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 (just the) "World of Importance" Entries Stop the Buck! (and share this comic!) October 3, 2008  Click for larger (so you can, you know, read it) as well as for creative commons info, and for a free print-quality, one-page PDF, which you are encouraged to redistribute. U.S. Voters! Register to vote (and find local deadlines for registration, which in many cases are fast approaching!), verify your registration, and learn about early voting in your area by entering your zip code at WWW.MAPS.GOOGLE.COM/VOTE.
 And The New Bond Villain Shall Be Named Bailout September 22, 2008 Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency. (NY Times)Why do I get the feeling we're at the end of an eight-year heist movie, and the "twist" is how the guys who kept insisting they were trying to help the economy with their bass-ackward policies were actually intentionally dooming it, all so they could get the United States to let go of 700 billion dollars with no strings attached? All we need now is for them to be hired the top recipient(s) of the bailout (or better yet, betrayed and scapegoated by them) as soon as they leave office* , and we've got ourselves an ending! (No, I don't think this will happen. I mean, I hope... Please don't.)
Klean Kanteen FTW: Nalgene No More August 3, 2008 So I'm an early adopter of at least one annoying habit. For eight or nine years now, I've carried around a 32 oz Nalgene water bottle almost everywhere I went. Work. Play. Home. Travel. Clarion. Bathroom. I'd fill it with water twice per day, on average. This. Is. What. I. Drank. Out. Of. I remember going to parties and Jen telling me to put my Nalgene back in the car (I brought it with me out of habit, on accident, I swear!! I do have _some_ social skills...).  I had to pry the Nalgene from Thor's cold, furry paws. I championed the Nalgene, because of its health benefits (hydration, hydration, hydration!), as well as the environmental and financial benefits (purchasing one kickass bottle every two years or so vs purchasing disposable water bottles wherever I went). Reasonable, right? Early adopter or no, I bloomed late to the health risks of the BPAs and the polycarbonite plastics Nalgene uses. I took the "sure, isn't everything bad for you in large enough amounts?" line. But post head injury, I've forced myself to become more aware of everything that goes into my body. And something that's bad for you in large amounts is probably bad for someone who drinks 64 ounces of it per day, almost every day, for the better part of a decade.  One of the "publicity photos" Jamie snapped for me a few years back. Wanted to capture the real me... So a few months ago, I finally switched to a 40 oz stainless steel Klean Kanteen. It's a clear winner, though not without downsides.  Hey, I watch your baby-picture slideshows. You can give five seconds to my water receptacles. My big concern was that the metal would make the water taste tinny, as drinking out of aluminum or eating out of a can does. It doesn't. It's as flavorless as glass, which makes water taste _better_ than the plastic Nalgene ever did. And there's no musty smell that I'd get ever after the third or fourth wash of new Nalgene.  Drink-holder desk attachment. Sorry, ladies. I'm taken. It keeps the water cold--or at least feeling cold--longer, the way a can of soft drink can feel colder than a 20 oz plastic bottle in the same refrigerated case. The 40 oz Klean Kanteen is the same width as the 32 oz Nalgene, so my two accessories (the shown desk-holder thing above and carabiner thing below--I think the latter's a Bottle Belt from REI) are compatible.  Thor finds love again. (The white rope to the cap is a homemade thing, to make it easier to carry, to keep me from losing the cap, and to keep me from having to set the cap down where the cats will lick it.)  One second rule: it's on the table for one second, so it belongs to Loki. The Kons of the Klean Kanteen? It's a little bit heavier (though I'm comparing a 40 oz Kanteen with a 32 oz Nalgene; there are smaller models). It's opaque, and there's no measurement lines to tell me how full it is. And I don't like (or at least I'm not used to) the cap options, compared with the wide assortment available for the Nalgene. FWIW, I did have a wide mouth Nalgene, so I don't know whether a small-mouth Nalgene's caps are interchangeable with the Kanteen's. So now I'm the annoying guy who carries 40 oz of water around with him instead of 32. I can live with that.  Sure, Loki likes the Kanteen's shine... ...but preferred (even as a baby!) the Nalgene's chewiness. Why not go with a BPA-free Nalgene? Yes, Nalgene now makes BPA-free plastic bottles. But seeing how they've insisted on the safety of their polycarbonite products up to and after replacing them with bottles they emphasize as BPA-free (as their largest selling point, even!), I think they've worn out any brand loyalty or trust I might have had. That's right, Klean Kanteen. Don't think you can phone it in and automatically keep my business. I'm a mercenary consumer! Note that there's been no recall and that polycarbonite Nalgene bottles still seem widely available in outdoor stores, etc; if you do purchase a Nalgene plastic bottle, look for an indication that the exact one you're purchasing is BPA-free. If I was going to go with BPA-free plastic instead of stainless steel (I think I'm too clumsy for glass), the Kor One looks promising. Supposed to come out this month. Given how much water I drink on a daily basis, I didn't think it would be a good idea to wait any longer.  You put your weed in there.
