October 31, 2007 - Are We Scared Yet?

It’s Halloween, the night when costumed little ones take the long and lonely walk up to houses of people they barely know, ring the doorbell and hope for the best. I can still remember the butterflies in the stomach, back when I was numbered in that company: the heady combination of exhilaration and fear.

Today, my role is limited to carving the jack-o-lantern. I try not to make him look too scary. He’s a sort of open-for-business sign, an invitation to the little ghosts and witches and ballerinas and football players to step up and dig some “fun-sized” chocolate bars out of the black-plastic witches’ cauldron.

Claire and I miss the days when our own kids were young enough to go trick-or-treating. Fewer and fewer kids stop at our door each year, it seems – despite our glowing pumpkin beacon. It has more to do with the fact that there are houses on only one side of our street, than anything else. These kids get smarter every year. They know the streets where they can maximize their take are those that have houses on both sides, and close together.

Maybe it’s because it’s Halloween, but today’s New York Times – responding to the recent anxieties about antibiotic-resistant bacteria – has a little article, called "How Scared Should We Be?", on the relative risks of dying from various things. Some of these comparisons are rather bizarre: such as the one that says you’re more likely to die from being bonked on the head by a falling coconut (150 cases a year, around the world) than being killed by a shark (62 cases in the United States).

Here’s a portion of a chart indicating various causes of death:

Heart disease: 652,486 deaths annually (1 in 5 risk)
Cancer: 553,888 deaths annually (1 in 7 risk)
Stroke: 150,074 deaths annually (1 in 24 risk)
Hospital infections: 99,000 deaths annually (1 in 38 risk)
Flu: 59,664 deaths annually (1 in 63 risk)
Car accidents: 44,757 deaths annually (1 in 84 risk)

Down at the lower levels, risks include:

Lightning: 47 deaths annually (1 in 79,746 risk)
Train crash: 24 deaths annually (1 in 156,169 risk)
Fireworks: 11 deaths annually (1 in 340,733 risk)

Am I scared, now, of dying of cancer? Not as much as I used to be. Part of that is because my prognosis is actually better, now, than it was, pre-treatment. But that’s not the whole story. When you live with this kind of threat for a while (and it’s now been nearly 2 years since my diagnosis), you do get used to it. It becomes part of the background noise.

Yeah, chances are pretty good that cancer’s what I’m going to die from, in the end. But, when will that end be? Hard to say. Indolent lymphoma takes its lazy old time, and typically lets itself get beaten back down into is hole numerous times, by a succession of treatments, before rearing up and doing its worst.

Bottom line is, I don’t have time to feel scared. I have things to do, people to see. Odds are, my disease’s progression is more likely to be spaced out over years (or, in the best case, decades) rather than months. So, I can put the fear off a while longer.

Happy Halloween!

Interesting maps of income and voting patterns in the USA

Immediately apparent is that if the poor had all the votes, Bush would have lost in 2002 - even in many "red states". To paraphrase Krugman, contrary to popular myth, The Democrats' base isn't the "latte liberals".

More interesting graphs and analysis here.

Via Creative Class

Ethiopia, Eritrea edging toward conflict - refugees watching with trepidation

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also:
- Ethiopia and the Newly released Econ. Competitiveness index*
- Today's Top Stories^Updated!
- INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
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Life presidencies are far from over in Africa (Financial Gazette)
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-AMNESTY: Ethiopians, Eritreans at risk of torture
-AMNESTY: Atanaw Wasie, aged 74, 14 other Ethiopian refugees
-LETTER TO PRIME MINSTER MELES ZENAWI (Sileshi Tesema, a colleague of Daniel and Netsanet, prisoners of conscience)
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Ex- TPLF members have formed a new party (Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty); which yesterday received license to operate in Ethiopia.

(VOA)
- AUDIO - Interview with founder Berhanu Berhe
- AUDIO - Interview with founder Gebru Asrat
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[CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO REPORT] - When Fitsum Berihu fled into Ethiopia, he risked death by hyenas, snipers and land mines. Two years later the 35-year-old Eritrean vividly recalls the fear he felt as he made his way through a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone and across the trenches and artillery lines of some of the tens of thousands of soldiers dug in on both sides of the divide.

Even worse than all that, though, was leaving behind his 72-year-old mother and two siblings. "I never told my family I was crossing the border," he says. "I never said goodbye." Berihu still doesn't know what happened to his family after he defected from the Eritrean Army. There are no phone or mail links between the neighbors, and he has had no way of keeping in touch.

So today he waits and hopes, one of more than 15,000 Eritreans stuck behind barbed wire and chain-link fencing at the Shimelba refugee camp in a remote corner of northern Ethiopia. It's a part of the world that is growing increasingly tense as the two countries seem to be gearing up to fight their second war in less than a decade. On Nov. 27 an international commission set up to resolve the long-running border dispute between the two nations is set to dissolve.(More...)

Also see:
-Eritrea says Ethiopia plotting to invade
-Ethiopia denies plot to attack Eritrea

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ETHIOPIA 123rd IN ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS

The United States tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008. Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Singapore, respectively.

