I love prefab

I love the concept behind prefab construction, the manufacturing of environmentally sound homes and shelters in a manner that produces less waste, uses fewer resources and less energy.

But buyers of prefab beware! Take a look at this MANUFACTURED COTTAGE. Be sure to turn up the volume and enjoy the IRONY. This manufactured home also uses VINYL, one of the worst substances ever developed.

Read more about PVC facts here.

"OLDER LADY WANTED"

It's been a while since I've posted. Last week, my Lawrence, Kansas reader wrote to tell me that he misses my posts. This one is for you, Eukie...:

Late last night I read the short list of personal adds in the back of our local free weekly and just about laughed my head off. Here ya go (contact numbers are the only text omitted)...

46 Year Old Man
Appreciates Jack Daniels
and full-figured Woman.

51 Year Old WM
Dominant, seeks a submissive
Female for a long-term
relationship.

Good Looking Guy
Looking for hot and sexy
Woman.

SWM, 6'3"
19, looking for Female, 18-
22, for friendship and see
what happens.

"I thought network news would be smarter than that little girl in Columbia."

Ahhh, more from Representative Altman, this time on national television. These were his parting words on MSNBC. The "girl" Altman is refering to is Kara Gormley, the broadcast new reporter whose interview with Altman aired a couple of days ago. In the news report, Altman, not embarrassed in the slightest bit, suggests to Gormley that she knows nothing, that she is not smart enough to understand the domestic violence bill that was tabled.

More local answers to Altman ...

Yes, women want to punish criminals

WIS follow up to Gormley interview

cock fighting and domestic violence

Cock fighting is made a felony in South Carolina, but domestic violence remains a misdemeanor. This story reveals the long, hard fight in South Carolina to address the public health crisis of domestic violence. Read it and weap. And if you have a fast internet connection, watch the video on the website link. Rep. Altman, who is interviewed, is beyond disrespectful to the reporter, going so far as to suggest that she is stupid.

Judiciary Committee passes bill dealing with cock fighting, tables domestic violence bill

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3233130&nav=0RaMYral

(Columbia) April 19, 2005 - The State House took up two pieces of legislation this week aimed at protecting two different groups. Up for debate was cracking down on gamecock fighting and protecting victims of domestic violence.

A bill protecting cocks passed through the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. John Graham Altman was in favor of the gamecock bill, "I was all for that. Cock fighting reminds me of the Roman circus, coliseum." 

A bill advocates say would protect victims against batterers was tabled, killing it for the year. Rep. Altman is on the committee that looked at the domestic violence bill, "I think this bill is probably drafted out of an abundance of ignorance."

Both cockfighting and domestic violence are currently misdemeanor crimes, punishable by 30 days in jail. If the bill passes cockfighting will become a felony, punishable by five years in jail. Domestic violence crimes will remain a misdemeanor.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter says of the two bills, "What we have said by the actions of the Judiciary Committee is we aren't going to create a felony if you beat your wife, partner, husband. But now, if you've got some cockfighting going on, woah! Wait a minute."

Rep. Altman responds to the comparison, "People who compare the two are not very smart, and if you don't understand the difference between trying to ban the savage practice of watching chickens trying to kill each other and protecting people rights in CDV statutes, I'll never be able to explain it to you in a 100 years ma'am."

Rep. Cobb-Hunter says, "The reality is the law says domestic violence regardless, first, second or third offense is a misdemeanor, and what they passed yesterday says cockfighting is a felony."

Rep. Altman speaks about domestic violence, "There ought not to be a second offense. The woman ought to not be around the man. I mean you women want it one way and not another. Women want to punish the men, and I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them. And I've asked women that and they all tell me the same
answer, John Graham you don't understand. And I say you're right, I don't understand."

Altman also states, "It's not the woman's fault, it's not blaming the victim, but tell me what self-respecting person is going back around some one who beats them"

Rep. Cobb-Hunter explains her bill, "The question that needs to be asked is this. Should a woman because she decides to go back for whatever the reason to return to an abusive relationship, does that mean it's ok to beat her, to kill her, for her to lose her life, for her children to witness the violence they witness?"

Rep. Altman "I know you are after a story. And it's kind of a nice story, that we've tabled a CDV bill. Because then you can talk about the insensitive man, the insensitive legislator, but it's not the case. But I don't know why a woman, there would ever be a second offense."

Cobb-Hunter admits there was a lot of information in the bill, which she co-sponsored. But she is already working on breaking it down, "One of the things I've learned, having been here as long as I have, is that if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Rep. Altman spoke out against a number of tenents in the bill, including items dealing with restraining orders and training judges.

