help but wonder what color the ribbons are in Irag. I mean you realize that mothers in Iraq support the troops too, don’t you?
So my New Year’s resolution was going to be to stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch and to kiss and make up with George W. Bush. But you know what they say about New Year’s Resolutions… they’re too easily broken. Besides Sarah ” I see terrorists” Palin is a bitch. And the only kiss that will ever happen between me and George W. Bush will be when his lips meet my ass.
So let’s see if we can all come up with a better resolution. One that we can actually keep and one that is in keeping with the spirit of this blog. For me, in 2009, I resolve to point the gun at the bad guys…starting with myself.
I have no idea if my little rants on this internet have had any type of positive impact, but I cannot point the gun at Palin and Bush without blaming myself as well. I sat by for eight years when I should have been getting active every day in our politcal system. It’s the only way democracy works. So until they put me in a rest home, I’ll be watching – and writing. I voted for Obama, but that doesn’t mean I gave him a free pass. And I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of that moose hunter in heels. Trust me, I’ve learned my lesson. There will always be bad guys – at home and abroad.
So Happy New Year everyone. Leave your New Year’s Resolution before you go and make it one you can keep. Thanks for stopping by again. I mean it. Really.
Ah! After eating some very bland food in well known dowtonwn restaurants here in Juneau, I finally found a restaurant that has excellent food. Kenny\’s Wok I had T-5 (Teriyaki Chicken Breast served in Strips) with the spicy sauce that comes with T-4. If this is representative for the rest of Kenny\’s menu, then you will not be dissapointed. Prices very reasonable. The staff very clean in appearance, well dressed, very professional.But something else impressed me. The staff had no hardware hanging from there noses, lips, tongues, eyelids, etc.. I just think that when dining the metal should be limited to the tableware.If you like Asian, Kenny\’s is #1.
By: Chandra on December 16, 2012
at 10:53 AM
Yeah it would have been better if they had more money but it was inadequat
By: Potty Racers on June 7, 2011
at 8:14 AM
[...] Getting the Bad Guys « Margaret and Helen [...]
By: Drinking Water Safety: Take Advantage of New Technology | Chemical Agents on May 23, 2009
at 8:47 PM
[...] Yes, I wanted him elected more than money, but once it was done I put that passion on hold. As Helen said so well, just because I voted for him doesn’t mean I’m giving him a free pass. Now it’s [...]
By: simplynutmeg.com » Blog Archive » Inauguration day 2009 on January 20, 2009
at 9:10 AM
[...] the rest here: Getting the Bad Guys « Margaret and Helen eMail this post to a friendPopularity: 1% [?] var UserClicked=false; document.onkeydown=spy; [...]
By: Getting the Bad Guys « Margaret and Helen | Sense Humor Blog on January 17, 2009
at 10:19 AM
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090108151700.htm
Computer Game ‘Tetris’ May Help Reduce Flashbacks To Traumatic Events
By: sophie on January 15, 2009
at 5:29 PM
Jean,
Not to worry, I knew you didn’t mean it that way. I took you to mean that in the lives we lead we all encounter events that often lead to symptoms of PTSD. Generally these things are short-term and can we often don’t realize what we’re going through. It’s all a matter of degrees.
PTSD is, as you say, about as common as the common cold. I honestly feel that a lot of the ‘acting out’ we witness in others has roots in something akin to PTSD.
But of course, there are those that are just plain mean. Those people recently voted Republican!
Keith
By: Keith on January 15, 2009
at 4:52 PM
” how many Americans do you think know about this vote by Bush in their name? How many do you think would have agreed with it? ”
————————-
Most Americans don’t know and for the time being most would agree with the vote.
The countries which voted no are locked in land use issues with their own indigenous peoples amongst other things.
For now , it is an important stride that many more Americans are aware of the lack of proper accounting for monies supposedly (paternalistically) held for First Americans from royalties for resource extraction on native lands. GWB and his cronies made such a hash of that that the dead fish popped to the top of the cesspool.
So many,many horrible things have been done in our name in the last 8 years we will be years sorting them out and trying to fix em.
I’m gonna go have soup…
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 15, 2009
at 9:12 AM
Greytdog, Thanks for including the study on suicide bombers. Well done and most informative.
By: AnnΔ on January 15, 2009
at 8:06 AM
sophie-
You have something at stake here which i cannot fathom.