At the bottom of the list were countries primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Chad.(See List)

Also See:
Website: The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008
US recaptures 'competition crown' (BBC)
US on Top in Economic Competitiveness (AP)
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Today's Top HEADLINES

-ETH. Govt. MEDIA SAYS REBELS KILL 23 ERITREAN TROOPS
-A brittle Western ally in the Horn of Africa
-U.S. BILL TO BAR INTERNET FIRMS FROM WORKING WITH ABUSIVE NATIONS
-Exiled Somali Islamist leader backs insurgents
-Ethiopia FM in Somalia to discuss political crisis
-Humanitarian disaster imminent in the Ogaden: Report
-Ethiopia, US Behind Somali PM Resignation
-Ethiopia: Azmari Bet: Taboo! Taboo!
-Ethiopia's 'Jerusalem' Major Draw for Pilgrims - VIDEO

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

-MONKS MARCH IN MYANMAR - AGAIN!
-Obama, Edwards go after Clinton during debate
-Accused Madrid bomb mastermind acquitted -
-Bomb on Russian Bus Kills at Least 8
-Doctors test hot sauce for pain relief
-Be thin to cut cancer, study says



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October 30, 2007 - Blind Men Meet Elephant

I read an insightful article today, a New York Times review of a new book, The Surgeons: Life and Death in a Top Heart Center, by Charles R. Morris (Norton). The review, by Pauline W. Chen, is built around an image that describes our ungainly health-care system: the familiar fable of the blind men and the elephant.

The story originated long ago in India. It’s been immortalized in poetic form by a nineteenth-century Englishman, John Godfrey Saxe:

It was six men of Indostan,
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The poem goes on to tell how each of the blind men walks up to just one part of the beast. One, touching its side, imagines the elephant as being like a wall. Another, running his fingers along the tusk, describes the elephant as like a spear. Still another, handling the trunk, thinks it like a snake. And so on, and so on. None of them comprehends the big picture.

The poem concludes with these stanzas:

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean;
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

It’s a suitable reproof for those who approach questions of religious dogma with false surety, born of fragmentary experience. Chen, the Times reviewer, deftly applies the story to two aspects of the broken health-care system in our country. The first is the problem – familiar to many patients who have spent time in a hospital receiving multiple tests – of too many specialists and not enough general practitioners. Each specialist concentrates on his or her part of the body. Too often, it’s up to the family-practice physician – the doctor with the least-exalted position in the medical pecking-order, and therefore the least clout – to oversee the patient’s overall treatment and head off problems such as drug interactions and tests whose results cancel each other out.

The second way Chen uses the blind-men-and- the-elephant story is with reference to the competing financial interests – doctors, hospital administrators, insurance executives, pharmaceutical salespeople, attorneys, legislators and others – who are scrambling over each other to carve out their own, individual piece of the health-care pie.

Who looks out for the integrity of the whole system? Too often, no one.

Very often, success in medical treatment is built on mastery of details. That’s why we have specialists. They have the intellect and training to sweat the details.

Yet, there’s also a place – an especially important place – for those with the inductive-reasoning ability to synthesize the details and glimpse the big picture.

Chen concludes by mentioning an “artisanal” value system Morris identifies in his book. The persistence of this value system, despite all the external factors that are assaulting it, is critical to the success of the American health-care system. It’s a time-honored professional value, “one that has little to do with institutional allegiances or administrative management objectives, but rather with ‘internalized systems of ethics and the expectations of other professionals.’ And that, at least for now... may be the part of the elephant that saves us all.”

Artisans in medicine. May their tribe increase.

Ethiopia, US Behind Somali PM Resignation: Analyst

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also:
- Today's Top Stories
- Somalia's President Names New Premier
- INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
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Ken Menkhaus, Somali expert and professor of political science at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.

“This was a long time in coming and what finally prompted the resignation was unquestionably Ethiopian pressure. This was Ethiopia’s game. They were making the decision as to who would stay and who would go in the TFG.

They were trying to manage the long running split between President Abdullahi Yusef and Prime Minister Gedi. And in the end I think they came to understand that Gedi had to be replaced,” he says.

[AUDIO REPORT]

Asked whether United States pressure played any role in the resignation, Menkhaus says, “I suspect there was. In Nairobi, the donor community in general has for quite some time reached the conclusion that the primary obstacle to negotiations toward a more inclusive Transitional Federal Government was Gedi himself. And for an obvious reason. Gedi stood an excellent chance of losing his job if power were shared with the opposition.”(More...)

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Also see:
-VOA REPORT: Delegation's final Public Meeting - AUDIO
-ETN REPORT: Delegation's final Public Meeting - VIDEO
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Today's Top HEADLINES

-Weekend fighting drove 36000 from Somali capital-UN
-Reports of killed Ethiopian soldiers begin to filter through
-Foundation Honors Journalists (U.S. Department of State)
-VIDEO - JOURNALISTS AND PRESS FREEDOM IN ETHIOPIA
-Red Cross repatriates 885 from Ethiopia and Eritrea
-Haile ‘Focused’ On Setting New World Benchmark In Dubai

SOMALIA'S PRESIDENT NAMES NEW PREMIER

Somalia's president named a caretaker prime minister on Tuesday, a day after the outgoing premier lost a power struggle in the government and resigned. Officials said Salim Aliyow Ibrow (Seen here), will temporarily replace Ali Mohamed Gedi.(More...)

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

THE DEMOCRATIC TARGET IN TUESDAY’S DEBATE

In an interview last week, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois telegraphed his intention to sharpen his distinctions with Mrs. Clinton. At the same time, though, he said he had no plans to “kneecap the front-runner.”(More...)

