Happy Solstice and New Year!

We're still traveling, with little chance to stop and write a blog. When we get back home (we leave Buenos Aires for Madrid on December 31, expect to be back in Carboneras on 3 Kings Day, January 6) I'll try to catch everybody up on our adventures in Buenos Aires (capital), Buenos Aires Province (La Plata and many little towns in the pampa), Santiago de Chile, Viña del Mar and Valparaíso. Lots of pictures and stories to come. Thanks for your notes and cards, and please excuse this unpersonalized reply -- time on Internet is pretty limited while we're on the move. Have a wonderful 2007, full of new experiences, understandings and satisfactions.

Outsourcing hits a new class of workers: Journalists - Business - International Herald Tribune

Outsourcing hits a new class of workers: Journalists - Business - International Herald Tribune

A glimpse into Israeli collective psychosis

Thanks to Lois and Khalil Nakhleh for pointing me to this analysis. It will help us understand a psychopathology in which our U.S. Government has become complicit. A glimpse into Israeli collective psychosis

Arrested for watching TV!

This is deranged patriotism -- "Fahrenheit 451" applied to the airwaves. Two Individuals Arrested for Supporting Hizballah

No comment (Awk!)

Laura Bush bought a parrot for George Bush's birthday.
She told Dick Cheney, "This bird is so smart! George has already taught him to mispronounce over 200 words!"
"Wow, that's pretty impressive," Cheney said. "But you realize that he just 'says' the words. He doesn't understand what they mean."
"That's okay," Laura replied. "Neither does the parrot."
--From a friend

Drawing of Joe Carioca by Don Rosa,
"Duck Man"

The future of the world

They took all the trees,
put 'em in a tree museum / And they charged the people / a dollar and a half just to see 'em.
(Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi, 1970)

Photo of "Protected Ancient Tree. Sister of Sequoia." Brisbane, Australia.
Photo: Glenn Weiss

Boycotting the Enemy, boycotting oneself

Sensible words from Uri Avnery: "This distinction between "moderates" and "fanatics" on the Arab side is superficial and misleading. Basically, this is an American invention. It evades the real problems. It contains a large measure of contempt for Arab society. It leads to a dead end." Grossman's Dilemma - Gush Shalom - Israeli Peace Bloc

Meanwhile, BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraqi death toll hits record high

Responsible shopping is not enough

Mark Engler has an article in the November issue of New Internationalist, which is on the stands but not yet on-line. Meanwhile, you can check out the September issue of NI (always interesting), and then check back in (I suppose) a few days to read Mark's piece, which is clearly argued and well researched as usual: Sweating over sweatshops: Supporting 'clean clothes' campaigns to end the exploitative labour practices that pervade the textile industry is not as simple as just picking the 'right' brand to buy, reveals Mark Engler.

Doomsday and rebirth

As I read what the scientists say and watch what the politicians and the lords of industry do, I wonder which of us will perish first: I or the planet. As things stand now, I'm the one in better health. But if Earth continues to sicken, that's it for me too.

Unexpected things could happen. They always do. The planet could survive by some as yet unforeseen reaction against all that our race has been doing to it. Some great cataclysm, more powerful than any tsunami or eruption we remember, may free it to survive without us. If intelligent life eventually reappears, will it find any trace of who we were? And will it care? Or will it be doomed to repeat the same mistakes?

Don't call it hunger!

Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry - washingtonpost.com