Back in the UK

We've safely returned to the UK, without any hassles from immigration, thank you very much. After a too-short Christmas holiday with my family in Coral Springs, we hopped back on a big ol' British Airways 747 yesterday evening. The flight was almost two hours faster than our flight over because of the jet-stream and we actually got in a little bit of sleep. We landed at Heathrow at 9:45am and walked out with our bags by 10:45. Then we had to wait for our 11:35 National Express bus to take us down to Bournemouth. We got in our front door around 2.

It's great to be back in our apartment, but we regret not being able to stay in Florida longer. We really enjoyed spending time with my family, relaxing in the warm weather, and enjoying the constant stream of homecooked food my mom slaved over the entire time. And my sister was able to take most of the month off. I was happy to spend some time with her.

The only unfortunate events during the trip was the giant fine I had to pay to reinstate my greencard and K's horrendous bout of food poisoning which meant she missed about 4 days of the vacation because she kept herself sequestered in the bedroom and bathroom.

We've come back with quite a haul of Christmas gifts and other stuff we bought while we were there (lots of clothes from Old Navy and the Gap). Our two large and two small suitcases stuffed! Luckily, the weight restriction per bag is still 70 lbs. The bags are laying in our entry hall right now, partially unpacked. What's the hurry? I'm not due in at work until the 3rd and K is doing her PhD full time now so she doesn't have to go to the office at all. So relieved that I will have a couple of days to get over the jet lag.

It feels a bit lonely to be back here in England all by ourselves. I think we've gotten a bit of the post-vacation blues. We've gone from being around family for a couple of weeks to our somewhat solitary existence over here in England so it's a bit of a shock. All compounded by the jet lag.

I realize it's New Year's Eve today, but we'll definitely not make it to midnight. We'll be lucky if we can stay awake until 7! So perhaps we should say HAPPY NEW YEAR now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Best wishes for 2007!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from Florida!!

R & K

K vs. Food Poisoning

The day after we arrived I began to feel ill. A persistent headache (which I attributed to jet lag) and then an increasingly painful stomach ache (which I also attributed to jet lag). By evening I felt distinctly ill. Three bites of dinner and that was it. I will spare you the details! My second night in Florida was spent on the bathroom floor with a fever and the next 3 days spent in bed drinking gatorade. I have never been so sick before! During my time in isolation I missed out on several dinners with the Swedish family members, a Cuban party and a trip to Disney World. The upside is that I lost 3 pounds, which has proved useful now that I can eat real food again, and I didn't have to suffer through any jet lag. :-)






Feeling better now!








The bad bug was probably in some lox I ate on British Airways - the only food item that Rich and I didn't share. Thank heavens he didn't eat it or we would have been wrestling for space on the bathroom floor! It's going to be a long time before I eat raw fish again.

~K

Happy/Merry Christmas Eve

Sorry we've been "off air" during most of our Florida holiday so far. We seem to have developed some kind of allergy to emails and blogging. Anyway, to those of you celebrating Jesus' birthday today and tomorrow... Merry Christmas or (as they say in England) Happy Christmas!

PS - No matter how many decorations you put out, Christmas movies you watch, festive music you listen to, or yuletide food you consume, it's pretty much impossible to make Florida feel Christmas-y!

R vs. US Immigration

Well, we're in Florida now for Christmas vacation. Arrived yesterday evening after a rather smooth journey first by bus from Bournemouth to Heathrow airport and then a direct flight to Miami. Things were going so well and then we got to the US Immigration stalls where things went down hill rapidly.

The immigration officer that checked our passports started quizzing me about how long I'd been away. Being a naturally honest person and also fearing that they'd easily catch me in a lie, I told them it was since Thanksgiving last year which makes it a year and one month. We knew that we were taking a bit of a gamble (a greencard holder is only allowed to be out of the US for less than a year at a time), but we didn't think they'd get too critical over a month. This was a gamble that the house won, unfortunately.

She said, "Honey, you can't do that. You can't be gone for over a year. What have you been doing?" We explained that K is doing a PhD and I'm working to support her (not a lie, but just leaving out a few details). This was not a good enough excuse to let us slide. She called over one of the other agents and asked us to go with him.

We followed him into another room where we sat with several foreigners that needed further questioning. Then I was called up to the counter and one of the officers gave me a bit of a lambasting about what I had done. He said that I'm not allowed to stay away for this long. The Permanent Resident status means you live in the US, work in the US, pay taxes in the US, drive a car in the US, etc. And he said that my greencard is worthless now. That they would have to either take it away from me or I have to pay a reinstatement penalty of $265 (where'd they come up with that number?). My eyes nearly popped out of my head. K said it was her fault because she's doing a PhD and I'm working to support her. Another agent said, "Have a seat. We'll see what we can do." We skulked back to the seating area.

After waiting about 15 minutes, I was called up again, this time by another officer. He lectured me on the same subject again, saying that I might as well put my greencard in the shredder because it's worthless. If you're gone for 6 months, there's a red flag on your status and after a year you lose status completely. He also said that if I go ahead with the penalty fee to reinstate it, I would still be starting from scratch. If I want to apply for citizenship, I have to live and work in the US for 5 consecutive years, regardless of the fact that I have lived there since 1984. He also advised that I go to immigration services while we're here to apply for a re-entry permit which will allow me to stay out for up to 2 years. I told him that I will pay the fine. He asked me to sit back down.

We waited another 15-20 minutes, now quite concerned about our luggage out in the baggage claim area and our family members waiting outside to pick us up. I wasn't able to call out with my UK mobile phone and, besides, one of the officers started yelling at a guy who's phone kept ringing, so I decided I'd better not start playing with my phone, too. Finally, yet another officer called us out of the waiting room to a desk in the main immigration area.

He began taking down my details (UK address, reason for being out of the US, etc.), but from this point, things started getting rather strange. He went off on a rant about how it's not any cheaper to live in Europe... people think they get free healthcare, but they don't because the taxes are so high... so it's cheaper in the US... plus everyone over there is on welfare... don't get me wrong, the quality of life is high... (to K) what's your PhD about?... wow, media!... so you're like a reporter... oh my god, here I am ranting about Europe and now you're going to get me fired. The joking and conversing goes on and on as he gradually records my details in the computer, piece by piece. At one point, a couple of other officers came over and they got in on the conversation. One asked about K's PhD and she said it was about 9/11 and the media. This triggered a rant about how Europe needs the US and they want the US to do the right thing because, together, we're the Western World and if the US goes down, Europe goes down... but he doesn't like France because they are respecting the US now even though the billion dollar debt they owed was dropped... even worse with Mexico who's 10 billion dollar debt was erased. By this time, we were the only civilians left in the whole place and here we were joking around with the immigration officers (well, I wasn't doing much joking because I was feeling a bit sunken by the whole thing).

Finally, all of the data was gathered and rants finished, so it was time for us to go out to the cashier to pay the fine. The gung-ho officer led us out to another area, past customs, to the cashier. He asked if I was paying cash or credit. I was like, "Credit! I don't carry that kind of cash! Sheesh!" I handed over my card and the gung-ho officer said goodbye by shaking our hands and he reiterated that I need to get the re-entry permit.

Dazed and a bit confused, K and I ambled out to the welcome area with our luggage. The only people left out there were my mom and sister. They had been waiting for an hour and a half, all told. We went outside were my dad was waiting with the giant, white SUV. We climbed in and sailed through Miami up to Coral Springs.

What a night!

I'm still a bit shaken by the ordeal. We had to pay a huge fine, but I could have lost my greencard. A horrifying alternative!

---

Today we woke up about 6am. It was still too early to get up, so we laid in bed watching some American TV. Hello, Culture Shock!

Later on, we jumped right in to this very same culture. We climbed into the giant, white SUV, drove on a wide road to a supermarket less than a mile away, parked in a giant parking lot with spaces two times as big as British ones, and shopped in a supermarket with fully-stocked gleaming aisles two times as wide as European ones. It felt both pornographically wrong and lusciously satisfying!