-Thinktank accuses Saudi regime over hate literature
-Bomber Strikes Within a Mile of Musharraf
-Russia to file Arctic claim to U.N. this year
-AIDS virus invaded U.S. from Haiti: study




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(10.29.07) Recommends:

(Really) Free (Not Really) Secret Sigur Ros Show.



In order to get a wrist band for this free show you must show up at Amoeba in Hollywood between 6-9pm tomorrow. And as luck would have it, you were already planning on being there for the free Sondre Lerche in-store performance.

Who says LA is an expensive town?

Tories say "nanner nanner" to Scary Veiled Women

New bill to ban veiled voters

October 27, 2007

OTTAWA -- The Harper government yesterday introduced legislation requiring all voters - including veiled Muslim women - to show their faces before being allowed to cast ballots in federal elections.

This same manufactured controversy is getting old.

Do I have to bring out the parable of the old lady and the biker again?

Some sectors of the population just love it when the mainstream legitimizes their bigotry. And politicians long ago discovered that they earn popularity points with them whenever they do or say something against marginalized minorities. Scapegoating can be good for the polls. The power differential means the bullies can have their way; how many Muslim women will get to vote on this bill?

Mogadishu Erupts as Reports of killed Ethiopian soldiers begin to filter through

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

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Also:
- Prime minister Ghedi quits - SOMALIA
- Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of plotting to invade, Ethiopia denies
- Egypt Announces Nuke Power Plants Plans*
- INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
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-VIDEO - JOURNALISTS AND PRESS FREEDOM IN ETHIOPIA
-VOA REPORT: Sunday's Kinijit Public Meeting - AUDIO
-ETN REPORT: Sunday's Kinijit Public Meeting - VIDEO
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(Hundreds of Somalis take part in angry protest against Ethiopian troops as the Somali capital sank further into violence.Sunday, October 28, 2007.(AFP/Mustafa Abdi)
MOGADISHU: Hundreds of protesters demanding the departure of government-allied Ethiopian troops burned tires and threw stones Sunday in the Somali capital as some of the worst violence in months continued for a second day.

Ethiopian troops fired toward protesters after several hundred Somalis — many of them women and children — took to the streets shouting anti-Ethiopian slogans, erecting burning barricades and tossing rocks, witnesses said.(More...)

Also see:
-Somali insurgents kill 3 Ethiopia soldiers
-Seven Ethiopian soldiers killed: Shabelle
-Ethiopian troops fire on protesters - witness
-Street battles rage in Mogadishu

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SOMALIA: Prime minister quits; violence rocks Mogadishu

Ali Mohamed Gedi has resigned as Somalia's prime minister after an ongoing power struggle between him and the country's president Abdullahi Yusuf Hassan. "He handed in his letter this morning and the president has officially accepted his resignation," minister of information Madobe Nuunow Mohamed told IRIN.(More...)

Also see:
Ethiopian Govt. reaction on Ghedi's resignation -
Profile: Ali Mohamed Ghedi -
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Eritrea says Ethiopia plotting to invade before the November deadline

Signing ceremony for the peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea in Algiers, Algeria on December 12, 2000. Seated left to right are President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. (UN Photo)

Eritrea accused arch-foe Ethiopia on Saturday of plotting to invade the Red Sea state ahead of a late-November deadline to mark their disputed border on maps.

In an online statement on Saturday, the Asmara government said its security agents had uncovered a plot by Addis Ababa. "Intelligence agencies ... say that (Ethiopia) is intending to launch an invasion against Eritrea in the first week of November 2007 with the blessing of the U.S. Administration," the statement said.(More...)

Also see:
-Ethiopia denies plot to attack Eritrea
-Ethiopia-Eritrea Trade Blame on Boundary Dispute - AUDIO
-War brews on the new frontier
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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

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Egypt Announces Nuke Power Plants Plans

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday announced plans to build several nuclear power plants, joining several Arab countries in the Middle East that recently have broadcast their own atomic energy ambitions.

Mubarak said in a speech broadcast live on national television that the decision to build these nuclear power stations was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve the country's oil and gas reserves for coming generations.(More...)
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-Argentina's first lady sweeps to presidency
-PHOTOS: Female Leaders Around the World
-French Held Over Darfur 'Adoptions'
-Olmert Says He Has Prostate Cancer
-Alleged Blackmail Plot Against British Royal




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(10.29.07) Recommends:

More David Dondero Youtube Videos.

It's been all David Dondero all the time around here lately. This might not stop for a while. You people need to buy his albums and attend his shows.

(10.28.07) Recommends:

David Dondero, "My Fuse Is Lit."

So last time we spoke we were hyping the David Dondero/Richard Buckner show at Spaceland in Silver Lake. Dondero played this song. It was eerie. Evocative. Provocative. Angry. Sad. Goose bumps.

The world around us rarely makes sense and we turn to art for some kind of explanation or some sense of comfort or at least a sign that we're not the only ones who feel the way we feel. This song doesn't offer an explanation or a sense of comfort, but we do feel less alone in the world when we hear it. And there's comfort in that, we suppose.

The version performed last night seemed to have more lyrics, but here's a version of the song performed earlier this year.