The Fox News Guide to Terrorist Gang Signs June 12, 2008  Terrorist Fist Jab, Obviously.  Elitist Book-Hold Of Getting News and Info from Non-Television Sources.  Clap Of Encouragement For Things Which Everyday Americans Wouldn't Want Encouraged If You Asked Them. But Don't Ask Them.  Chin Rub Of Not Waiting Until Fox Has Reported Before Deciding.  Hands-On-Hips While Letting Illegal Aliens Sneak Up Behind Us And Steal Our Precious Sunlight Which Just Because We're Not Using It As A Primary Energy Source Doesn't Mean They Can Bolster Their Own Super Powers With It And BTW A Name Like Kal-El Should Totally Be On The No Fly List.  Peacy Fingers Of Not Getting Everything We Want.  (left hand:) Wave Of Welcoming Enemies So They Can Have Their Way With Our Womens. (right hand:) Terrorist Microphone Clench, Obviously.  Thumbs-Up Of Supporting Things Like The GI Bill's Education Plan Which Okay Supports Our Troops But How Is Sometimes Not Wearing A Flag Pin Any Different Than Having Your Fingers Crossed?
Bias Wars: Headline vs Copy March 6, 2008 That's what I call balanced reporting!  (click to enlarge image) http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/06/clinton-leads-obama-in-texas-caucuses-count/
Yes We Can February 5, 2008 For anyone interested: Chords are G Bm Em C. Bridge is Am C G. Just sayin. Google video version (which includes Quicktime/iPod video download if, like me, you don't play well with Flash Video AND if, like me, you're more interested in the song than the music video because it's easier to extract the audio that way): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6626015481685587523 Lyrics, etc: www.yeswecansong.com
Sicko and Other Media/Crit Fun July 23, 2007 Congrats on the Congressional Gold, Norman Borlaug! But can we get a moratorium on press about Borlaug (scarce that it is) that begins with "it's a tragedy this guy doesn't get more press?" Because you know who's responsible for that sort of thing, right? It's like starting a sentence with "I'm not a jackass, but..." Michael Moore's Sicko opened in wide release this weekend. Along with Breach, Zodiac, and The Lives of Others, it's among my favorite films of the year so far and I urge anyone and everyone to see it and talk about it--and to think about their own experience with health care in the U.S., and what they'd like it to be. Even if it's far from perfect--and not for the reasons critics keep saying--Sicko is an excellent starting point for the discussion we really need to have. For disclosure: I've been a proponent of universal health care (or at least a hybrid between our system and universal, like what Costa Rica or Australia has) since before the first time my insurance provider declined to pay for my routine physical because it was "a preexisting condition" (what was? my body?). Jen works in health care and feels similarly, though we've decided to keep paying for insurance as long as we can afford it. It's a mixed bag, but in cases of expensive emergency it can be the difference between solvency and bankruptcy. And even a socialized-medicine-sympathizer like myself can think of times when health insurance actually came through for us. I think the best and most informative analysis and extrapolation of Sicko and the subjects it brings up (a continuation of the discussion, if you will) has come from Jonathan Oberlander on Terry Gross's Fresh Air a few weeks back (MP3 podcast still available for at least a few more days here/direct MP3 download here). Among other things, he talks about the history of managed care, the way health insurance is already subsidized less-than-fairly in our country, and the employer-based universal coverage of Germany, which might be a more realistic goal for our system to aspire to, at least in the shorter term. It's because I agree with so much of what Moore says in Sicko, that I wish the film was better. The mistake his documentaries repeatedly makes has little to do with any alleged inacuracies or his decision to put himself front-and-center as a lightning rod (though his name alone pursuades some people I know to avoid his work entirely). It's that he doesn't take opposing views seriously enough. At its core, Sicko is predominantly anecdotal. Yes, I agree with Moore more often than not. But if I didn't, I could cherry-pick the horror stories from countries with universal health care and juxtapose them with the miracle-cure-caliber triumphs of HMOs in the U.S. when they actually come through for their customers. I could create a polar opposite documentary (though lack of skill and heart on my part wouldn't make it nearly as good). And if I'm not an artist, but