I KNOW you meant the Lakota and Aim. It is not my story so I don’t tell it. I send warm coats when the Lakota ask through our local leaders.
I don’t send guns like in the middle east.
But if you characterize all First Americans the same , you are doing what you are asking others not to do. If you are interested only in that which supports your theory you are close to using the Lakota as poster children as Hamas uses everyday Palestinians..
I know about the UN thingy.
You are very aggressive about demanding something which I can get hold of but a piece.
Israel has made indefensible moves here and there- and within the nation has suffered terrible turmoil over what-to-do, but what do you want?
That they all just throw themselves on a sword?
sophie- We all of us in this country- have blood on our hands. You too. We have to try to figure out how to live past it and not take our kids there.
So do the folks in the mideast.
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 15, 2009
at 7:55 AM
Aloha Jean, Hale Aikane (home sharing friend), it’s a good Hawaiian name for this parlor of Margaret and Helen, filled with pies, great conversation, and the great kool-aid.
I enjoy your stories of Hurricane Iniki. It was a rough time, even the cell phones didn’t work because the towers were down. It was as if the island of Kauai was in blackout for days. We felt hopeless to help from here in Honolulu, and your son’s generator was worth gold back then.
Hurricane Iwa was nowhere near as disastrous as Iniki. It hit mostly the north shore side of Oahu, and some cars got caught up in mudslides into some condos, etc.
I like your analogy of hitting one’s head on a brick wall and how good it feels to stop. Glad I didn’t go around banging my head. For me it was more like having a constant screaming in my head, and now, the silence is bliss.
We all miss Helen and Margaret!!! Maybe they went to talk story with Obama since he is meeting with conservative as well as liberal and moderate pundits.
Sorry dear Alaskan friends for your blamey whiner of a governor. I wish our governor and she would just up and elope together since they seem to just love each other. (snap!)
By: Honolulu Sally on January 15, 2009
at 1:33 AM
Posted without comment:
New York Times
Wednesday, nine Israeli human rights groups called for an investigation into whether Israeli officials had committed war crimes in Gaza. The groups say that tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza have nowhere to flee, the Gaza health system has collapsed, many people are without electricity and running water, and some are beyond the reach of rescue teams.
“This kind of fighting constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of warfare and raises the suspicion, which we ask be investigated, of the commission of war crimes”
Δ
By: Whirled Peas Δ on January 15, 2009
at 1:20 AM
Back to ‘Getting the Bad Guys’
It helps if you know who they are.
Rescue Me
For background see my link on January 5, 2009 at 8:03 PM
PEACE ~ Δ
By: Whirled Peas Δ on January 15, 2009
at 1:09 AM
Alaska PI: how many Americans do you think know about this vote by Bush in their name? How many do you think would have agreed with it? (i stumbled across this yesterday)
http://www.iwgia.org/sw248.asp
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Updated 14 September 2007
UN General Assembly adopts the Declaration in September 2007
With an overwhelming majority of 143 votes in favour, only 4 negative votes cast (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United States) and 11 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly (GA) adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on September 13, 2007. The Declaration has been negotiated through more than 20 years between nation-states and Indigenous Peoples.
By: sophie on January 15, 2009
at 12:31 AM
Oops!
Got a few dropped words and typos in there. By now, I’m sure you can decipher my writing. I hope.
Aloha!
Jean
By: Jean on January 15, 2009
at 12:28 AM
Hi Gang,
I guess Helen and Margaret will be back when they get back. I do miss them tho.
Kindred spirit, Sally and/or ‘hale aikane’. (Did I say that right?) I d’know. Thanking Bush for his 8 rotten years just so we can look forward to a silver lining is somewhat like deliberately banging your head against a brick wall for 8 years because it feels SO GOOD when you stop. It will take some time for the bloody bruises to fade!
A few postscripts to my story of Hurricane Iniki. Whenever I see Waikiki or Ka’anapali on Maui, in the event of another major hurricane, all I see is the tall buildings going down like dominos. Fortunately, we don’t have them as often as the Gulf Coast. Wasn’t Hurricane Ewa ten years before Iniki? You would know about that better than I. It was before my time. What level was it?