Pappa

We just dropped my dad off at the bus terminal. He has been here since Saturday. A little stopover between Denmark, Spain, and the US. We had a nice time "hanging out" and stuff. He took us for fish'n'chips at Chez Fred (one of the better "chippies" we've been to in England). We went to see Casino Royale on Tuesday night (really, really good film!). Last night, he cooked frickadeller with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce, then we watched Da Vinci Code (a really, quite crappy film). He's flying back to Florida today on the same flight that we will be taking next week.

Funnily enough, my dad has lived in Bournemouth before. In 1970. He was attending the Anglo European School of Chiropractic for a year and was living in an oceanfront apartment in Boscombe and a flat in Bournemouth town centre. This past Sunday, we drove down to Boscombe to see if the apartment was still there. It was! It's probably a VERY expensive piece of property now, though.

Anyway, it's just so random and strange that K and I ended up in Bournemouth, too. The life we've been leading since August 2003 is something we would never have believed if someone went back in time to 1999 or so to tell us about it. Craziness!

Syndicating another Michael Moore salvo against the War in Iraq

Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

Friends,

Tomorrow marks the day that we will have been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II.

That's right. We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini, and the entire Japanese empire in LESS time than it's taken the world's only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad.

And we haven't even done THAT. After 1,347 days, in the same time it took us to took us to sweep across North Africa, storm the beaches of Italy, conquer the South Pacific, and liberate all of Western Europe, we cannot, after over 3 and 1/2 years, even take over a single highway and protect ourselves from a homemade device of two tin cans placed in a pothole. No wonder the cab fare from the airport into Baghdad is now running around $35,000 for the 25-minute ride. And that doesn't even include a friggin' helmet.

Is this utter failure the fault of our troops? Hardly. That's because no amount of troops or choppers or democracy shot out of the barrel of a gun is ever going to "win" the war in Iraq. It is a lost war, lost because it never had a right to be won, lost because it was started by men who have never been to war, men who hide behind others sent to fight and die.

Let's listen to what the Iraqi people are saying, according to a recent poll conducted by the University of Maryland:

** 71% of all Iraqis now want the U.S. out of Iraq.

** 61% of all Iraqis SUPPORT insurgent attacks on U.S. troops.

Yes, the vast majority of Iraqi citizens believe that our soldiers should be killed and maimed! So what the hell are we still doing there? Talk about not getting the hint.

There are many ways to liberate a country. Usually the residents of that country rise up and liberate themselves. That's how we did it. You can also do it through nonviolent, mass civil disobedience. That's how India did it. You can get the world to boycott a regime until they are so ostracized they capitulate. That's how South Africa did it. Or you can just wait them out and, sooner or later, the king's legions simply leave (sometimes just because they're too cold). That's how Canada did it.

The one way that DOESN'T work is to invade a country and tell the people, "We are here to liberate you!" -- when they have done NOTHING to liberate themselves. Where were all the suicide bombers when Saddam was oppressing them? Where were the insurgents planting bombs along the roadside as the evildoer Saddam's convoy passed them by? I guess ol' Saddam was a cruel despot -- but not cruel enough for thousands to risk their necks. "Oh no, Mike, they couldn't do that! Saddam would have had them killed!" Really? You don't think King George had any of the colonial insurgents killed? You don't think Patrick Henry or Tom Paine were afraid? That didn't stop them. When tens of thousands aren't willing to shed their own blood to remove a dictator, that should be the first clue that they aren't going to be willing participants when you decide you're going to do the liberating for them.

A country can HELP another people overthrow a tyrant (that's what the French did for us in our revolution), but after you help them, you leave. Immediately. The French didn't stay and tell us how to set up our government. They didn't say, "we're not leaving because we want your natural resources." They left us to our own devices and it took us six years before we had an election. And then we had a bloody civil war. That's what happens, and history is full of these examples. The French didn't say, "Oh, we better stay in America, otherwise they're going to kill each other over that slavery issue!"

The only way a war of liberation has a chance of succeeding is if the oppressed people being liberated have their own citizens behind them -- and a group of Washingtons, Jeffersons, Franklins, Ghandis and Mandellas leading them. Where are these beacons of liberty in Iraq? This is a joke and it's been a joke since the beginning. Yes, the joke's been on us, but with 655,000 Iraqis now dead as a result of our invasion (source: Johns Hopkins University), I guess the cruel joke is on them. At least they've been liberated, permanently.

So I don't want to hear another word about sending more troops (wake up, America, John McCain is bonkers), or "redeploying" them, or waiting four months to begin the "phase-out." There is only one solution and it is this: Leave. Now. Start tonight. Get out of there as fast as we can. As much as people of good heart and conscience don't want to believe this, as much as it kills us to accept defeat, there is nothing we can do to undo the damage we have done. What's happened has happened. If you were to drive drunk down the road and you killed a child, there would be nothing you could do to bring that child back to life. If you invade and destroy a country, plunging it into a civil war, there isn't much you can do 'til the smoke settles and blood is mopped up. Then maybe you can atone for the atrocity you have committed and help the living come back to a better life.

The Soviet Union got out of Afghanistan in 36 weeks. They did so and suffered hardly any losses as they left. They realized the mistake they had made and removed their troops. A civil war ensued. The bad guys won. Later, we overthrew the bad guys and everybody lived happily ever after. See! It all works out in the end!

The responsibility to end this war now falls upon the Democrats. Congress controls the purse strings and the Constitution says only Congress can declare war. Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi now hold the power to put an end to this madness. Failure to do so will bring the wrath of the voters. We aren't kidding around, Democrats, and if you don't believe us, just go ahead and continue this war another month. We will fight you harder than we did the Republicans. The opening page of my website has a photo of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, each made up by a collage of photos of the American soldiers who have died in Bush's War. But it is now about to become the Bush/Democratic Party War unless swift action is taken.

This is what we demand:

1. Bring the troops home now. Not six months from now. NOW. Quit looking for a way to win. We can't win. We've lost. Sometimes you lose. This is one of those times. Be brave and admit it.

2. Apologize to our soldiers and make amends. Tell them we are sorry they were used to fight a war that had NOTHING to do with our national security. We must commit to taking care of them so that they suffer as little as possible. The mentally and physically maimed must get the best care and significant financial compensation. The families of the deceased deserve the biggest apology and they must be taken care of for the rest of their lives.

3. We must atone for the atrocity we have perpetuated on the people of Iraq. There are few evils worse than waging a war based on a lie, invading another country because you want what they have buried under the ground. Now many more will die. Their blood is on our hands, regardless for whom we voted. If you pay taxes, you have contributed to the three billion dollars a week now being spent to drive Iraq into the hellhole it's become. When the civil war is over, we will have to help rebuild Iraq. We can receive no redemption until we have atoned.

In closing, there is one final thing I know. We Americans are better than what has been done in our name. A majority of us were upset and angry after 9/11 and we lost our minds. We didn't think straight and we never looked at a map. Because we are kept stupid through our pathetic education system and our lazy media, we knew nothing of history. We didn't know that WE were the ones funding and arming Saddam for many years, including those when he massacred the Kurds. He was our guy. We didn't know what a Sunni or a Shiite was, never even heard the words. Eighty percent of our young adults (according to National Geographic) were not able to find Iraq on the map. Our leaders played off our stupidity, manipulated us with lies, and scared us to death.

But at our core we are a good people. We may be slow learners, but that "Mission Accomplished" banner struck us as odd, and soon we began to ask some questions. Then we began to get smart. By this past November 7th, we got mad and tried to right our wrongs. The majority now know the truth. The majority now feel a deep sadness and guilt and a hope that somehow we can make make it all right again.

Unfortunately, we can't. So we will accept the consequences of our actions and do our best to be there should the Iraqi people ever dare to seek our help in the future. We ask for their forgiveness.

We demand the Democrats listen to us and get out of Iraq now.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

Britain may have lost the Empire, but...

...they can really enjoy the strength of the pound. We definitely do!

There was an article in the paper this morning that said the US dollar will likely hit $2.00 against the British pound by 2007. £1 is currently valued at $1.93. This is quite a boon for us at this time of year since we will be going to the US and just in time to do the Christmas shopping. We can use our British credit card to pay for things and basically get a 50% discount on everything we buy. We're going to watch the currency exchange values and as soon as it looks like it has reached the high water mark, we'll transfer our £ savings to our US savings account to double our money. Pretty cool!