Cobb-Hunter plans to reintroduce the bill in January. If you want to voice your opinion on these bills, you can call the House Judiciary Committee at 734-3120. Rep. Altman's office phone number is 734-2947.

nice weather and politics

The gorgeous weather and abundance of flowers and color and polon always bring out the crazies. The state capital grounds were rife with them recently-- anti-choice demonstrators mixing with nouveau-confederates and plain, old, good old boys. i do want to write about this local color, but I digress into something equally strange and troubling that I saw on CSPAN last night. I was searching for something to watch when I landed on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's hearing on John Bolton, the man who may be the next US Ambassador to the UN. I first became interested in this televised meeting because I saw my cousin sitting in the background behind Senator Luger from Indiana (she works for him). It was very odd to see her image coming through the TV into my living room. Transfixed by this experience, for some strange reason, I continuted watching. What unfolded was certainly bizarre and troubling. Senator Luger and others were expressing support for Bolton's nomination, while others were uncertain and suspicious of reports that had begun to urface which showed that Bolton tried to manipulate and intimidate the intelligence reports of an analyst, way below him in rank, in order to manufacture a report that contained language that supported his assertions. Committee members were hashing this out when suddenly Luger called for a vote: "Well, enough discussion, it's time to vote...," or something to that effect. There was a scuffling around and then outrage expressed by some members-- mostly Democrat, but a couple of Republicans broke rank to say: Why are we suppressing the debate? Why should we vote when there are so many alarming pieces of evidence that suggest Bolton is power hungry, does not work well with others, and may be MANUFACTURING INTELLIGENCE? This was followed by several impassioned speeches by prominent Democrats on the Committee. After listening to everyone, I could not imagine why anyone would want to vote so quickly and easily for this Bolton guy without uncovering more evidence that either corroborates the testimonies of his co-workers, or disproves them. This is an incredibly important appointment. Senators are trying to pick a man to represent our country to the United Nations, for crying out loud. No need to rush into anything, especially when there is so much alarming evidence. Well, the system worked in this case, but only because a Republican broke rank to say he also wanted more evidence before calling a vote. But how many smart thinking, intelligent and thoughtful Republicans are out there anymore? Far too few.

excellent perspective on Schiavo and disability rights

"...how can our society come to grips with the reality of disability, so that it becomes something to accept and accommodate, not something to fear, hide or eliminate?"

"...I was equally pained by Schiavo's slow, deliberate death and by the rhetoric surrounding it. One side wrote her off as a valueless thing, the empty remains of a once-vital woman. The other side objectified her as a pro-life symbol as they denounced "activist judges" and invoked "God's wrath." As the issue polarized along simplistic right-left battle lines, I found myself on the wrong side, in enemy territory...."

Read the entire article by Laura Hershey here

Winter Soldier

A brief report from the Fullframe Documentary film festival follows, focusing on the Why War series that was programmed by Cara Mertes. I just came online about 2 hours ago and am finally back in the land of the blogging.
I hope my 3 readers are well!
more soon to follow....
*
The Fullframe festival has grown by leaps and bounds the past several years, but what remains consistent is the innovative programming efforts of the festival’s director and invited curators. This year, Cara Mertes, Executive Director of P.O.V./American Documentary, curated a side bar to the festival, “Why War,” culling together a group of rarely seen historic and contemporary documentaries that collectively ask and seek answers to the question, why do we fight and how can we secure the peace? On the closing day of the festival, Walter Mosley and Ariel Dorfman brought conclusion to the series with a conversation that eloquently meandered through personal questions and stories about the response of art and culture to war. Dorfman provided personal context and an impassioned introduction to the final film in the series, “The Battle of Chile: The Coup d’État” (1976), a film which left him in a deep state of grief almost 30 years earlier as he watched it, alone in a Paris theater. Dorfman could not bear to watch the film a second time last Sunday, fearing the personal pain and extraordinary sadness he felt surrounding the failure of the left to prevent the overthrow of Allende’s democratically elected government.

Other films I viewed in this curated series are “Winter Soldier” (1972) a documentary by the Winter Soldier Collective, a group of 19 filmmakers that included Barbara Kopple and Lucy Massie Phenix, and “Why We Fight,” (2005) a new documentary by Eugene Jarecki.

"Winter Soldier" (1972)
This extraordinary film was seen by few people in the US when it was originally released, having been aired only once by WNET in New York City. The film chronicles the testimonies of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a group that worked closely with the Winter Soldier Collective to document American atrocities in Vietnam as they were described by soldiers at the 1971 Detroit Winter Soldier Investigation. We are more recently reminded of this investigation and the testimonies that arose from it through the slanderous attacks on John Kerry’s Vietnam war record by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the last election. John Kerry is featured briefly in the film, but moreover the film consists of veterans recalling painful memories of rape, torture and beheadings, atrocities committed by members of the US armed forces at every rank that had, until the investigation, gone unreported. The collective voice that emerges from this film is one of disbelief and outrage at the ways in which war dehumanizes, turning the slaughter of innocent civilians into a mere game, removed from ethical responsibility. Soldier upon soldier recalls how they watched and participated in atrocious war crimes. The footage of these testimonies is intercut with archival images that illustrate activities of torture; but it is not the archival images that impact the viewer as much as the collective image of veterans who are bearing witness, men with young faces and extraordinarily sad and distant eyes. The documentary also approaches the question of racism in America through one scene which depicts an encounter between a white and black veteran. The African-American veteran vehemently asks: how can you not see these atrocities as similar to the ones unfolding on our own streets in the United States? Should we not see the problem of war as inextricably linked to the problem of a local and global racism?

Having finally secured a distributor more than 30 years after its original release, the time for “Winter Soldier” is now. Its resonance was deeply felt by those in attendance at the screening, who also had an opportunity to hear filmmakers Barbara Kopple and Lucy Massie Phenix describe the process of collaborating with veterans to bring this film to the world. The question remains: who will make the sequel to “Winter Soldier,” now that veterans are returning from the Iraq War with untold stories that need to be written.