just a regular member who hears/experiences/believes the other side's talking points, then I won't see those arguments addressed so much as ignored. And if examples that resemble my own anecdotes are omitted, then what reason would I have to trust that Moore's addressing the same reality I'm living in? For example: If I go in believing that double-digit months for surgery was the rule in Canada and elsewhere, and Moore says "not true" and shows a few examples of short waits, I'll probably go away thinking Moore showed the exceptions not the rule. But what happens if Sicko acknowledges that, yes, these systems aren't perfect, and, yes, there can be long waits for non-life-or-death surgeries? And what if he compared that to the U.S. where wait time and access are not doled out based on need (life-threatening on one end, elective on the other) but doled out by providers based on what insurance plan you pay for, based on what you can afford? THEN when the opponents of universal health care bring out THEIR anecdotal examples (or when audience members already know of situations which contradict what they see in the film), Sicko loses none of its thunder. It's a proven method of argument in the written world. If Moore's films are cinematic essays (and, yes, they belong in the nonfiction section), then there's no reason he shouldn't use all the tools at his disposal. I've been a fan of Moore for years, so I think I understand why he does this: the mainstream media dismisses his views as fringe, so why should he give _their_ fringe views time when he's got the microphone? But I doubt a defense of there-are-fewer-problems-with-my-documentary-than-the-average-news-show-on-health-care variety is any better of a justification than it-was-quite-interesting-for-a-Michael-Bay-movie. Raise the bar, raise the debate, and bring a few more dissenters with you in the end. But the thing I cringe the most about is the examples he shows of just _how_ comprehensively some of these governments can provide for their citizens. It makes for a great entertainment, and it's mind-blowing how little we expect from our government by comparison. And doctors making housecalls in the middle of the night is positively utopian (all repect to E.M.S. workers; we're talking about preventative medicine and non-emergency services). But government-subsidized vacation and the state sending a maid to your house to help with the laundry (and who, pray tells, comes to the maid's house to help with her chores?) is exactly the kind of future that opponents of universal health care are trying to scare their constituents with. Universal health care WON'T lead to the socialization of everyday life, but the fodder's there in Sicko for the taking. I do hope I'm wrong. I was wrong in my impression of Farenheit 9/11. I thought it was Moore's weakest film to date, and by the end of it I was actually feeling sorry for our president, which is the effect that attack-ads always seem to have on me. But I know it changed some people's minds. And Sicko is Moore's most important documentary not because of the answers he gives, but because of the questions he asks. For that reason, I hope this is the beginning of the discussion and not the point where people tune it out. Footnote: Okay, now let's say you hate Michael Moore and can't understand why I give props to the guy for anything he's done. You don't want your mind changed. You just want further evidence that Moore's a pussy. Go rent Haro Kazuo's mesmerizing 1988 documentary The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On. Came out just before Moore's Roger & Me and follows Japanese WWII veteran and activist Okuzaki Kenzo's attempts to interview his commanding officers and get them to confess their war crimes. It'll solidify your suspicions that Moore is a lightweight (at least compared to Okuzaki Kenzo), and that torture might actually be an effective method of interrogation outside the world of Jack Bauer. It certainly challenged my ideas about the world. Pay no attention to the fact that Moore presented The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On at this year's Full Frame festival as one of the films that influenced him most. (I'm remembering again why I don't discuss or review "peer and peerless" projects very often anymore; I'm a slow writer and giving them half the comprehensiveness they deserve takes waaaaay more time than I can afford to give my journal right now. Also: getting one of those "Alex Wilson" Google Alerts with my Transformers review saddled with a more important article by BuildingGreen President Alex Wilson... that puts things into perspective, don't it?)