===Bloomberg's Currency Calculator===

How To Kick Ass

I've been meaning to write about this for a while now, but just haven't gotten around to it. So, here goes...

In the beginning of September, I started taking some martial arts classes at a nearby gym. Towards the end of August, I had an epiphany that I wanted to take some type of self-defense class. Mainly for fitness and to get more "in tune" with my body, but also to increase my self confidence. K jumped on this rare demonstration of interest in exercise from me and found a place just up the road from us: Minnesota Kali Group UK. I was prepared to "think it over" for a while (as I normally do), but before I knew it, I was signed up for an introductory class with Brendan Westwood. When you first go there, he gives you a free 30-day trial and after that, if you like it, it costs between £3.00 - £4.00 per class depending on which plan you are signed up for. Brendan is a great instructor and the classes are a lot of fun, so I signed on as soon as my trial was up. I've been going to two classes per week ever since. I alternate between Panantukan (Filipino Boxing) on Mondays , Jeet Kun Do on Wednesdays, and Kali on Saturdays. He also teaches Muay Thai kickboxing and Grappling, but those aren't really my cup of tea.

Some info about the ones I do take...

Panantukan (aka Filipino Boxing, aka Dirty Boxing) involves a lot of punching, elbowing, low kicks and blocking with the fore-arms. It can be very rapid-fire when you get the hang of it. The "Dirty Boxing" part of it comes in when you get into the head-butting and eye-gouging. Sounds a lot more gruesome than it is and we only practice on focus mitts (no sparring). Here are a couple of videos of the style: Panantukan Intro and Eskrima/Panantukan.

Jeet Kun Do is one of the forms that Bruce Lee practiced. It's similar to Panantukan as far as the types of moves (minus the head-butting and eye-gouging) but is a bit more fluid and kinetic. A lot of the techniques focus on taking out the opponent's means of attack and driving them back. And there's a bit more kicking. Videos: JKD Streetfighting (a bit cheesy and 80s looking) and JKD Trapping.

Then there's Kali. This is basically the same art as Panantukan with the addition of a 3' bambo stick (or two sticks) and sometimes a dagger. A lot of the moves are the same with the exception that you're holding a stick. I really like this class, but it's not much of a work out. It's just very mental and a bit meditative. Lot's of hand-eye-coordination involved. Videos: Dan Inosanto demonstrating Kali and a Police Training video.

I felt like such a numbskull for the first month or so, such a beginner. It was at times frustrating because I just couldn't get some of the moves and then I felt guilty because the person I was training with wasn't getting much of a workout. Now I'm definitely not a "noobie", but certainly not ready to go up against Bruce Lee (even if he were still alive)!

Here's a couple of extra videos that cover all of the above (and more):

FMA/JKD Promo (a bit cheesy)

Behavioral Defense

Nose-rubbing?

I guess this could be construed as rubbing the Republican party's nose in it, but I think it's a nice piece. It really hits the nail on the head about the differences between Conservatives and Liberals. To be honest, we're not on either end of that spectrum. We swing on a narrow-arced pendulum along the Center. Still signed the pledge, though. Anyway, another one from Michael Moore:

Tuesday, November 14th, 2006

A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives ...by Michael Moore

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,

I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.

Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:

Dear Conservatives and Republicans,

I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:

1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.

2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.

3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.

4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.

5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.

6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.

7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.

8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.

9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.

10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.

11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.

Signed,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
(Click here to sign the pledge)
www.michaelmoore.com

P.S. Please feel free to pass this on.

What a relief it is!

It has been interesting watching this election from outside the US. We experienced it the same way Americans experience events in Europe: through the square (or rectangle) box in the living room. It gives you a sort of secluded, distilled version of events, whereas if we were in the US, we would have gotten the barrage of info from the various forms of news media as well as hearing/seeing the "word on the street", the conversations in the grocery check-out lane, the fervor at the polling station.

We are completely thrilled to hear the news as the vote-counting is finishing and felt a great wave of schadenfreude watching Bush's press conference yesterday. Ooh, he was piiiiiiiiiiiissed! And didn't do a good job of hiding it. The Republicans got a "thumping" in the House and the Senate. Then the luscious, silky icing on the cake: the war-mongering weasel Rumsfeld resigning! How sweet it is! We're looking forward to seeing how things progress during the next two years and we'll be watching it happen on our rectangular box in the living room.

---

Here's a nice message from Michael Moore on the subject:

LANDSLIDE! ...a big thanks from Michael Moore

November 8th, 2006

Friends,

You did it! We did it! The impossible has happened: A majority of Americans have soundly and forcefully removed Bush's party from control of the House of Representatives and the Republicans have also, miraculously, been tossed out of running our United States Senate. This was done because the American people wanted to make two things crystal clear: End this war, and stop Mr. Bush from doing any more damage to this country we love. That is what this election was about. Nothing else. Just that. And it's a message that has sent shock waves throughout Washington -- and a note of hope around this troubled world.

Now the real work begins. Unless we stay on top of these Democrats to do the right thing, they will do what they've always done: Screw it up. Big Time. They helped Bush start this war, and now they should make amends.

But let's take a day to rejoice and revel in a rare victory for our side -- the side that doesn't believe in unprovoked invasions of other countries. This is your day, my friends. You have worked hard for it. I can't tell you how proud I am to count all of you as part of the greater American mainstream we now occupy. Thank you for all the time you gave this week to get out the vote. Some of you have been at this since the large demonstrations of February 2003 when we tried to stop the war before it started. Only 10-20% of the country agreed with us at that time. Remember how lonely that was? Some people were even booed! Now, 60% of the country agrees with our position. They are us and we are them. What a nice, strange, hopeful feeling.

A woman, for the first time in our history, will be Speaker of the House. The attempt to ban all abortion in the conservative state of South Dakota was defeated. Laws to raise the minimum wage were passed. Democrats were elected to fill Tom DeLay's and Mark Foley's seats. Detroit's John Conyers, Jr. is going to be the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The Democratic governor of Michigan beat the CEO from Amway. The little township next to where I live in Michigan voted Democratic for the first time since... ever. And on and on and on. The good news will continue throughout today. Let's enjoy it. Savor it. And use it to get Congress to finally listen to the majority.

If you want to do one thing today, send an email or a letter to both of your senators and your member of Congress and tell them, in no uncertain terms, what this election means: End the war -- and don't let George W. Bush get away with any more of his bright ideas.

Congratulations, again! Now let's go find a spine for the Dems to do the job we've sent them there to do.

Yours in victory (for once!),

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

---

And a few topical video clips:

Truth and Fiction

What's a midterm election?

Borat on TDS Midterm Midtacular

Beat-box Bush

Election

Please, please, please, please don't let the Republicans win/steal this election!

Interactive Election Map

Neko Case sings to "Reserved but adamant Bristol" at the Carling Academy

We had a really nice day yesterday going up to Bristol. The drive was quite scenic, though long and winding. Experienced something new: a roadside traffic census. About an hour outside Bristol, a couple of police officers diverted us into a lay-by where several people in flourescent yellow vests with clipboards were waiting. One of them came up to our window to ask where we where coming from, where we were going and how often we made the journey. Then they sent us on our way.

Anyway, we got a little lost trying to find IKEA, but eventually, we got there around 4:30. We went straight to the restaurant to have some Swedish meatballs with boiled potatoes and lingonberry preserves. Very tasty! There was even a Swedish family sitting near us. Then we headed into the vast, consumer haven that is IKEA for a one-hour breeze-through excursion. We picked up quite a few things that we needed (such as a laundry basket for £2.49) and a couple of things that we didn't (such as a nice garlic press for £3.99), plus some Kalle's caviar, lingonberry preserves, cloudberry preserves, Abbas pickled herring, and authentic Swedish Fish gummy candy. Our friend Ieuan came away with quite a haul, too; his first trip to IKEA.