October 27, 2007 - Carrying Death in the Body

This morning, in the nowhere-land between sleeping and waking, a scripture verse comes to me. I've learned to pay attention to the thoughts that slide across the surface of my mind during such a time, which is often a riot of creative ideas.

The verse is, "always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our bodies." I feel a clear conviction, during that sleepy time, that the verse has something to do with my cancer.

After I awaken, I look up the citation. It's 2 Corinthians 4:10. The full context is as follows:

"But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you." (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

Were I ever called upon to preach a sermon about cancer, this passage would be a pretty good place to start. Having cancer is like carrying death around in our bodies. But – looking at it in a spiritual, rather than in a merely medical way – it's not just any death. It's the death of Jesus.

It's a cross. That's what cancer is: a cross we have to bear. Elsewhere in the Bible, Jesus himself exhorts his followers to be cross-bearers: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). A cross is a weighty burden, to be sure. Yet, Jesus promises us, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29-30).

I remember reading, somewhere or other, a caution connected with the verse about cross-bearing. "Don't apply it to just any variety of suffering," some biblical scholar or other was warning (I'm paraphrasing, here). "The cross was an instrument of unjust oppression, so that verse shouldn't be used as an all-purpose answer to any suffering, especially not illness. The cross-bearing language ought to be reserved for political oppression – and, not just any oppression, but suffering accepted voluntarily by the victims as an act of public witness."

OK, if we're splitting theological hairs, I can buy that, but it still opens up worlds of meaning for me to view physical illness as a sort of cross. I suppose even Paul's thinking along similar lines as he speaks of "carrying in the body the death of Jesus." No, cancer wasn't inflicted on me by some persecutor. And no, I didn't choose to accept it. Whether or not I would have said, "OK, bring it on," would have made not one bit of difference as to whether or not I got sick. Yet, when it comes to long-term, chronic illness, we patients all reach the point when we discover we do have a choice. We can either choose to be victims, letting the illness drag us along passively, or we can reach out and actively shoulder our burden.

It's a sort of judo move. Practitioners of this martial art learn, early on, that a tried-and-true way to victory is to move in the direction your opponent is moving. Is your adversary throwing a punch? Don't meet the blow head-on. Rather, grab hold of his wrist and pull it towards you, but slightly away from your body. Your enemy will be suddenly unbalanced, and you will triumph.

Taking up a cross is kind of like that. When Jesus, in Gethsemane, prayed, "if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not what I want but what you want," he was practicing a sort of judo move against the forces of death (Matthew 26:39). When he stood before Pilate, baffling the hard-bitten Roman governor by his resolute and impassive acceptance, he was practicing a similar move (Matthew 27:14). When he died with such dignity that his head executioner declared, in wonder, "Truly this man was God's son," the forces of evil were thrown to the mat (Matthew 27:54).

Yet all this is just about dying well. There's more, in the Christian gospel. Much more. The ultimate miracle, of course, is that God declared final victory over death by raising Jesus from the grave.

It's comforting, on a simple human level, to realize that Jesus knew suffering. If Jesus is the son of God, then that means God is no stranger to human life, its agonies as well as its joys.

A stanza from a contemporary hymn comes to mind:

"Not throned above, remotely high,
untouched, unmoved by human pain,
but daily in the midst of life,
our Savior with the Father reigns."

("Christ Is Alive!" by Brian Wren)

"Daily, in the midst of life," Jesus Christ dwells in our midst. We carry within our bodies his death: whether it's rapidly-mutating cancer cells, or the slow death from old age that comes eventually to even the healthiest among us.

One of the great secrets to living is how we choose to respond to that realization.

October 25, 2007 - Showing Up

Woody Allen once quipped that "95% of life is showing up." Today I earn a handsome certificate of merit, just for showing up.

It's my 25th reunion at Princeton Theological Seminary. At the luncheon, I'm called forward to receive an elegantly-printed piece of paper, declaring that the seminary and its Alumni/ae Association "pay tribute to the faithful ministry of Carlos E. Wilton."

Now, in case any of you may be thinking I've just won the ministerial equivalent of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, let me make it clear that every member of the Class of 1982 received one of these things. There were about eight of us there, out of a class of maybe a hundred or so. All we had to do, to be so honored 25 years after our graduation, was to keep breathing – that, and show up at the reunion.

The 50th reunion class outdid us in that regard. Judging from the number of reserved tables in the dining hall with "1957" placards on them, they had four or five times the number of classmates turn out. Sure, these people are all retired, and have a little more discretionary time to pull up stakes and travel, but I think there's something deeper going on here.

I can tell, from paging through my old student photo directory and recalling the stories I’ve heard, that quite a number of the men and women I graduated with are no longer in parish ministry. Some got caught in the cross-fire of church conflicts. Tired of dodging bullets, they got up one day and simply walked off the field of battle. Others committed ethical lapses of the financial or sexual kind. Still others – many of the bright women who trailblazed their way into seminary in the 1970s and 1980s – discovered that the congregations that welcomed them as earnest young associate pastors weren’t so eager, a few years later, to invite them as seasoned professionals to sit down behind the pastor’s desk. Tired of gazing up at the “stained-glass ceiling,” they left for other occupations. As for the rest of those graduates who are now MIA, I suppose they just drifted away, for whatever reason.