Fortunately, Kauai has a nifty little ordinance prohibiting any building over four stories high. Naturally, developers have managed to weasel around the ordinance with two of the beautiful five star hotels here. (There are three.) The Princeville up here IS only four stories. However, it is built on the edge of a bluff with eight stories down the face of the bluff. You have to take an elevator eight floors DOWN to the beach. The Marriott in Lihue was originally a very old, old hotel with about six stories. The developer managed to get it grandfathered, gutted it and completely renovated it like new.
With the frequency of hurricanes, fires, earthquakes and disasters of every kind, this country is badly in of need strict building codes, infrastructure, and Civil Defense. Considering the time honored human propensity for corruption and graft, it is VITAL to have a well-informed public at the LOCAL level as well as the state and national levels.
It looks like it is going to fall on us old broads to take the vanguard in keeping SOME of the politicians out of mischief. We DON’T need Star Wars or anymore missile thingies. We seniors have more time to keep up on issues than the younger working people do.
A few postscripts about our adventures in the aftermath of Iniki. On our way down to Safeway to use the free phones, we swung by the home of some friends about a mile away. They were in Seattle and had left us the key. This was their ‘Dream House’. They were in Seattle settling their affairs so they could retire here. We didn’t need the key.
We just stepped through the shattered front sliding glass door. The house was a wreck, but, like ours, had kept its roof except for some shingles and tarpaper. We don’t know what prompted Martha to turn on the kitchen tap, but there was water!!!! No hot water. Still, cold water is wet!
Down at Safeway we had to stand in line up to two hours everyday to use the free phones for five minutes each. We met a lot of nice people that way, swapping horror stories, getting and giving tips on how to cope, how and where to scrounge around for stuff we needed. In retrospect, I guess it was a kind of informal therapy for all of us.
Our first call was to our son in CA. His wife told us he was stuck in Honolulu. He had hopped a plane as soon as they heard about the storm and knew we would need a generator. He had brought a small one as a carry-on. After the VIPs first and the emergency people got here, the radio had said they would let regular passengers come – when, we didn’t know. Proud COWA, we did a makeshift oral phone tree with our daughter-in-law to call family and friends and let them know were OK – sort of. Martha did the same with one of her daughters in the South.
Our second phone call was to our friends in Seattle. We didn’t have the heart to tell them what kind of shape their ‘Dream House’ was in. But of course they gave us the go ahead to use their house for COLD showers and to replenish our water supplies.
For the duration, we went down once a day with our dirty pots and pans, (we used paper plates), filled up our water receptacles and took turns in the showers. Many a time I stood there and asked myself before I turned on the COLD water, brrrrrrrrrrrr, was I really that dirty? Yep, I was. We were working almost around the clock doing the grunt work of cleaning up.
Between showers at their house, we were also sweeping up shattered glass that was EVERYWHERE. No vacuuming of course without electricity. The shattered glass came to be fondly known island-wide as ‘Iniki Diamonds’. (For YEARS we found those damn diamonds in nooks and crannies.) My husband worked outside hauling debris to the curb.
When we heard on the radio that they were letting regular passengers come over, we met every plane. Our son was astonished that we were there to meet him! Well, we couldn’t let him thumb it carrying a generator.
We had been cooking up as much of the food in the freezer as we could on the BBQ before it spoiled, until we ran out of coals. With the small generator, our son got the fridge going and we had ice!!!!!
That night we dined by candlelight out on the deck on sausage, two cans of green beans we heated up on the BBQ in a cake pan and sliced fresh mangos from the orchard. We had a CHILLED bottle of champagne left over from New Years. Our son said, “Gee, I don’t eat this well at home!”
Aloha!
Jean
P.S. I forgot about our contribution to the Red Cross. I’ll tell you about it next time. I promise to make it short!
By: Jean on January 15, 2009
at 12:19 AM
Alaska PI: i meant the AIM movement, and the treatment of the Lakota, and, the anger has not disappeared. There are 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza, how many do you think hold that level of anger? do you really think it is all Palestinians? A bunch of homemade rockets set off by who knows who is inflated into ‘lives lived in constant terror’ and the blame is assigned to “the Palestinian people” and they are demonized as a people? I don’t judge all rich people by the behavior of Bernie Madoff. There are idiots and dangerous people in any group (including our own families), but judging large groups by the actions of a few? That kind of fear and hatred and mistrust and broad brush got some innocent Lakotas hanged here about 150 years ago. And the Lakotas have not forgotten. And it got some innocent blacks hanged 100 years ago here by angry mobs. And the blacks have not forgotten. The whites? seems they have managed to forget.