Then we loaded our Scandinavian goods into the trunk and headed for Bristol Academy, getting more lost than when we tried to find IKEA. Eventually, we triangulated the venue's position and found a parking garage next to it. Neko's gig was in the upstairs portion of the Academy, in a quite small, narrow room with a bar on one side and a 15'x15' stage tucked into one end. We were a bit taken aback by how small it was, but excited to be able to see her in such an "intimate" venue. We grabbed a bit of floor-space at the very front and waited for the gig to start.

The opening act had been cancelled, so the members of Neko's band came out to play a few songs as an opener (without Neko). I didn't get all of their names because people were cheering and I couldn't hear when they were announced, but her usual stalwarts Kelly Hogan (backing vocals) and Jon Rauhaus (pedal-steel and banjo) were up there with a lead guitarist, double-bass player, and a drummer. After their mini-set, there was a bit of an intermission after which they all came out and played for about an hour and a half. A great mix of songs from all of her albums, but most of them from her new one Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. They opened with "A Widow's Toast" sung a-cappella, Neko and Kelly's voices locked in perfect harmony. I didn't write down the set list, but I've dredged my memory and I think I have been able to recall at least most of the songs, though not in the correct order:

-A Widow's Toast
-Set Out Running
-Margaret vs. Pauline
-If You Knew
-Hold On, Hold On
-The Tigers Have Spoken
-Maybe Sparrow
-I Wish I Was the Moon
-Dirty Knife
-Favorite
-Furnace Room Lullabye
-Buckets of Rain (a Bob Dylan cover)
-Deep Red Bells
-South Tacoma Way
-That Teenage Feeling
-Twist the Knife

They sounded fantastic, though performance-wise, they seemed a bit detached. I suppose they were still jet-lagged since they flew over from the US on the 31st and, in Neko's words, they were "coming down with our obligatory British colds." There were signs around the club stating "This evening's artist has requested that guests refrain from smoking during the performance." Thankfully, this made it a much more comfortable atmosphere (for the non-smokers, anyway). She thanked everyone for being kind enough to refrain from smoking.

Neko commented a couple of times about being miffed that she had missed Halloween, instead being on an airplane "smelling poopie-diaper". Nevertheless, her singing was just as goose-bump making as always. K and I agree that the gig at The Zoo in Portland was better as a whole than this one. Our favorite songs from the night...

K: "I Wish I Was The Moon"
R: "Deep Red Bells" and "Furnace Room Lullabye"

I wonder how the Wednesday night show in London was in comparison. Unfortunately, there was a 9:45 curfew at this gig, so though they wanted to play longer, they had to stop. We thought it might have been a residential noise-oridinance thing, but it turns out it is because they turn the Academy into a dance club after 10pm. A bit disappointing to have the show cut short because of that, but I got over it when I had a chance to meet Neko. She announced that she would head back to the merchandise counter to help sell some CDs and invited fans to come over to say "Hello."

At first I decided I wouldn't and we started to leave the club, but at the door, I had a change of heart and darted back up there. It was one of those decisions where you know you'll always regret it if you make the wrong decision. Hell, there's a chance to meet Neko Case! Time to get over the shyness and just do it!

K and Ieuan hung back while I joined the queue to talk to her. Because I didn't have enough cash to buy a CD or a t-shirt my excuse to talk to her was to ask her to sign my ticket stub. Oop... my turn:

R: Hi! Great set! I really love your music!

Neko: Thanks!

[awkward silence]

R: I saw you in Portland in 2003. At The Zoo.

Neko: Ooh! That was a great day. I had just gotten my new guitar! [smiling and hugging herself]

R: Oh, really? I loved that venue. Cool with the giraffe's in the background.

Neko: I felt sorry for the elephants, though. They were going a bit crazy.

R: Were they? Well, I'm sure your music had a calming effect on them!

Neko: Well, I hope so!

[another awkward silence]

Neko: [pointing at the ticket stub I was holding] Did you want me to sign that?

R: Oh, yes please!

[I hand it to her, she signs it, and hands it back, smiling.]

R: Thanks for coming to England!

[I step away and let the next person have a turn.]

On the ticket stub, in black marker: "Love, Neko". Walking away with K and Ieuan, I describe how much of a dork I was and lamented that I should have thought of something more clever to say. Well, better to kick myself for being a dork than to kick myself for not having the nerve to even try to meet her!

Anyway, we left the Academy and tried to navigate out of Bristol, getting a bit lost again. Eventually, we got back on the appropriate A-road and made good time back to Bournemouth. Home by 12:30.

I fell asleep thinking of all kinds of other witty things I could have said.











Click here for Neko's diary of the UK tour.

Amazing Singer

K and I have both taken a day off today to drive up to Bristol to see Neko Case at the Bristol Academy. She has the most amazing voice. Her musical style is usually lumped in with "alt country", but it's a bit darker, a bit more noir-ish than your standard "alt country" acts. Listen to a bit of her music HERE or watch some clips of her live performances HERE. The last concert we saw in the US before moving to Belgium was Neko Case at The Zoo in Portland. We're really looking forward to seeing her perform live again.

One of my friends from UEA is coming with us. We'll be leaving shortly. It's only a 2 hour drive, but we're heading up early so we can go to the IKEA in Bristol. We need a few "bits and bobs" for the apartment, but more importantly, we need to stock up on some Swedish food. Namely, Kalle's caviar, herring, and Gevalia coffee. And we'll probably grab a quick bite to eat at the IKEA cafeteria, perhaps some Swedish meatballs or gravad lax! Then we'll head over to the concert venue to park the car and maybe pop into a pub for a drink before the show.

Neko! Neko! Neko!

The battle commences

A wet, cool British autumn has been steadily enveloping this soggy island. We had been trying to hold off turning on the heat for a little longer until it was actually cold. It's still bearable, albeit with a sweater and warm socks on. However, we have been noticing a creeping dampness setting in. Our clothing and bedsheets have been ever so slightly moist. It doesn't help that we don't have a tumble dryer or even a condenser dryer, so our clothes have to dry on a clothing rack inside (we are not permitted to dry clothes on our patio because of the eye-sore that is created). So, a couple of weeks ago, we set the thermostat to fire up our radiators for a couple of hours every morning and evening. It has helped a bit. However, it looks like we may have been too late...

Mo(u)ld has been blooming in the window sills and in a couple of dark corners of our bedroom (the wall that gets the brunt of the wind and rain). This morning, I moved my dresser out from its corner to have a look. Huge patch of mold. We spent about an hour searching the flat for more of these breeding grounds, spraying them down with bleach, and scrubbing away the mold.

We thought this flat was going to be free from this scourge because it is much newer than the others we've lived in and it has been newly renovated. Apparently, you can't judge flats by appearances. It's quite frustrating. We started thinking that perhaps it was us. Are we overly moist people? Every flat we've lived in here have had some kind of damp/mold problem, though it seems like we're moving up in the world because each flat has been slightly less moldy, the Norwich one being the worst. Anyway, I don't think we're to blame. Our apartment in Brussels had zero mold and it was just as rainy there as it is here. It must be this soggy island. We've asked a few of our British friends and they have basically just shrugged. Perhaps we're being too sensitive, but this dampness makes us yearn for Arizona! We had a humidifier in our bedroom when we lived there. I suppose we need a dehumidifier for our bedroom here! I wonder if our landlord will agree to buying one. Probably not. She'll just think we're being too nitpicky. What do you mean "mould"? This is how we make our stilton cheese!

Anyway, that battle has commenced. We will be on mold-patrol until summer rolls around again. Our spray-bottle of bleach is locked and loaded.

---

Mold isn't the only critter in our lives at the moment. We also have our neighborhood grey squirrels which we've been feeding peanuts on a daily basis. I know they're a non-native species that has driven the native red squirrel nearly to extinction, but they're still cute little buggers! And they're the only pet we can have at the moment since this building has a "no pets" rule. They've gotten quite brave, almost daring to take peanuts directly from our hands. These cute rodents aren't going to go hungry this winter!

I wonder if they would eat mold?