Judging from the number of tables set aside for the Class of 1957, I don't think there are so many MIA ministers in that group. At their graduation, they were pretty much all young men in their twenties, so there was no sexism or ageism to contend with. They started out doing ministry in Eisenhower's America – probably the most congenial time in history for mainline Protestants. True, they persisted through the turbulent sixties and seventies, but the church in that era – while assailed from without – still had plenty of internal momentum to keep it going. By the time the eighties and nineties rolled around, and church-leadership pundits started pontificating about "the end of Christendom" – meaning, by that, the end of the unofficial Protestant establishment in America – these people were already at or slightly past mid-career, so there was little question they would stay the course, no matter how unbreathable the atmosphere seemed to be getting outside the ecclesiastical airlock.

When I think of what I’ve been through, medically, in the past couple of years, I realize how easily I could have become one of the MIA ministers. If my cancer had been of a less easily-treatable form, I might not have been able to jump in the car and drive over to Princeton to pick up my one-size-fits-all, suitable-for-framing certificate.

I suppose I could treat it as my diploma from the School of Cancer. I’m not done with that instruction, by any means – I’m enrolled in a few graduate courses, at the moment – but I feel like I’ve finished with full-time studies for now. (And a good thing it is, too, that I can say that.)

A number of friends at the reunion, from various class years, know of my health situation and ask me about it. A surprising number of them have discovered this blog somehow, and visit it from time to time. After I give them the lowdown on my general condition – how I’m out of remission but in “watch and wait” mode – I find myself saying how much cancer has taught me. It’s true. It’s been one of the most formative experiences of my life (although not one I’d wish on anyone).

No one offers you a certificate of merit when you finish chemotherapy. But, they should.

(10.26.07) Recommends:

David Dondero.

Wow. We cannot believe that it is 2007 and we're only just now being exposed to David Dondero. We live in an era of refrigerators and fax machines and internets and we're really just now finding out about this? Amazing. You're gonna take one listen to the mp3 we're offering today and you're gonna say, "Hmmmm, this voice really, really reminds me of a certain young troubadour from Omaha." And then you, like us, will wiki David Dondero. And then you, too, won't believe that it's 2007 and you're only now learning of the connection. Unless -- and this is entirely possible now that we've actually thought about it -- you are much hipper than us and already know about David Dondero, in which case we're gonna have to ask why the eff you didn't bring this gentlemen to our attention sooner?

Well, enough wondering already. Because for those of us in Los Angeles, we've got quite a treat this weekend. Not only is Mr. Dondero in town, but he's opening for Richard Buckner -- a true hero of this blog -- at Spaceland. More info here.

So, if you're in LA and you know us, come on out. If you're in LA and you've somehow stumbled upon this blog, come out and let's meet. We like meeting new people. By the time the show starts, KU will possibly be 8-0 in football and moving up in the BCS ratings. Writing that is almost as insane as not finding out about David Dondero until now.

So, check 'em out, saddlecreekers:

David Dondero -- Rothko Chapel -- mp3.

More to hear at his Myspace.

And I Thought my Bike Commute was Bad

Every time I travel on somewhere my bike I experience the heart-pounding feeling of impending death, and plenty of frustration. It seems Torontonians, especially the uptownians, have not yet realized their beloved car culture is dying. My bike commute usually consists of at least a handful of the following: people honking randomly at me as if to say "what are you doing on MY ROAD?", the delivery vehicles in the bike lanes, the cars stopped in the no-stopping-zones, the drivers too lazy to signal their lane change, the three or four cars that go through every red light, and the bike lanes with a 4 lanes of traffic and a raised streetcar right-of-way in the middle (St. Clair & Poplar Plains). Or I get caught in traffic because some impatient yahoo in a huge car wondering what's the blockage ahead (not considering that the blockage is more huge CARS) has to pull all the way over to the right to have a look, leaving not enough inches for wee little me and my wee little bike to get through.

But, I must say, my commute has NOTHING on this guy's.

(10.25.07) Recommends:

House Passes Health Bill but Gains No Republican Votes.

For One Brief, Shining Moment...

... I came up in the Google blog search under "Laura Bush Breast". I had a whole bunch of perverts find this post on Laura Bush's breast cancer tour. I guess they were disappointed. I'm afraid it wasn't very sexy, what with the lack of boobs and all. Here, try these posts instead.

(10.25.07) Recommends:

House to Vote on New Child Health Bill.

(10.25.07) Recommends:

The Onion v. Pitchfork.

(10.24.07) Recommends:

The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir.



It seems like every week we've been putting up new Bloodshot releases. Well, Bloodshot must be employing press release writers whose aim is specifically to get us and those like us to bite on these bands. Because when we get the following in our inboxes, our electronic ears perk up:

Chicago-based chamber pop collective The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir aren’t your typical debauched rock stars reveling in a pastiche of self-destructive clichés. Leading a band that’s shared the stage with both the Arcade Fire and Ira Glass, Spoon and Dave Eggers, it’s clear that lead singer, guitarist, and keyboard player Elia and his scrappy group are comfortable straddling the divide between the debased rock ‘n’ roll world and the high-minded literati. As it turns out, both shoes fit. Not content with merely performing with some of the most notable names in independent music, the band has explored their connections with the literary and theatrical worlds, performing with Eggers, DeRogatis, This American Life’s Glass, author Joe Meno, and Saturday Night Live regular Fred Armisen.