By: sophie on January 15, 2009
at 12:12 AM
Greytdog: do i say this or not? your comments re: unwillingness to work, what has happened to the land … to a casual observer, it sounds remarkably similar to what used to be said of American blacks and Native Americans, and i wonder how much of it is based in frustration over the refusal of this particular minority to assimilate to European-based, value systems and way of life that transplanted there with Zionism? you speak of a clearly European farming culture seen as ‘valueless’ by the Palestinians who destroyed it; i’m reminded of the Watts riots and the shock expressed by whites of blacks destroying ‘their own’ businesses by fire; equally senseless, yet perhaps equally understandable? … Palestinians have been described here as nomads historically. (i do remember the picture of the elderly Palestinian woman trying valiantly to prevent Israeli tanks from destroying her olive grove, however).
Nobody wants refugees right now unless they can readily assimilate and have marketable job skills and extensive education. Just ask Syria re: iraqi refugees; they’ve even tried paying them to return – - they got zero takers. Does that have anything to do fundamentally with the refugees themselves? or rather the burden that they represent to the host country in rehabilitation and support costs long term. How long did it take for previous refugees to America to assimilate, under the best of circumstances and become self-sufficient? What’s been our track record here with recent refugees: the vietnamese, the Hmong, the Somalis, etc. It is not overnight in any case, but when the cultural divide is great, it can take how many generations under the best of conditions?
I’ve spoken with Egyptians, Iraqis, Iranians, Palestinians who have come to the US. One thing I know. It is not an easy road for any of them. And many of them come here hating the American government and what they see as the lack of a value system, a lack of respect for women, the failure of American society to financially support women and consign them to poverty. Sometimes, we bridge those misconceptions, sometimes we find agreement, sometimes we don’t. But until we establish a dialogue, bridging differences is out of the question. And maybe if we treated dysfunctional people we didn’t know with the same kindness we treat friends with PTSD we do know, we’d all be better off.
By: sophie on January 14, 2009
at 11:57 PM
“I can’t expect anyone who limits their understanding of the situation to what MSM and politicians in the US say.
But, perhaps, some of you who have experienced Native American movements being mis-represented, and its leaders unfairly portrayed might have a better ability to consider that something similar might be happening in the Mideast today?”
——————–
sophie-
I’ve been thinking about this for a few hours now and think maybe gramma rock should step in if there is anything about “Native American movements being mis-represented…” that needs addressing because First Americans in Alaska have never had anything resembling a movement.
We have had a few leaders who battled mightily and were misunderstood. But the whole picture here is entirely different than the mess in the mideast. So different on so many levels I’m not sure where to start…
Underlying it all , I think , is a staunch insistence by Alaska Natives for acceptance as human beings.
I do not see that as the underlying base of the poor Palestinian peoples- it is not similar.
Terrible damage has been done to First Americans here- physically, psychically,culturally- but the desire to maintain identity and humanity has kept folks moving forward.
There are places of anti-white feeling ( backlash)and certainly many who fall into drink and violence in despair…
One of my favorite cousins died 3 years ago of alcohol poisoning. Bobby was a gentle man who fell into despair over and over. He got shot at least twice shooting his mouth off in rough bars when he had had a few beers. Bobby died alone and in pain.
I don’t see any of that in the mideast mess- Egypt’s Nasser had a vested interest in keeping Palestinians in refugee status when so much of this started years ago and others in the region have followed over the years. I have Nasser’s anti-Israel polemic around here somehwere…
(With power problem we have now, turning on all the lights and finding it is an issue. We’ll know in a couple days what the avalanche repair plan is and an estimation of time and cost. We are FAR luckier than so many of our neighbors in having hydro power and a full backup if something happens AND the dollars to pay for it!!)
Whatever was the core of the Palestinian peoples’ life has died and fried on the altar of hatred-whatever community was once has been lost to ” the cause”- exterminating Israel.
Sorry- no similarities with Alaska Native causes…
I took that right, right- left, left test thingy as a lark recently. Found I live next door to where Mr Ghandi did… I keep looking to see if he left a key under the mat so I could look round his digs and maybe soak up some of his sense of identity and dignity.
I have a hunch the mothers and grandmothers in Chile borrowed it when they walked for their disappeared-ones . I wonder if they would send it to Palestinian mothers and fathers so they may walk for their babies…?