Wordsmiths

One of the things K gave me for my birthday last month was the board game Scrabble. I'd been saying very often how I would like to have this game, though I'd never even played it. As much as I love words, it just seemed like a game for me. And it certainly is! What a fantastic, nerdy endeavor to sit hunched over this square board trying to think of words using sometimes impossible selections of letters! Here are some of our recent "endgames":

Guess who's legal

Right now I'm swillin' down a celebratory glass of beer because as you can see from the dorky photo above, I passed my Practical Driving Test today. Take that Friday the 13th! I had 6 minor errors (maximum you can get without failing is 15). The driving instructor said that was quite impressive for someone who has been driving for so long to be able to iron-out the bad habits enough to pass the test after only 3 lessons. Yes, thank you. I am incredible!

Driving like a muppet

My driving test is two days away now. I've had a couple of driving lessons this week. On Monday evening, I had a "driving assessment" to gauge my skills. It actually made me quite nervous about the test because, though I'm very comfortable handling the car safely, I do have a few habits that aren't up to DSA standards. For instance, crossing my hands when turning the wheel (i.e.- the hand on the right swinging all the way over to the left or vice versa). You're supposed to "feed the wheel" instead, which feels really clunky and ungainly. The other thing I do is often rest my hand on the gear-shift. It's supposed to snap back to the steering wheel immediately after shifting. And you're always supposed to check your mirrors before you signal to turn. None of these things are immediate-fail triggers -- they are only minor errors which equate to a error "tick mark" on the form -- but if you have several of these in one area or you get more than 15 of them, you automatically fail. I'm fairly confident that I can get through it without committing a "Serious" or "Dangerous" error (automatic failure), but it's going to be a hard battle to get through without committing minor errors. So... I'm practicing, practicing, practicing.

I had another driving lesson this afternoon and I do feel a bit better about the whole thing. There were only a couple of times that I crossed my hands while turning, but I think I have the snap-back-to-the-wheel under control. Next thing to polish is frequent mirror checks and that kind of thing. I'll be using the driving instructor's car for the test because it's easier than try to get our car up to spec for the test (L-plates, proper head-rests, and a suction-cup rear-view mirror for the passenger side). Plus, you have to show up with someone who is over 21 and has held a full license for more than 3 years. I tried to find someone at work to do that, but no luck. So, I just have to pay the instructor to do it. He's going to pick me up an hour before the test to give me a quick warm-up lesson, then we head over to the test centre for the 40-minute test. Hopefully, I'll drive away victorious. Otherwise, I'll have to take the test again (another £40).

Doomed

I have booked my driving test with the Driving Standards Agency. It's on Friday afternoon next week, 2:05pm. Now I just need to book a "refresher" session with a driving instructor to make sure I can pass the test. I wasn't too worried about it until I heard that one of the assessors at the Bournemouth DSA branch is unreasonably nit-picky, failing people for very small errors. I was told, "If a lady with short, curly hair comes out, run for your life!" So that's one thing. The other point of concern is something I realized today: next Friday is Friday the 13th! I booked a driving test on Friday the 13th! Shit.

If you fail the driving test, you have to make another appointment to try again, but that also means you have to pay again and at £44.80 per try, that could get expensive! Which makes me wonder (warning, conspiracy theory ahead), do they fail people on purpose to boost their revenue stream? It's certainly possible. I'm just going to have to drive perfectly to make sure they don't get that opportunity!

World Trade Center

We just saw Oliver Stone's film World Trade Center. He was surprisingly restrained - no conspiracy theories in it at all. We both felt it was as honest a portrait as can be told by someone other than the people who actually went through it. Granted, they did work with him on the story and the families were involved - but it is a lot to ask that such a major film (with major actors) would remain true, and I think it did. It also struck me, as we were sitting in the theater filled with a British audience, that the film was so very American and I wondered if they were responding like we were. We Americans expect that everyone, especially our firemen and policemen, will always do the right thing and not be hesitant to risk their own lives for someone else's. That's our culture - or at least one of our cultural myths - and such a common storyline that I take it for granted that the Brits would get it. But do they? Or are they rolling their eyes and sighing in the dark at the blatant heroism? It's funny. Living in England, I feel safe and know that most everyone I encounter will be polite and most likely, kind. And that if our car broke down at least 5 people would stop and ask if we needed help. That's not an assumption I make at home. Yet I don't feel that same belief from the Brits about themselves and I definitely don't feel their belief that they always do the right thing. But maybe they do. Maybe it is too British of a thing for me to get. Maybe they are more humble than us. Perhaps they are just as heroic but they just don't celebrate it. Maybe they should! It may be more honorable to not 'toot one's horn' but the behavior of the policemen and firemen in New York immediately after 9/11 seems to be one thing that we should be proud of. And there aren't many things to be proud of at the moment, so I'm grateful for this!

This is a good film. Very good. A heck of a lot better than United 93.
Go see it! Here's a link to the official site... WTC.

)K

Thirty...

...one!

Dripping wet with a mouse in my hand

Well, I passed the Theory test this morning. 35 out of 35 on the multiple choice questions and 60 points out of a possible 75 on the hazard perception. I believe I would have gotten a higher score on the hazards if I hadn't held back like I did. If you click too many times, you could lose points for the whole clip you're watching (there were a total of 14 clips), so I was trying to think the way the DSA test designers would think. I guess I was too careful.

The test experience didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. You're supposed to arrive 10-15 minutes early, which I tried to do. It was raining this morning. I drove (illegally) to the test centre at 8am, but I didn't get to the front desk until about 8:45. Yeah, tell me about it. I was a bit mislead by the AA Routefinder directions I had printed out yesterday. It's my own fault, I should have done a bit more research before leaving. Then I wouldn't have walked the wrong way on Old Christchurch Road for about a mile in the rain before deciding that it was indeed the wrong direction. By the time I got to where I needed to go, I was quite drenched and sweaty (if I had gone the right way from the parking lot the first time, I would have gotten there in about 5 minutes and been reasonably dry). I pressed the buzzer for the test centre and the conversation went something like this:

Buzzer Lady: "Good morning..."

Me: "Morning, I have an appointment for the theory test."

Buzzer Lady: "Name?"

Me: "Peder Richardsen" (name changed on the blog to hide identity)

Buzzer Lady: "What time did you think your appointment was, exactly?"

Me: "I know. I'm really sorry. I thought I left with plenty of time, but then I got really lost and I've been running around out here in the rain for the last half hour. Very sorry."

Buzzer Lady: "Well, you better come on up. I don't know if you can sit the test, but come up and we'll see what we can do."

Me: "Ok. Thank you!"

I go inside and the building porter tells me it'll be fine, just sweet-talk her. He wishes me luck and I dart up the stairs, probably splattering rain-water and sweat everywhere. I apologize a few more times when I get to the test centre and she says the only way I can take the test is if I don't do the marketing and customer satisfaction surveys at the end. Uhm, OK. Perfectly fine with that. She tells me she could have given me a lift because she lives just near me. "Wish I'd known!" She asks about my American accent because it says my nationality is Danish. I explain why. She tells me to go hand my documents to her colleague around the corner. He takes me into another room where several people are well into their tests and shows me what I need to do.

The multiple choice section is a breeze and I whizz through it as I'm trying to stop sweating. I have to mop my brow with my wet shirt every few minutes. I click away at the answers. Then I move on to the hazard perception bit. This requires headphones. Impressively, they provide a moist towelette to clean the headphone ear-cups with. Being somewhat "hygiene conscious", I make use of this before and after the test. The hazard perception takes a little longer because you have to watch the 14 clips (about a minute, minute and a half each). Finally, the test is over. I skip the marketing and customer satisfaction surveys (damn, I really wanted to do those) and go back out to reception. Buzzer Lady's colleague hands me an embossed certificate stating that I passed, "Well done!". I thank him, go back downstairs, tell the porter I talked her into it and that I passed the test, head back to the car I'm not supposed to be driving, and drive to work without L-plates or a fully licensed driver accompanying me.

Anyway, I passed and it only took me about 30 minutes for the whole thing (not counting the journey there). Yahoo! On to the next test... the practical. I'm going to call them tomorrow to schedule it. Apparently there's usually a five-week waiting list, but hopefully I can get a cancelled appointment or something. I want to get this over with! I'll probably do a one or two hour session with a driving instructor before the test, though. Just to make sure I've got the correct driving habits to pass the test.