And Aspidistra was the accompanying track. We like it. So up it goes. There's more to get into at the bands myspace page.

Oh, and speaking of Myspace. As we're sure you've heard by now, today Microsoft threw a large chunk of change for a 1.6 pct stake in Facebook. We particularly liked the following quote from this Times article:

Mr. [Lee] Lorenzen and other Silicon Valley investors are often dismissive of MySpace, Facebook’s larger rival, which has more than 110 million active users and is owned by the News Corporation. “MySpace is not based on authentic identities. Facebook is based on who you really are and who your friends really are. That is who marketers really want to reach, not the fantasy you that lives on MySpace and uses a photo of a model,” he said.

We laughed -- literally LOL'd -- when we read this. We used to be embarrassed by Myspace. But at some point we learned to stop fearing it, and embraced it. Outside of Rhapsody, we're not sure there's a better tool for discovering new music than Myspace. And that's why we think the VC following world is missing the boat with their recent, incessant Myspace bashing.

Ethiopia's Serkalem: I Will continue to speak out even if I pay with My life

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also:
- Panel discussion on the Kinijit Crisis (VOA)
- Today's Top HEADLINES
- INTERNATIONAL news
- San Diego's Inferno: Relief Ahead?

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^* ETHIOPIAN AMERICAN CIVIC ADVOCACY (EACA): LETTER TO SENATOR JIM INHOFE

^* OBANG ON SENATOR INHOFE’S SPEECH
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Note: Readers are encouraged to FAX senator Inhofe's office demanding an apology for his offensive remarks about Ethiopia/Africa.

-Sample letter to fax to Sen. Inhofe’s office
-Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam's letter to Senator Inhofe
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LISTEN TO AUDIO REPORT ON THE AWARD CEREMONY AND SERKALEM’S SPEECH (VOA)
(Picture - Serkalem (Center) did not come to New York to receive her courage award. In a video taped message, she said that despite widespread fear in her country, she would continue to speak out - even if she pays with her life.)
AP - Six women who risked their lives reporting in Iraq, a Mexican reporter who faced death threats for her reporting on pedophiles, and an Ethiopian journalist who was charged with treason received awards for courage Tuesday from the International Women's Media Foundation.

Ethiopian reporter and former publisher Serkalem Fasil, 27, was one of 14 journalists who were arrested and charged with treason for publishing articles critical of the government's conduct in May 2005 parliamentary elections.

On the day of her arrest, Fasil, who was two months pregnant, was severely beaten by police. She was freed in April, but the government brought new charges against her three months later, and her case is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court next month.

Fasil did not come to New York. In a video, she said that despite widespread fear in the country, she would continue to speak out _ even if she pays with her life.

Mexican Lydia Cacho, 44, a correspondent for CIMAC news agency, said Mexico is the second-most dangerous place for journalists in the world, only after Iraq. But she said in her acceptance speech that she "will not be silenced."

The foundation presented its lifetime achievement award to freelance journalist Peta Thornycroft, 62, who in the face of a media crackdown in Zimbabwe renounced her British citizenship and became a Zimbabwe citizen so she could continue reporting from the country.

The Washington-based International Women's Media Foundation was launched in 1990 with a mission to strengthen the role of women in the news media worldwide.

Also see:
-Journalists from Iraq, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mexico Honored
-Female Journalists Honored for Courage
-Journalists Honored in New York

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AUDIO – VOA Panel discussion on the Kinijit Crisis

Engineer Seyoum Gebeyehu
Professor Berhanu Abegaz
Dr. Berhanu Mengistu
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ETHIOPIA RE-ERECTS ANCIENT AXUM OBELISK

Ethiopia started re-erecting its famed Axum obelisk 30 months after it returned to the country from Italy where it stayed for 70 years, a UN expert said Wednesday. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which is overseeing the operation, said preliminary work to restore the 1,700-year-old obelisk on its original site has been completed.(More...)
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AUDIO - SIYE ABRAHA VOA INTERVIEW (PART 2)
AUDIO - Dr. BERHANU NEGA VOA INTERVIEW (PART 2)
VIDEO - BIRTUKAN MIDEKSA MINNEAPOLIS SPEECH
AUDIO - SIYE ABRAHA VOA INTERVIEW (PART 1)
AUDIO - Dr. BERHANU NEGA VOA INTERVIEW (PART 1)
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Today's Top HEADLINES

-Ethiopia Faces New Millennium, Uncertain of Future - VIDEO
-Ethiopia PM in opposition warning
-Congressman Smith's Speech on Ethiopia
-N.J. lawmaker battles Ethiopia (govt.)
-ONLF says killed another 250 on 2nd day of fighting
-PM Meles rejects rebel claims of deadly attacks
-Bending truth about history (Prof. Mammo Muchie)
-Ethiopian dissidents receive warm welcome
-Ethiopian opposition leader in US to return home
-PAP receives petitions from Kinjit S.A
-Mesfin on H.R. 2003
-ASYLUM FOR ERITREAN GOSPEL SINGER
-Beyonce in Ethiopia - VIDEO
-MOZAMBIQUE EX-PRES. WINS AFRICA GOVERNANCE PRIZE

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

SAN DIEGO'S INFERNO: RELIEF AHEAD?