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 14, 2009
at 11:32 PM
http://www.juancole.com/2009/01/gaza-2008-micro-wars-and-macro-wars.html (a history that differs substantially from what Americans are being told)
Ann: (from JuanCole.com) “Nancy Kaminer of MIT can count and therefore so does her article. She demonstrates that after the Israel-Hamas truce was concluded in mid-June, 2008, for four months there were virtually no rockets fired at Israel. The rockets began again after two Israeli attacks that killed several Palestinians. Kaminer analyzes periods of mutual violence and relative calm in the past few years and finds that in 80% of the cases, it is Israel that has re-initiated the violence. Her well-grounded analysis demonstrates the falsehood of the allegations that it is impossible to deal with Hamas or that it has always been Hamas that has started the fighting.”
(an excerpt comparing tactics of neocons here v. Israeli political parties there): “Kadima examples: Israelis point to thousands of rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel, without mentioning that no Israelis had been killed by them during the truce stretching from mid-June, 2008 until December 26. That is, the prelude to the most violent Israeli attack on Gaza since 1967 was . . . not a single Israeli death at the hands of Hamas in the preceding half-year. And in 8 years, Hamas had killed about 15 Israelis with those home made rockets, during which time the Israelis had killed nearly 5000 Palestinians, nearly 1000 of them minors. The rockets were small, handmade affairs for the most part and most landed uselessly. Some did damage to property and a few wounded or killed people. That would be a legitimate assertion. But the quotation of “thousands” of rockets is a half-truth and intentionally misleading.”
Greytdog: i apologize. I get daily emails from juancole.com and the reference to the more radical group was contained somewhere in a post since the start of the incursion; he did not reference them by name. I’ve done what i can in the past hour to locate it, but suspect i deleted the email permanently.
It seems to me that everyone in that little spot of the world is so dysfunctional at this point (wonder what the rates of PTSD are on both sides) that they cannot solve it themselves. But i am watching the restraint of Iran and Hizbollah .. even actively preventing suicide bombers from leaving Iran for Gaza.
In any case, I am not well enough informed to be sure of much of anything. Just hate to see what sure looks like state terror to me being described as a ‘defensive’ action. And, particularly, when it is the American people who are being blamed ….
I also am reminded of something Tom Friedman said a while back about the Middle East: Arabs speak the truth in public and lie in private. Westerners speak the truth in private and lie in public. Any value to that observation or claim?
for a funny read by Robert Fisk, try this: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-curious-case-of-the-forged-biography-776775.html
By: sophie on January 14, 2009
at 11:07 PM
katmc-
The gov could care less about Alaskans- be they beluga whales, polar bears, Alaska Natives, or …
When she was running around the country with her drill-baby-drill team show Adak was suffering rolling power outages and fuel company refusing to deliver fuel. Turned out the utility was horribly managed, It had run up enormous unpaid fuel bills because the largest business customer was so far in arrears that there was no way for village to even pool money to pay it down enough to get more fuel.
There was a letter in the lil paper out there by a gal who just loves the gov and her philosophy. Ms Palinista, we-all-just-need-to-take-care-of-ourselves-and-not-look-to-govt-to-take-care-of-us, proposed that everyone abandon town electricity and get their own generators like she had. Oh goody- a bazillion lil engines running right next to houses… fire? fumes? noise? diesel generators NOT designed for anything more than emergency power backup being all that most could afford crapping out mid-winter?
The damn government agency which oversees utilities finally stepped up to do it’s job, Decertified the local utility, worked out fuel delivery and payment plans and , bingo, Adak was a town again.
I’m not sure the ghastly gov even knew about any of it but she sure charged around the country talking about what an energy queen she thinks she is…
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 14, 2009
at 10:11 PM
Getting ready to head out for the night – neighbor just came over with a couple of heaters for the men’s shelter downtown and a bunch of blankets. Car’s loaded, I’ve got my coffee – all is well.
An except from Obama’s letter to his girls:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/14/obamas-letter-to-his-daug_n_157875.html
“She (Toot) helped me understand that America is great not because it is perfect but because it can always be made better–and that the unfinished work of perfecting our union falls to each of us. It’s a charge we pass on to our children, coming closer with each new generation to what we know America should be.”
Stay warm. Stay healthy. Be happy. Only 5 more days.