Testing, testing

Well, I've been studying every day and I just took two sample tests on the Driving Standards Agency website. Scored 35 out of 35 on both of them, so I'm fairly confident I'll pass at least that part of the test tomorrow. The hazard perception test should be OK, too. I should be able to at least get 44 out of 75 points (the minimum to pass), though I would hope that I could score a little higher than that. Time to go to bed soon. The test is first thing in the morning.

"Your engine catches fire. What should you do first?
a) Lift the bonnet and disconnect the battery
b) Lift the bonnet and warn other traffic
c) Call a breakdown service
d) Call the fire brigade"



Answer: d

The Constitution... remember that?

Great little piece in The Observer today about how the fundaments of the US Constitution are being eroded by the current Administration. A shame really. After all, the Constitution is one of the things that defines America. Anyway, here it is:


Even a bag-lady can teach Bush about human rights

The President is destroying the constitution and few Americans seem to care or even notice

Henry Porter
Sunday September 10, 2006
The Observer

An elaborately turned-out bag-lady of the sort you occasionally see in Manhattan - a former fashion editor, perhaps, or designer who has lost her mind but not her style - stopped in front of all the people sunning themselves in Bryant Park and shouted at me: 'I obey the constitution.' I wish I had had the wit to shout back: 'Which is more than your President.'

What Bush is doing in the run-up to the midterm elections is a disgrace equal to any other scandal of his nasty, incipiently despotic, regime. Using the hallowed anniversary of 9/11, he has demanded Congress pass a law that enables the major terrorist suspects, until now held in CIA secret prisons all over the world, to be transferred and tried at Guantanamo.

The proposed courts would allow evidence obtained by what is politely called in America 'coercive interrogation' as well as hearsay and would deny the suspects' rights to see evidence against them because it is deemed by the government to be classified. Because these courts plainly fly in the face of the rights enshrined by the American constitution and the Geneva Convention, the Supreme Court ruled against them last June.

This was hardly going to deter Bush and Dick Cheney. Last week, the President made a speech to an audience of sympathisers in the White House, many of whom had lost people in the attacks five years ago, to promote this legislation. If enacted, it will set Congress and the executive against the Supreme Court and the United States against international standards of decency and the rule of law.

Whatever Congress decides, nothing can change the court's original opinion that the United States would be in violation of article three of the Geneva Convention, which only allows for trials in regular courts that afford 'the guarantees which are recognised as indispensable by civilised people'.

The day after his speech, Bush went to Atlanta to address another audience, this time of 'conservative intellectuals' (truly an oxymoron in Bush's America), and told it that he required a law from Congress that would legalise the NSA's eavesdropping programme, which has also been held by the courts to be illegal and against the rights established in the constitution. The strategy of demanding these laws now is actually rather clever. Every member of Congress and some senators are about to go back to their constituencies to fight the November midterm elections and few are willing to stand up for the constitutional rights when security is still the top priority of the vast majority of American voters.

Bush is likely to get what he wants from Congress, at the same time as refocusing attention on the terrorist threat rather than the inferno in Iraq.

Not many Americans appear to understand what is going on. But a few do - the odd bag-lady, dissident, late-night talk shows such as Bill Maher's and the New York Times which, considering it is the leading voice of liberal, law-abiding America, has been a mite too genteel for my tastes these past five years. However its editorial on Thursday did say this: 'Mr Bush wants to re-write American law to create a glaring exception to the Geneva Convention, to give ex post facto approval to abusive interrogation methods and to bar legal challenges to the system.'

Precisely. The point that will surely feature in the forthcoming obituary of American rights and values is that the law that Bush proposes includes a measure which makes it retroactive to 11 September 2001. So, officials and CIA interrogators will be protected from prosecution under the War Crimes Act for anything they may have done from the inception of the 'war on terror', i.e. 9/11.

Why would this be necessary unless Americans had been torturing the 14 senior suspects who have been transferred to Guantanamo? It certainly gives the lie to Bush's statement on Thursday: 'The United States does not torture. It is against our laws and our values.'

Rupert Murdoch's dreadful Fox News and his papers promote these utterances, offering a subliminal wink in the direction of the White House because they understand that torture is part of the 'war on terror' and, more crucially, that bamboozling Congress before the recess will concentrate more power in the 'decider's' hands.

It is all part of a process of fashioning what Dick Cheney called 'strong, robust executive authority' with 'constitutional powers unimpaired'; that is to say, executive power which is untrammelled by the courts or the people's representatives in Congress. As in Britain, power is remorselessly flowing to the centre and threatens to disrupt, if not permanently cripple, the democratic system.

At the last count, Bush has discreetly claimed the authority to disobey 740 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the constitution.

This state of affairs has gradually developed since the days of the Depression, when Roosevelt used the economic crisis to gain more power for the executive branch. Before the Thirties, legislation had been precisely drafted so as to minimise interpretations by the executive branch. Now the executive branch can ignore anything it wants and only consults Congress when it needs a law to bypass the remaining obstacle to total and unfettered power - the Supreme Court.

You may think I exaggerate, but the facts speak for themselves. The majority of Americans cares not one jot for the constitution and lawyers and politicians are content to set aside any of the revered articles whenever it suits them. Nobody complains. There are no demonstrations on Massachusetts Avenue, no mass rallies in Central Park in defence of the constitution.

'It is paradoxical,' says American author Paul Craig Roberts, 'that American democracy is the likely casualty of the "war on terror" that is being justified in the name of expansion of democracy.' Quite.

[source: Guardian Unlimited, published September 10, 2006]

---

But here are some Americans that are noticing what the Bush administration is up to:

-The American Civil Liberties Union: "Even while the president's abuses of power diminish the light of American values, key victories since 2001 show that together we can carry the torch for freedom."

-Sourcewatch: Bush administration vs. the US Constitution

In case you'd like to read it, here's where you can find the US Constitution online.

---

In slightly-related other news, you've probably heard/seen the furore over the "documentary" that ABC is planning to air. If not, here's an article from the BBC: Clinton aides attack 9/11 drama; and from Air America Radio: ABC to alter miniseries. Interestingly, this 3-hour docudrama will be airing tonight and tomorrow night on BBC1 here in the UK, presumably unexpurgated. We're not very happy about this very distorted view of events will be presented over here as fact.

"What Really Makes Our Nation Strong" by Garrison Keillor

Here's another great little piece from Mr. Keillor. He mentions the fall of America. This is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. It's fair to say that America is an Empire. It is the World Empire, the biggest kid (bully?) in the playground. But history has shown us that all empires fall... without fail. Of course, I don't wish that on the US and I hope it's not anytime soon, but you can't deny the possibility because it is not just a possibility, it is a certainty. Anyway... these certainly are interesting times...

---

Published on Thursday, September 7, 2006 by the Baltimore Sun (Maryland)

What Really Makes our Nation Strong

by Garrison Keillor

Growing up in the '50s, we imagined our country defended by guided missiles poised in bunkers, jet fighters on the tarmac and pilots in the ready room prepared to scramble, a colonel with a black briefcase sitting in the hall outside the president's bedroom, but Sept. 11 gave us a clearer picture. We have a vast array of hardware, a multitude of colonels, a lot of bureaucratic confusion, and a nation vulnerable to attack.

The Federal Aviation Administration has now acknowledged that the third of the four planes seized by the 19 men with box cutters had already hit the Pentagon before the FAA finally called there to say there was a problem. The FAA lied to the 9/11 commission about this, then took two years to ascertain the facts - a 51-minute gap in defense - and released the finding on the Friday before Labor Day, an excellent burial site for bad news.

So America is not the secure fortress we grew up imagining. Perhaps it never was. What protects us is what has protected us for 230 years: our magnificent isolation. After the disasters of the 20th century, Europe put nationalism aside and adopted civilization, but we have oceans on either side, so if the president turns out to be a shallow, jingoistic fool with a small, rigid agenda and little knowledge of the world, we expect to survive it somehow. Life goes on.