TIME - Relief may be in sight for one of the most challenging wildfires in southern California's history. The flames are still burning out of control in the San Diego area, where more than 500,000, perhaps as many as 950,000, have been evacuated and hundreds of home destroyed. But the hot desert winds that fueled the flames began to ease Tuesday night, giving hope that the quick westerly progress of the fire would finally slow. (More...)

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Stephen Colbert Moves Ahead of Richardson, Closes in on Biden, in National Poll

He's been "in" the race for less than a week, and already faux-pundit Stephen Colbert has surged ahead of longtime candidate Gov. Bill Richardson in one national poll gauging the race for the Democratic nod for president. And watch out Joe Biden!(More...)

Also see:
Colbert Ahead of 3 Democrats in Presidential Poll-
Poll Tries to Measure Colbert Effect-
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-Mafia Largest Segment of Italian Economy, Business Group Says
-Behind South Africa's Reggae Murder
-US might delay missile defense
-China unveils likely successors to top posts
-Toyota's Sales Numbers A Relief For GM
-Looking for attractive people? Don't go to...



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(10.23.07) Recommends:

White Rabbits.

So the transition to moving to a new city and a new neighborhood has been made smooth due pretty much exclusively to the generous and large-hearted people who we know. They've cooked us meals. They've invited us over to play Scrabble. They've invited us out to shows. Frankly, we're still trying to figure out what we bring to the table and why these generous people continue to return our phone calls, and reply to our text messages and emails. But in the mean time, we'll just go with it. So the latest in our burgeoning list of cool things to which cooler-people-than-we have invited us was to see Tokyo Police Club at the El Rey.

Long time readers will remember that we've been batting our eye lashes at TPC for a while now. They were, we're happy to report, really fantastic live.

But before they hit the stage, White Rabbits had the place up and dancing. We had not heard of White Rabbits before tonight, but we have a feeling they're gonna be a pretty indispensable part of our music collection going forward. And I'm not saying this just because they're quasi-hometown homies -- they got their start in Columbia, Mo. They had the crowd whipped into a frenzy, and anytime an opening band can do this, attention must be paid.

There's very few things we enjoy more than walking into a show, completely unaware of a band, and walking away converts.

It happened tonight. Check 'em out for yourself.

October 24, 2007 - Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture"

I'm still pondering a segment of the Oprah Winfrey show I watched on Monday.

I'm not in the habit of watching Oprah (nor any other daytime TV show, for that matter), but I did set my TiVO to catch this one. I did so because I'd read in Kris Carr's Crazy, Sexy Cancer blog that she'd scored a guest invitation to this mother of all daytime talk shows. I wanted to see if she had anything new to say.

Oprah's theme that day was what the dying have to teach us. About a third of the show was devoted to Kris, and the rest to Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Personally, I found Kris' segment less interesting (not because of any shortcoming in her presentation, but because I'd heard much of it before, viewing her film). Randy was quite a different matter. This was the first time I'd heard of him – despite the fact that videos of a lecture he gave at Carnegie-Mellon are all over the internet, and he's been featured in news articles and on several other network talk shows and news broadcasts.

Randy's got pancreatic cancer, and the doctors are giving him 2-3 months to live. You wouldn't know it from looking at him – he looks the picture of health. He even did some one-armed push-ups, just to demonstrate how fit he is.

Yet, beyond a doubt, Randy is dying – even though he's experiencing few symptoms right now, and has no pain. He's already had a Whipple operation – a radical re-sectioning of his stomach, liver, intestines and other internal organs – as a last-ditch effort to buy a little time. In a few months, his liver will cease to function, the cancer will spread to surrounding tissue in his back, his intestines will shut down and he'll experience severe, unremitting pain (although much of that can probably be mitigated by narcotics, provided he's willing to sacrifice his mental acuity).

It's about the worst diagnosis imaginable. But, that's pancreatic cancer for you. It's a stealth cancer that almost always evades detection until it's too late, then brings on a swift and painful death. In the various support groups I've been part of, I've watched how people who can glibly discuss all manner of grisly treatments and side effects fall into a respectful silence when the words "pancreatic cancer" are mentioned. There's so little hope of recovery.

Carnegie-Mellon evidently has a distinguished faculty lecture series known as "The Last Lecture." Those invited to speak in this venue are challenged to imagine they have but one final lecture to give, on the topic of their choice – then, to deliver it. Randy is the first lecturer in this series for whom the instructions are no mere thought- experiment. For him, they're all too real.

He gave the lecture, he says, not so much for the university, as for his three small children. They're so young that, as they grow up, they will have only fuzzy memories of what he was like, personally. This videotaped lecture is his one, best chance to record for them the principles by which he has sought to live his life.

Oprah had Randy deliver a Reader's Digest version of his one-hour lecture on her show. You can view the whole lecture elsewhere on the internet, but the Oprah mini-version is here:



Cancer – especially pancreatic cancer – is the most demanding teacher ever. Randy's done a real service to his fellow human beings, in refusing to bow before this teacher's brutally harsh discipline. Rather, he has wrested the lesson from his disease's icy grasp and shared it with us.

Thanks, Randy.

White Woman in a Pant Suit Rescues the Dark Masses

This article which I noticed while writing my last post annoyed me so much I though it deserved its own post.

Laura Bush helps women in Saudi Arabia
First lady Laura Bush helped launch a screening facility in Saudi Arabia Tuesday as part of a U.S.-Saudi initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in the kingdom where doctors struggle to break long-held taboos about the disease.