The Year Our Brains Turned Against Us April 20, 2007 Thanks for the well-wishes, everybody. Someone asked me how I was doing last night and I didn't cry. That's progress. I was also able to do some writing. Two mutual friends of Jamie, (and the first guys I emailed on Monday, after trying to get in touch with Jamie and Steffi and then learning that a German class was one of the locations hit) have posted remembrances: Michael Jasper and Jason Lundberg. It was Jason who got through to Blacksburg (from Singapore!) and let us know for sure that Jamie died, and equally important: that Steffi was alive. As announced everywhere: a Virginia Tech scholarship has been set up in Jamie's honor. Donation Info. Go rent Run Lola Run. I don't know that it was Jamie's favorite, but it was it was definitely his go-to movie. If we found any narrative film we both enjoyed, inevitably he'd turn the conversation toward a comparison to RLR. And go get some Daredevil comics as long as you're out, specifically Frank Miller's run (available in trade paperback under the Daredevil: Visionaries series. Volume 2, where Miller takes over scripting chores on top of illustration, is where it really takes off) which I know was a favorite of his. One of a few similar emails starting early Tuesday morning because Jamie's blog links to mine: "Please accept my condolences, regarding your friend Jamie Bishop. The television news program, INSIDE EDITION would like to obtain pictures of Jamie, and interviews so that the world will understand who was taken from us yesterday. Please call me at ... as soon as possible. We are under a very early deadline. Our show feeds to satelite at 3pm est. Thank you for your prompt response to this request." Gee, I would have called, but upon receiving this I was too busy throwing up in my mouth. I guess I should be thankful at least that this wasn't how I first heard the news. Now something else to get over with as long as I'm posting (nothing but happiness and light after this, though): By the end of March we started getting cocky about how that "family medical emergency" was all but behind us. Which of course is probably why it's came back with a vengeance. So we're still dealing with that and something else. A few days before that crap came back, my own body got hit with something, too. My left arm and the left half of my face keep going numb on me. The sensation is like when my foot falls asleep. There's a strong tingling and numbness from lip to ear, from elbow to fingertips. It's happened three times where it lasted 12-15 hours, each about a week apart. And there've been "smaller" episodes in between and as recently as this week where I just feel like there's cobwebs on my left eyebrow or my lips are being tickled. The record number of neurologists currently assigned to our collective ailments don't think (in fact, they CONCUR in not thinking that) these things could be related, though personally we haven't stopped looking for possible environmental causes. I've had an EKG (for which they shaved two itchy little patches on my chest), an MRI (and if you want me to sit still as claustrophobia overcomes me, don't shave two itchy little patches in my chest the day before), and an ultrasound in my neck (turns out my neck's a boy neck, though I would have loved my neck no matter what sex it was; I just want it to be healthy). Next week they ultrsound my heart, which sucks because I spent all my ultrasound jokes on my neck just now. No wait, how about: Ultrasound My Heart? Isn't that a Ray Charles song? Eh. So that might be why some of my correspondence sounded depressing before Monday. Was on the fence about sharing, but now I've decided that it's best to combine pity parties rather than spread them out. Because sound-decision-making is the one thing I've got a handle on this week. Really. Please, no armchair diagnoses; I get that enough with my insomnia and inability to whistle. We'll figure it out or we'll live with it. Yeah it's weird and scary but it's the easiest thing I've had to deal with all year. And so far my situation is entirely perceptual (though they didn't outright say I was making it up) and, because all the acronyms came back clean (in fact the exact result in one case was: "we found nothing remarkable," referring to either to my heart or brain...), they don't think I'm in any danger. So yeah. Good thing bad things only come in threes, right?
Christopher James Bishop 1971-2007 April 17, 2007 My friend is dead. Jamie Bishop was a photographer, multimedia artist, and German professor at Virginia Tech. He was among those killed in his classroom on April 16, 2007. He moved to Blacksburg from Carrboro in 2005. We used to meet at his place or at Weaver Street to trade foreign films and comic books. To talk about art and about changing the world with art. He took the photos for my presskit. He was a Telltale contributor. We'd been talking for three years now about collaborating on a comic. His digital art style was in the vein of Dave McKean (see his book covers for Michael Jasper's Gunning for the Buddha and Michael Bishop's Brighten to Incandescence) and we both wanted him to try his hand at sequentials. But he was meticulous. He wasn't going to do something unless he could give it the time to do it right. And the proof is in the work. Here's his online portfolio including some kickass photo galleries. My favorite thing he's ever written was this blog entry from 2005. He said it took him two hours, which explains why he gave up blogging. He liked Carrboro, but I think he loved Blacksburg. Owning a home. Teaching. Last month he was applying for an MFA program in photography and graphic design at Radford, which he'd been talking about at least since January 2006. In december he emailed me some photos of a coffee table he built, "composed of 72 different wooden tiles that I cut and individually painted." He called it one of the most creative things he's ever done. I'll leave them with you.   