It's hard for Americans to visualize the collapse of our country. It's as unthinkable as one's own demise. Europeans are different: They've seen disaster, even the British. They know it was a near thing back in 1940. My old Danish mother-in-law remembered the occupation clearly 40 years later and was teary-eyed when she talked about it. Francis Scott Key certainly could envision the demise of the United States in 1814 when he watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Abraham Lincoln was haunted by the thought. We are not, apparently, though five years ago we saw a shadow.

We really are one people at heart. We all believe that when thousands of people are trapped in the Superdome without food or water, it is the duty of government, the federal government if necessary, to come to their rescue and to restore them to the civil mean and not abandon them to fate. Right there is the basis of liberalism. Conservatives tried to introduce a new idea - it's your fault if you get caught in a storm - and this idea was rejected by nine out of 10 people once they saw the pictures. The issue is whether we care about people who don't get on television.

Last week, I sat and listened to a roomful of parents talk about their battles with public schools in behalf of their children who suffer from dyslexia, or apraxia, or ADD, or some other disability - sagas of ferocious parental love vs. stonewall bureaucracy in the quest for basic, needful things - and how some of them had uprooted their families and moved to Minnesota so their children could attend better schools. You couldn't tell if those parents were Republicans or Democrats. They simply were prepared to move mountains so their kids could have a chance. So are we all.

And that's the mission of politics: to give our kids as good a chance as we had. They say that liberals have run out of new ideas - it's like saying that Christians have run out of new ideas. Maybe the old doctrine of grace is good enough.

I don't get much hope from Democrats these days, a timid and skittish bunch, slow to learn, unable to sing the hymns and express the steady optimism that is at the heart of the heart of the country. I get no hope at all from Republicans, whose policies seem predicated on the Second Coming occurring in the very near future.

If Jesus does not descend through the clouds to take them directly to paradise, and do it now, they are going to have to answer to the rest of us.

Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

[source: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0907-26.htm ]

Going Legit

You are only allowed to drive for one year in the UK with a non-EU driver's license. After that, you're supposed to either stop driving or get a UK license. We've been here for longer than a year, so we're obviously living beyond the bounds of the law. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as just trading my American driver's license for a UK license. I have to go through the same procedure that a new driver has to go through. That is, apply for a provisional license (learner's permit), take a theory test, and then a practical driving test. When you have a provisional license you have to have a Learner sticker on the front and back of your car and any time you drive you have to have someone with you who has had a full license for at least 3 years. You're not allowed to drive at night or on the motorway. Let's just say, we've been flaunting these "provisions" quite brazenly. An L sticker just doesn't look good on a BMW! We don't drive very often and in the event of being pulled over, I will show my US license and play dumb. [In a Texan accent, "Sorry officer? I can't drive over here with this license? I'm terribly sorry. I'll drive right home and park it, officer. Nope, won't happen again. Have a nice day!"

Anyway, I'm in the process of making things right, of going legit with a UK license. I have my provisional license (with the customary horrible photo) and I have booked my theory test for next Thursday at 8:30am. For the past few weeks, I've been reading the Highway Code book and a couple of "Pass Your Theory Test" books. Not doing too bad on the sample questions, though I'm not completely without a worry. You have to get 30 out of 35 questions correct. I should be fine, but historically, I don't test well. Even in subjects that I am fairly knowledgeable about. Aside from the theory questions, there's a section in which you have to watch a bunch of clips to test your hazard perception. I'm fairly confident I can pass that without too much trouble because I've been driving for about 12 years and I'm actually a pretty good driver, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Well, a week from now, I'll either be moving on to my practical test or having to book a re-take of the theory test. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

A Winner

A bit of good news. A few weeks ago The Guardian did a prize draw for The Mavericks DVD Collection box sets. There was a little ad in the Sunday paper. I usually enter contests like this because it's always nice to win something and you can't do that if you don't enter. Anyway, I had forgotten about it. Last week somebody from The Guardian called our house. K was working from home that day. The lady said she just wanted to confirm our address because I had won the prize draw. The DVDs arrived yesterday. Twelve of them! The prize draw wasn't just for ONE of the box sets, but for all four! They're all great films, too:

European Mavericks - "Love Gone Wrong" with:
Together
Vodka Lemon
Dear Wendy

European Mavericks - "Heart of Darkness" with:
Das Experiment
Evil
Pusher

Mavericks - "Driven by a Vision" with:
Overnight
Donnie Darko
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Mavericks - "Fight the Power" with:
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Manic
The Corporation

Woo hoo!!! It pays to enter competitions! This is the second DVD(s) I've won this summer. A couple of months ago, I won The Green Butchers DVD from Fortean Times [look at the bottom of this page]. There was no telephone call about that one. It just arrived one day in a padded envelope with no explanation. Took me a while to figure out how I had ended up getting that one.

What!?!

Steve Irwin was killed...













...by a stingray!

I'm a bit bummed by this. I always liked that guy. Watched his show a lot when it first came out. I felt like he was a bit protected against getting killed by an animal because he had built up so much good karma from helping animals in so many ways, but I guess it wasn't foolproof. Still, a stingray barb to the heart... shit.

Mr. Crocodile Hunter, you will be missed.

"A Plan to Save the Country" by Garrison Keillor

---Copied and pasted from Common Dreams Newscenter. ---

It's the best part of summer, the long, lovely passage into fall. A procession of lazy, golden days that my sandy-haired, gap-toothed little girl has been painting, small abstract masterpieces in tempera and crayon and glitter, reminiscent of Franz Kline or Willem de Kooning (his early glitter period). She put a sign out front, "Art for Sale," and charged 25 cents per painting. Cheap at the price.

A teacher gave her this freedom to sit un-self-consciously and put paint on paper. A gentle, 6-foot-8 guy named Matt who taught art at her preschool. Her swimming teachers gave her freedom from fear of water. So much that has made this summer a pleasure for her I trace to specific teachers, and so it's painful to hear about public education sinking all around us.

A high school math class of 42! Everybody knows you can't teach math to 42 kids at once. The classroom smells bad because the custodial staff has been cut back. The teacher must whip his pupils into shape to pass the federal No Child Left Untested program. This is insanity, the legacy of Republicans and their tax-cutting and their hostility to secular institutions.

Last spring, I taught a college writing course and had the privilege of hanging out with people in their early 20s, an inspirational experience in return for which I tried to harass them about spelling and grammar and structure. My interest in being 21 again is less than my interest in having a frontal lobotomy, but the wit and passion and good-heartedness of these kids, which they try to conceal under their exquisite cool, are the hope of this country. You have to advocate for young people, or else what are we here for?

I keep running into retirees in their mid-50s, free to collect seashells and write bad poetry and shoot video of the Grand Canyon, and goody for them, but they're not the future. My college kids are graduating with a 20-pound ball of debt chained to their ankles. That's not right, and you know it.

This country is squashing its young. We're sending them to die in a war we don't believe in anymore. We're cheating them so we can offer tax relief to the rich. And we're stealing from them so that old gaffers like me, who want to live forever, can go in for an MRI if we have a headache.

A society that pays for MRIs for headaches and can't pay teachers a decent wage has made a dreadful choice. But health care costs are ballooning, eating away at the economy. The boomers are getting to an age where their knees need replacing and their hearts need a quadruple bypass - which they feel entitled to - but our children aren't entitled to a damn thing. Any goombah with a Ph.D. in education can strip away French and German, music and art, dumb down the social sciences, offer Britney Spears instead of Shakespeare, and there is nothing the kid can do except hang out in the library, which is being cut back too.

This week, we mark the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the Current Occupant's line, "You're doing a heckuva job," which already is in common usage, a joke, a euphemism for utter ineptitude. It's sure to wind up in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, a summation of his occupancy.

Annual interest on the national debt now exceeds all government welfare programs combined. We'll be in Iraq for years to come. Hard choices need to be made, and given the situation we're in, I think we must bite the bullet and say no more health care for card-carrying Republicans. It just doesn't make sense to invest in longevity for people who don't believe in the future. Let them try faith-based medicine, let them pray for their arteries to be reamed and their hips to be restored, and leave science to the rest of us.

