On October 26, the day after his 33rd birthday, b!X will be marching in San Francisco to protest our government’s warmongering policy on Iraq. I hope that it becomes a birthday bash and not a head bashing for him.
So, if any of you are in SF at the same time and run into him, give him a big birthday hug and kiss from his Momma, who hasn’t had a chance to do that for years and years now.
And may all of you marchers and protesters be safe and successful. And so may all of us who don’t believe that waging war against Iraq is going to make life better for anyone but those who are already protected by power and money.

That’s my “familiar,” Calli. And that’s how I’m feeling these days.
The craft fair was a success for me. And, on top of that, the owner of a boutique near Vassar college bought two of the more funky versions of my spiral shawl and is going to contact me about selling them. She thinks the Vassar coeds will love ’em. I saw something similar in a yarn catalog, and they called it a “mananita.” Anyone ever hear of such a thing? I can’t find mucn on the Net. It might be a traditional piece of Swedish or Icelandic apparel.
Yes, I feel like Nero, fiddling while Rome burns.

Madame DeFarge knitted her way through the French Revolution. At least her knitting had a political purpose. I, on the other hand, am spending this weekend selling my crocheted “accessories for heads and shoulders” at a craft fair. As I sit there in my booth under a tent in the rain, crocheting, I can’t help thinking that I should be doing something more political than crocheting. But what can I do? What can I do? Unlike Madame DeFarge, I’m not a player with a capital “P.” And this is not a revolution. Yet.

OK. So Congress passed the resolution empowering King George to wage war. Now what do we do?
One thing we can do if we live near (or can get to) Washington D.C. or San Francisco on October 26th is to join the marches being organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), a broad coalition of peace groups, religious organizations, student groups, anti-globalization, and anti-racism groups. ANSWER was formed to oppose war, support global justice and self-determination, stop racist attacks on Arabs, Muslims, South Asians and all people of color, and defend civil rights and civil liberties.
Detailed information about ANSWER and the marches is here.

Periodically, I get emails from various anti-war friends to sign an email petition or some such thing. Thanks to the education b!X has given me about separating the internet wheat from the chaff, I have learned to reply to such emails with a version of the following message — which I just sent to the dozens of people who also received the latest email and whose addresses were at my mercy in the body of the message.
You should know that this effort is bogus and is just a waste of your time.
There are several sites that you can check for the validity of similar
efforts and other rumors spread over the internet. One of these is
http://www.snopes.com/index.htm. If you go there and search for “United
Nations Peace Petition,” you will find an explanation of this untrue rumor.
Also, just a helpful hint for when you send out mass emails — it’s wise to
enter those addresses in the BCC: box so that all of those addresses are not
visible. (For example, I was able to send this message to everyone who was
on the mailing list along with me.)
Finally, if you want to keep up with all kinds of non-mainstream information
about “King George” and his efforts to propel us into a warring frenzy,
check out www.poxamericana.us.

Wednesday, 10/09/02
Pox American reports that
As of this moment, Senator Robert Byrd is having a fight on the Senate floor over the procedures currently set forth in the Senate rules for this debate. Under the pressure of Senator Daschle, they are heading towards a vote on cloture for 10:15 AM tomorrow morning — cloture being the end of the debate, and the start of the final hours leading up to an actual vote on the resolution itself.
Senator Byrd is requesting that by unanimous consent, the Senate remove that 10:15 AM vote on cloture, because they Senate has only been debating this issue since the end of last week, and that being too short a time for such a wighty issue.
Now is the moment to make your voice heard over the phone to your state’s Senators. Call and ask each to support Byrd’s request to remove tomorrow’s 10:15 AM vote on cloture. Or if the actual resolution comes to a vote, to vote against it. DO IT before it’s too late!

Several times during my massage last week, my massage therapist stopped and said “I can’t tell if you’re breathing. Take a breath!”
She made me aware that when I’m focused on something, when my brain is grinding away at full speed, my breathing becomes so shallow that it’s barely perceptible.
I just linked out of Pox Americana because I realized that I had actually stopped taking in breaths. The mental process of absorbing all of the complexities — and all of the insane convolutions — of what’s going on literally took my breath away.
I’ve got to go and breathe — deep, relaxing, healing, mind-drifting breaths. I can’t make the fact that we are on the verge of triggering a world-wide murdering spree go away, but maybe I can breathe away the stress of knowing that. Certainly, a little more oxygen in my system can’t hurt.
Last month or so ago, I happened to catch a part of a special on life in the Long Island Hamptons about Oxygen Bars (they don’t serve liquor; they sell whiffs of oxygen). Right now, I wouldn’t mind a double.

While George Partington is linking to some historically timely educational pieces, and Marek is struggling to survive through the fiscal downslide of current history, and b!X is marching to affect the course of future history, I sit and watch a subtitled movie that reminds me, again, why educated dissent is important, why passionate ideals are important, why committed solidarity is important, why continuing to hold the mirror of truth up to our current grotesquely warped American government is important.
The Man of Iron, takes place in the context of Lech Walesa

I’m stealing the following off George Partington’s site because it really got to me. He got it from here.
Filmmaker Steve Tesich, who wrote love letters to America in films like Breaking Away and Four Friends, was described by his sister as being “romantic, sweetly na