Bush's trip to Saudi Arabia, her first to the oil-rich kingdom, is part of a regional tour that aims to highlight the need for countries to share resources and unite in the fight against breast cancer.

"Breast cancer does not respect national boundaries, which is why people from every country must share their knowledge, resources and experience to protect women from this disease," Bush said in a speech at the King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh.

Course we don't expect American pharmaceutical companies to share their knowledge, resources, and treatment drugs.

"The cure for breast cancer can come from a researcher in Washington or a young doctor in Riyadh," she added.

Well shut my mouth! They have doctors in the desert?

Bush, who wore a navy blue pant suit, arrived in Riyadh from the United Arab Emirates, her first Mideast stop. Visiting female dignitaries are not required to don the traditional black cloak that all women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public. She was greeted by Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, the king's son, who is honorary president of the Saudi Cancer Society.

She's so modern and advanced, she wears PANTS! But hey, I want to know what the prince wore, too.

Bush visited the Abdul-Latif cancer screening center, the country's first, where she met with Saudi women affected by breast cancer.

She later witnessed the signing the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research agreement at a packed auditorium at the King Fahad Medical City.

Saudi became the third country to take on the program, which was organized by the State Department and includes the Susan G. Komen Foundation with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, Johns Hopkins Medicine in Maryland, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Before the agreement was signed, Dr. Samia al-Amoudi, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in April, spoke about the pain she felt when her 10-year-old daughter asked her if she would one day be stricken with the same disease.

She said she told her daughter "hopefully you will be able to tell your children there was once a disease called breast cancer that killed women, but it no longer is the problem it once was."

Al-Amoudi, a gynecologist, said about 70 percent of breast cancer cases in Saudi Arabia will not be reported until they are at a very late stage, compared with 30 percent or less in the U.S. She also said 30 percent of Saudi patients are under 40 years old.

Al-Amoudi said many of the hurdles in Saudi Arabia are not medical. For instance, until recently, it was widely considered socially improper to refer to the disease by name in the kingdom, she said.

"People would refer to breast cancer as 'the bad disease' or 'that disease,'" said al-Amoudi.

"But today, when we talk to the highest levels of authority or are speaking in front of all kinds of media about this issue we name the disease for what it is: breast cancer," she added.

I don't know about you but I think women like this doctor are doing an amazing job on their own. Personally I'd rather hear more of what she has to say. First of all, becoming a doctor (getting through med school) is a hell of an accomplishment for anyone. She is providing essential services to women in her community. She is speaking out despite fear of reprisal (in this context, speaking the name "breast cancer" publicly is an act of bravery). Having the First Lady of America supporting your cause can bring helpful media attention, can maybe even exert pressure on the Saudi state, but how sad is it that women like al-Amoudi are eclipsed by a White Western Wealthy Wife?

Dr. Abdullah al-Amro, head of the King Fahad Medical City, said that almost one-fifth of all women with cancer in Saudi Arabia have breast cancer.

Bush, whose mother and grandmother suffered from breast cancer, was also scheduled to meet with King Abdullah and with breast cancer survivors during her visit. She will then travel to Kuwait, where she will meet with women democratic reformers, legal advocates and business leaders.

Laura Bush last visited the Middle East in 2005, stopping in Jordan, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories to promote freedom, education and the role of women.

Ugh. Gag me with a spoon.

Much worse than the story is the picture that went with it:

"Unidentified Saudi female doctor"? You couldn't ask her for her name? And doesn't Bush look so smug? And the darn medical equipment is blocking my view of her perfect perfect pant suit.

Women Being Kidnapped and Sexually Exploited: Oh That's So Odd and Quirky

In recent news of the odd, a man in a position of power extorts sexual favours from women prisoners in exchange for candy. Another man kidnaps a Malaysian woman who turns down his marriage proposal. Haha, that's so odd, so trivial, good for a laugh or two before I go read the real news. You know, the important stuff:

Amazon.com makes lots of money.
O.J. Simpson blah blah blah.
AT&T makes lots of money.
Laura Bush raises breast cancer awareness in Saudi Arabia.
New York Times makes lots of money.

Via Shakesville, with this comment:

I don't understand why I need to explain why a woman being kidnapped should not be filed under "odd news," but, because I evidently do, here's the lowdown (again): In recent months, I've read under the heading of "Odd News" stories about a man branding his wife with a hot iron, a man coercing his wife into having plastic surgery to look like his deceased first wife, wives/girlfriends/exes being held against their will in various "odd" places including a coffin, women being traded for "odd" objects or offered as reparations for "odd" transgressions, "odd" forms of abuse against women, and women doing notable things good and bad, that, while newsworthy, only seem to be "odd-worthy" because they were done by women, all reported alongside such frivolous fare as "Chocoholic squirrel steals treats from shop".

More on the Laura Bush Story to come.

(10.22.07) Recommends:

Malajube.

We're late on this one, we know, but better late than never. We're here now and we're enjoying the view. It will be weeks before the following two songs stop playing on repeat through our speakers:

Malajube -- Montreal -40°C -- mp3.

Malajube -- Étienne D'aoút -- mp3.

(mp3s from iheartmusic.net via CBC Radio 3)

Excellent Words...

How to Tie? Step by Step information.