Cutting out health care to one-third of the population - the folks with Bush-Cheney bumper stickers, who still believe the man is doing a heckuva job - will save enough money to pay off the national debt, not a bad legacy for Republicans. As Scrooge said, let them die and reduce the surplus population. In return, we can offer them a reduction in the estate tax. All in favor, blow your nose.

Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

Published on Thursday, August 31, 2006 by the Baltimore Sun (Maryland)

Organic Milk

Scientists say organic milk is healthier -

[Click here] to go to read little article about these findings, which I might add, where partly from a study by Danish scientists!

We try to buy organic milk as much as possible. Right now, that's pretty easy because there is a Waitrose supermarket near us, but they are relocating in October, so I'm not sure what we'll do then. Anyway, I think it is even more important to drink organic milk in the US particularly because the non-organic milk has a lot more hormones and antibiotics floating around in it. Nasty stuff (see the intense documentary "The Corporation" for more info about that). When we lived in the US, we used to buy our milk from Trader Joe's whenever possible.

Be good to your body, eat and drink organic!

SOAP

Snakes on a Plane

All the critics panned this film - but I say GO SEE IT. It is a pure popcorn movie and I walked out with smile on my face. It's not a big deep film and it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be fun! There are some very funny moments (intentionally or not) and the actors are all good. I would watch Samuel L. Jackson read a cereal box. I mean - the man is cool. Most everyone is probably aware of the backstory to this film getting made. Samuel L. agreed to do the film before reading the script because the title was so good. The studio wanted to change the title and SL said he would quit if they did it. There aren't many actors who would stand up to the studio for a film that might not do their career any good. He wanted to do it because it would be fun. How can you not respect that? So support him and the other people that took a risk with this film and go buy a ticket!

~K

Chilly!

It's been a strange month in terms of weather. June and July were quite warm and sometimes sweltering, but August has been strangely chilly. Feels like October or something. You can wear jeans and a long-sleeve shirt and still feel a bit chilled throughout the day. We've been wondering if June through July was our only summer this year. If there isn't an "Indian summer" coming in September, then we'll be right into fall and winter. Good thing this new apartment has radiators instead of the ridiculous heating system we had in Winchester. K was pretty much frozen solid from last November to May this year. And we'll have a reprieve from the British winter in December when we visit my family in Florida for a couple of weeks.

Don't get me wrong... I like this kind of weather. It's my favorite. Slightly cool-to-cold, but sunny at the same time.

Wal-Mart = Evil

When Bush Jr. talks about "evil-doers" or "evil folks", he should include the people who own and run Wal-Mart. That's right, that American-as-apple-pie institution of cheap, rolled-back prices is nothing more than a dispicably immoral corporation. I don't know how the Walton family sleeps at night, though I suppose they are fairly comforted by their $18-billion net worth (each). And Lee Scott, the CEO of Wal-Mart... well, let's just say he's a bit wealthy, too. These people are staggeringly wealthy and they do so little for charity and even less for their own employees. Isn't that evil?

Well, you can judge for yourself. Please watch the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price and then, like us, decide you're never going to shop at Wal-Mart or its subsidiaries like Sam's Club or (over here) Asda ever again. You have to see this film!

Or at the very least, read the facts.

Limpy and Gimpy

It's a good thing we live in a building full of OAPs (Old Age Pensioners) because we're going to be right there with'em before too long (at least physically). K and I are both nursing semi-debilitating leg injuries. Her right ankle and my left knee. Don't be alarmed. It's nothing serious.

Yesterday morning, when K was having her morning run on the beach, she clambered up a couple of boulders and stepped slightly wrong on one of them. No injury occurred at that time because she was able to keep running, but it must have slightly weakened the ankle (this will come into play later in the day). Now, mid-day, K is out going to a couple of the Westbourne shops, while I'm at home doing a bit of work in our "office" (filing some bills, checking our finances, etc.). Going from the filing cabinet to the desk and sitting down, I slam my left knee quite hard into the leg of the desk. This knee was already a bit dodgey from a strange injury a few years ago. Anyway, it hurt and it kept on hurting. It's OK when I'm moving around, but it just gets a bit stiff and painful if I have been sitting for a while. I'm sure it's just a contusion or something. It's better today.

So, we've finished lunch and now it's time to do some painting out on the patio. K would paint another dining chair and I would paint my wardrobe. While the items were drying, the plan was to go see Superman Returns (tickets pre-booked since Thursday). We carry the wardrobe out to the patio and in the process, K twists her right ankle again. This time it hurt, but she didn't say anything. I only find out about it 10 or 15 minutes later when she tells me her ankle hurts. She tells me about the boulder-clambering incident and then about carrying the wardrobe. We continue painting. By the time we're done, K's ankle has swollen quite a bit and is very painful. She goes inside to sit down with the leg raised and to ice the ankle. But there's no ice in the freezer, the cubes are still a bit liquidy. I put them in a zip-lock bag anyway and then scrape all of the freezer frost into the bag as well. This is somewhat soothing for her ankle, but it's still very painful for her to walk. What about the movie? It's starting in an hour. We try to figure out a way for her to go anyway, but ultimately decide against it. She makes me go by myself, though I really felt like I should stay with her. I reluctantly leave.

Without my navigator, it takes me a very long time to find the movie theatre and I end up driving a lot further than necessary. I make it just in time (good thing I have a seat booked already) and I even get a cash refund for the unused ticket despite the notice on the booking confirmation that says "no refunds or exchanges". I watch the film. I am entertained. I decide that we need to go to the movie theatre more often, rather than saying, "Oh, we'll wait for that one on DVD." The cinema industry is hurting, people aren't going to the movies as much. I feel like we need to help support it. We're going to budget for two movie theatre movies per month (at least).

I hobble back out to the car to try driving home. This is also takes me longer than it should. Before heading home, I go to our "24-hour" Tesco to do the grocery shopping. In the over-the-counter meds section I take a packet of Ibuprofen, open it, and dry-swallow two caplets (I also purchase the packet, don't worry). There's also something called Ibuprofen Gel, so I get some of that, too. Couldn't hurt. Actually, the stuff is great! Rub it on the affected area and away goes the pain and some of the swelling!

This morning, we wake up and assess our injuries. K is able to walk with only a slight limp and so can I. Instead of our Sunday yoga session, we go to the beach for some "hydro-therapy" (i.e.- go for a swim in the cold sea). The temperature was goose-pimple-making at first, but you get used to it after the first plunge. Then it's kind of nice, especially on the ol' knee and ankle. The sea was smooth as glass, very calm. The temperature today is absolutely perfect. Heavenly. We feel fit enough to do some more painting and a bit of house-cleaning. Something tells me we won't be hobbling around for too much longer.

Which brings me around to Limpy and Gimpy. There are a few different animal residents in the garden around our flat. Mostly squirrels, magpies, and a few wood pigeons. I throw bread to the birds and whole peanuts to the squirrels. One of the squirrels has recently injured it's front right paw. He/she runs on three legs with the injured paw held up in the air. He/she is now referred to as Limpy. I wish I could catch it so I can take a look at the injury, but that's probably not a good idea. Anyway, there's also a magpie that looks a little worse for wear. It's really scraggly and thin. Almost looks like another type of bird masquerading in magpie colors. It must have been the runt of the litter. I've been trying to target-feed these two misfits in an attempt to make their lives just a little easier. That poor magpie is so pathetic looking! It probably doesn't have any friends. He/she is now known as Gimpy.

Well, tonight we're going to have an English Sunday Roast for dinner. Roast leg of pork with roast parsnips, mushy peas, gravy, and Yorkshire puddings. OK, the mushy peas aren't a traditional component of a Sunday Roast. I'm sure our English friends reading this are scoffing heartily at this concept. Hey, we had a can of them here and just felt like having them. Who knows, might be pretty good!

---

PS - When I was at Tesco last night, I asked the manager about this faux-24-hour thing. They said it is 24-hour... from Monday morning to Saturday night when they close at 10pm to abide by national employment law. So, it looks like I just misunderstood the sign. It says "Monday 8am - Saturday 10pm". They're in the clear, I guess. Though it is a little misleading to have a big 24-Hours logo on the sign when it's only open around the clock five days per week.