So Put That In Your Talent Pipe And Smoke It October 26, 2006 From BusinessWeek: A Boot Camp For Budding Virtuosos by Burt Helm The Meadowmount School of Music, with alums like Itzhak Perlman, proves that hard work can be more important than raw talent... ...The results were clear-cut, with little room for any sort of inscrutable God-given talent. The elite musicians had simply practiced far more than the others. "That's been replicated for all sorts of things -- chess players and athletes, dart players," says Ericsson. "The only striking difference between experts and amateurs is in this capability to deliberately practice." The group even determined the number of hours musicians must play to compete at the highest professional level -- about 10,000, the equivalent of practicing four hours a day, every day, for almost seven years.
So Dark Matter Exists August 21, 2006 Wow, that's gonna change some things. According to NASA, it's a big day for astrophysics and a bigger day for Dark Matter. They discovered DM when they heard it sighing longfully, as it wondered whether anyone knew it existed at all. Now if only the scientists can get anyone in the media to notice its press release...
Meanwhile, Back in Chapel Hill July 5, 2006 A few days before I left for Clarion, a Chapel Hill News reporter interviewed me as I donated blood in Carrboro. I think the article was published the Sunday that both Jen and I were out of town, but the full text is now online. I remember cracking a lot of jokes, but I guess he didn't think they were newsworthy. The attention-whore in me is still amazed that my name is the first thing in the article. I would have gone with something about the Red Cross.
Rent December 15, 2005 A musical by Jonathan Larson. 
I listened to the two-CD soundtrack of Rent all through college (95-99) and fell in love with it. It's not a perfect musical--unfortunately Larson died before he could give it a good workshop--but it's still wonderfully catchy with engrossing characters and humor. Even the weaker songs work in context and I found myself humming them on campus and at work in the years since.Everything you need (the story, the characters, the humor) is all there in the music and libretto; it's like opera-meets-radio-drama; if radio drama was a more prevelant medium I would say it doesn't even need to be seen.
Filed Under: Journal, Peers & Peerless, World of Importance GAO Report on 2004 US Election December 4, 2005 The Government Accountability Office released its report (PDF format) on election fraud during the 2004 election. Now this is important so I'm going to put it in bold: Addressing these concerns BEFORE an election means not having to question the results afterwards. It also means not having to choose between party loyalty and fair elections. Reform is necessary unless we want future elections to be more a contest determining which political party finds the schrewdest exploits of the system and less a demonstration of the will of voters. From the report (after the jump):
Continue reading "GAO Report on 2004 US Election" Filed Under: Journal, World of Importance World AIDS Day 2005: Keep the Promise December 1, 2005 In 2005, the world added five million new cases of HIV to its total. This is "the highest number of people newly infected in a year since the beginning of the epidemic." More info in last month's New Scientist article: Global HIV cases pass record 40 million mark.  Next year we'll see the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosed case of AIDS in the United States, this before they even had a name for it beyond "the gay plague." Ignoring the disease (and--as importantly--ignoring the people who contracted it) in the 1970s and 80s is why it's a problem now. So World AIDS Day is about awareness, seeing as how we humans like to repeat our mistakes, especially when more fashionable health-threats push old fogeys like this one out of the media spotlight. It starts with education, and we're making progress. I remember back in the 1980s my mom frantically called a hotline to ask whether her children were in danger of AIDS from mosquito bites. We were all scared then because of ignorance. I remember laughing in the early 1990s, when my health teacher made fun of homosexuals and AIDS using the first-aid practice dummies. We students laughed then, again, because of ignorance. This year I laughed again when a doctor-turned-senator felt it entirely reasonable that AIDS could be transmitted via tears and sweat. Why is that funny to me now? Because of education. The World AIDS Campaign has had a new slogan about every year for WAD, but they decided that for 2005 through 2010 they'll keep the slogan consistent: Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise. "The intention is to establish an international campaign to hold our leaders accountable for their promises and commitments and take the action necessary to deliver on them." If AIDS is still with us, so is WAD. But wouldn't it be great if after 2010 there would be no more need for slogans? For anniversaries?