By: Greytdog Δ on January 14, 2009
at 10:10 PM
Oh- re: critter warm/cold weather behavior-
I long ago decided such behavior was penance – we people types commit the sin of idolatry when it comes to our furry friends , over and over, and they demand we see them as REAL dogs and cats!
Catholic beginnings always show, hunh?
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 14, 2009
at 9:40 PM
The palin/Alaska story is linked on Huffpo too.
What THAT WOMAN is doing or not doing to help those people of hers should be a criminal act.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/a-cry-for-help-from-rural_b_157997.html
“Governor Sarah Palin has left the office of Rural Advisor vacant since early October.There isn”t an interim person……….”
“he did say that they hope to find somebody top fill the post soon, perhaps even in a month, but possibly not…………….”
“Meanwhile, Gov. Palin is using funds not being paid out for the rural Advisor post and several others that used to support village and Native infrastructure to increase staffing of her Anchorage office. The new positions are largely working on the rapidly growing public relations aspects of her job.
It may be Alaska”s fastest growing industry.”
By: katmc on January 14, 2009
at 9:31 PM
Greytdog said-
“i forwarded the link the Mudflats about Emmonak (and the lack of response from Palin) to K.O. and Rachel. Not sure if it will do any good, really, but they might take it up. ”
—————–
Oh- thank you! Having a terrible time staying connected tonight… keep trying to read or post and getting kicked off… busy here tonight! Whew.
Books, and critters, AND pie!
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 14, 2009
at 9:27 PM
troutay-
there is a link on this page below for direct help to villages too…
http://www.alaskanewspapers.com/newspapers.asp
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 14, 2009
at 8:54 PM
Charles, that’s an excellent book. Karen Armstrong is a fantastic scholar and writer.
And Pi, i forwarded the link the Mudflats about Emmonak (and the lack of response from Palin) to K.O. and Rachel. Not sure if it will do any good, really, but they might take it up. I really would like to see more action for the Native Americans from the Obama administration. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
And perhaps those of you with dogs will be able to answer this? Why is it, when the temps fall to cold, really cold, and beyond cold, dogs just have to go out then in out then in out again and then in? And why is it, when it gets really really hot and humid outside at night, why is that the one lousy night of the year all the cats have to come and sleep on your head, on your side, and across your legs trapping you under their furry HOT bodies while you drown in your sweat? But when it’s cold – fergitaboutit. Those critters ain’t anywhere to be found!
By: Greytdog Δ on January 14, 2009
at 8:53 PM
Heavy stuff. There but for the grace of God, go I.
Lucky we live Hawaii, eh Jean? We have our racial and class differences here, but NO where like the mid-east and the centuries of hatred between the Israelis, Palestinians, and everyone else who carries around a different Word of God.
I hope but I don’t think man has the answers or the solution. In their religious fervor and anger, it seems like neither side can act reasonably. Without trust and understanding, there can be no agreement. And with the death of each person; a mother, father, sister, brother, son, or daughter grieves and then learns to hate back.
Seems like we need another certified rep of God Almighty with a major big rubber band sling. Or with a Solomon-type judgement of threatening to make the Holy Land, Jerusalem, Mecca, or whatever it may be fall off the face of the earth.
I am sorry if this sounds trite, I have no first hand knowledge or connection to this terrible situation. All I know is that there are the differing sides and each has reason to be mad as hell. Each are both wrong and wronged.
It makes me cherish my American way of life.
By: Honolulu Sally on January 14, 2009
at 8:49 PM
Good History written by Karen Armstrong
The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
By: Charles on January 14, 2009
at 8:39 PM
troutay said-
“Please go to Mudflats blog and learn about what is happening in Emmonok Alaska.
Pi
What can we do??”
The info provided by AKM for Emmonak is good for a contact for direct assistance.
Emmonak is in the Calista Native Corporation and you can check here for contact info for Calista. They don’t seem to show shareholder-community services-help like mine so a phone call might be in order to see if there is larger help coming from parent corp to village corp…
It is probably best to follow AKM’s suggested route of assistance at this time.
http://fairbanks-alaska.com/alaska-native-corporations.htm
We are not going to discuss the ghastly gov’s lack of concern for her constituents at this time. I will have a heart attack… or stroke… most certainly become apoplectic…
By: Alaska Pi Δ on January 14, 2009
at 8:35 PM