7.4 Magnitude October 12, 2005 Tens of thousands dead, millions homeless after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. I know this comes close on the heels of the hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, that we're all stretched thin right now, and that it seems like it's a bit soon to have to hear the call to be generous again. This isn't competition for Katrina relief. This is a reason why we need to get into the habit of giving regularly even when--no, especially when--there's no immediate disaster to respond to. Feel like you've given too much in the last month to The Red Cross? Give some love to The World Food Program.
Sending Life September 1, 2005 Just a reminder that there's a blood shortage most summers, and with Hurricane Katrina's devastation, you can be sure your blood is needed. So even if you're strapped for cash, you can still send something tangible and life-saving to our friends in the Gulf. Visit http://www.givelife.org/ or call 1-800-GIVELIFE to find a donation center or blood drive near you. There's also specific blood drive searches for different regions, which might have more specific offerings: www.redcrossblood.org/bloodsrch.htm is for North Carolina (Chapel Hill/Carrboro is served out of Durham). And for those who do have a few bucks to give, screenwriter John Rogers is matching donations to the Red Cross. If you've disliked anything he's written, you can bankrupt the bastard* and double the effectiveness of your contribution at the same time: http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/08/red-cross.html *Not that anyone cares, but I happen to like the guy and his work -Backpedalling Alex.
Respecting Katrina August 29, 2005 Writer and Analyst John C. Welch wrote the following to the YML discussion list, and he gave me permission to share it ("Maybe someone will even listen."). The advice is golden and the sentiment makes it palatable: So I'm hoping that anyone on the list living in an evac zone did so, and is currently bitching about high - speed access.
Continue reading "Respecting Katrina" Filed Under: Journal, World of Importance The Red Cross - Double Red Cell Donations January 3, 2005 
Save twice as many lives half as often with super-efficient heroism.I remember, after September 11, 2001, for the first time ever I couldn't give blood to The Red Cross if I begged to. I usually try to give at least four times a year since I have a needed blood type and there are always shortages going on, but anytime I went to a blood drive--for a good six months after the attack--I was turned away. They would run out of bags hours before a blood drive would end, even if I'd made an appointment. I had a hope then that maybe blood shortages would finally be a thing of the past, after so many people find out how easy it is to give blood. But of course that didn't last.
Continue reading "The Red Cross - Double Red Cell Donations" Filed Under: Journal, Peers & Peerless, Well Awareness, World of Importance Your Marriage is Not Threatened July 12, 2004 (Selected republication of old entries from the pre-Movable Type journal...) Those who know me know I'm not a political lad. But this one's important. The US Senate is debating whether to amend the constitution to make sure that gay people can't marry. If passed, this will be only the second time in our history that an amendment that takes away rights instead of guaranteeing them is added to the US Constitution. The first time it happened (Prohibition--yeah, leave it to the guy who doesn't drink anymore to paint Prohibition as a bad thing...), it took another amendment to repeal it. I'll be calling both my senators tomorrow. Here's what I sent today:
Continue reading "Your Marriage is Not Threatened" Filed Under: Journal, World of Importance Food Pyramids July 9, 2004 (Selected republication of old entries from the pre-Movable Type journal... from before the revised USDA pyramid anyway...) An Atkins ad put the "Atkins Lifestyle Food Guide Pyramid" on the back cover of Utne magazine this month. I know it's an ad and not an endorsement by the alternative press, but it still makes me shake my head when even local healthfood and organic stores think it's important to remind us that eggs are low in carbs. While any group of monkeys given a few days with a typewriter could come up with a better alternative to the traditional "6-11 servings of the bread group per day" USDA food pyramid, a drastic reduction in all carbs and an overemphasis on protein aren't particularly helpful to those who want to live healthier lifestyles and not just lose the ability to store water in their bodies. Yes, we all probably eat and/or drink too many bad carbs. But some carbohydrates are necessary and some carbs are good carbs, even when you're trying to lose weight. Recognizing that even fewer people read this site than read Utne, (and that no single diet fits every lifestyle or liver perfectly), I thought I'd post some other alternatives to the well-publicized ones above, if only to help these pages out in the Google rankings.
Continue reading "Food Pyramids" Filed Under: Journal, World of Importance Helpless But Not Quite Hopeless September 17, 2001 (Selected republication of old entries from the pre-Movable Type journal...) I left early from work on Tuesday and bought a television antenna on the way home. From the time I got home through Saturday, the television was on almost every second I was home and awake. Now I'm just exhausted. I want to say I'm tired of hearing about the attack, but that's not true. Half of me wants to go back to the way things were a week ago and the other half needs to hear more. It's frightening and surprising, yet not so unexpected. Just this summer I was in a car with a friend of mine. We turned on the radio to hear about a bombing. Three or so dead, including at least one child. More injured. But when the journalist said the words, "...reporting from Israel," we both sighed--and then we looked at each other. We nodded, yeah. One of us--it might've been me, it might've been him--said, "Yes. We really are that shallow." We both knew (as many knew, as everyone knows now) that we lived in the same world as this news report, that we couldn't keep up this pretense that this wasn't our concern, that we couldn't pretend we were above terrorism forever. It's this same false sense of security that makes me thankful that everyone I know (or keep in contact with, anyway) in New York or D.C. is apparently all right. As though this should help me stay objective when so many American citizens are dead. And among them so many firefighters and rescue workers--perhaps the noblest and best of us. I cry when I hear about the heroism of the New York fire and police departments. I cry when I hear about their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of those on board United Airlines flight 93 (the flight that went down in Western PA) who discovered what was happening and took deliberate action to stop it at the cost--not the risk, the cost--of their lives. Prayer services joining Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and Christians in unity and mutual support. The companies (media and airline companies included!) who shout profits-be-damned in the interest of keeping people informed and safe. People flocking to the Red Cross for blood donations in record numbers. There's a blood shortage about every summer! Maybe now that we have seen this need, there never will be these shortages again... I want to believe that. But how can I look honestly at the above without also looking at the price-gouging of those Americans who seek to profit from this tragedy? The friends and co-workers who calmly suggest we deport all those who follow Islam or all those of a certain ethnicity? The World Trade Center rubble on sale on Ebay? The inability of our government to come up with any response to the attack other than an equal and opposite retaliation, complete with "acceptable" killing of "enemy" civilians? The harrassment of fellow US citizens on online bulletin boards when they become critical of our government or they suggest anything other than such a retaliation? The blaming of "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians" for the attack by "man of God" Jerry Falwell? The attacks on Arabs and Muslims in the States by "patriotic" white Christian Americans? In Parma (Ohio), where I lived until July, someone drove a Ford Mustang through the front doors of a Mosque this morning. This wasn't the first such attack and I fear it won't be the last. I believe this juxtaposition--the incredible good and the incredible evil of which this country is capable--is why we are a target. Why some in other countries can wish to covet what we have, yet detest what we are. They see the greatness and the evil that our freedom allows, but somehow they believe they can have the benefits of the former without the risk of the latter. This is in no way a complete answer to what's gone wrong. But it's so hard to think clearly when all I want to do is place the blame.
I'm reminded of a high school teacher my freshman year who was crowded by a large group of students on a stairs. She
stumbled, but didn't quite fall. She turned to the students and said, "Who pushed me?" A kid standing close to her
responded he didn't know, he didn't think anyone pushed. It was just crowded. She said, "Well, someone's getting a
detention for this, so who's it going to be." One of my friends muttered what we were all thinking and then said, "Yeah, I'll
go."
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Alex Wilson writes fiction and comics in Carrboro, NC. His work has appeared/will appear in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Rambler, Weird Tales, The Florida Review, Futurismic, Shimmer, ChiZine, FutureQuake, Pif, and Dragon. Locus Magazine has called him a "promising new writer," and Publishers Weekly also has nice things to say. Alex runs the audiobook project/podcast Telltale Weekly and the writer wiki Guidevines. He publishes the minicomic/zine Inconsequential Art. He is a 2006 Clarion graduate. Blog Archives 2008 - Clever Label TBA 2007 - BadYearNoCookie 2006 - Clarion! 1st Pro Sale! 2005 - Peers and Peerless 2004 - Telltale Launch 2003 - Dog bites, acting out 2002 - In my mind, I'm going... 2001 - Marriage, Macs, 1st Cons 2000 - Setback, Milestones 1999 - Engaged, Graduated 1998 - Creative Independence    Powered by MT 3.35 MySpace Profile Technorati Profile |
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