Munira Shahamorad was 20 years old and dressed head to toe in all-concealing black robes when she showed up at the gates of the U.S. Marine base in Fallujah, Iraq, looking for a job. She was desperate to escape her brother, who she says beat her and dragged her around by the hair.
[...]
"First day I saw her, I told the guy that we were relieving, 'I'm in love, I'm gonna marry her,' " Campbell [a Marine] said. Soon, the Iraqi outcast and the American sergeant were having an illicit love affair on the base.

1. The death toll from the earthquake in China is approaching 70,000. Let's think about that number for a moment. The death toll from the 9-11 attacks was just shy of 3,000. The current number of soldier casualties in Iraq is over 4,000. Take both those numbers, add them together, and multiply by 10, and that's how many people are dead in China. Why is no one making a bit to-do about aid to this country? We love to talk about Myanmar and their not letting in aid workers. China welcomes assistance.


2. Ted Kennedy has brain cancer. He might survive or he might not. Ted Kennedy has been the heavy hitter for liberalism in the Senate for the past bazillion years. Who will carry his torch once he's gone?


3. Hillary isn't going to be our first female president. Okay, I know not everyone is sad about this. But I am. On a related note: "It's being first woman president good."

At the beginning of the semester, there was an incident here at Yale involving a "fraternity prank" and the Women's Center where 12 members of the Zeta Psi frat stood in front of the Women's Center chanting "dick dick dick dick" while holding a sign saying "We Love Yale Sluts." Quite the incident.

On Monday, the Executive Committee of Yale College found the members of this group not guilty of intimdiation [sic] and harassment charges.

tammy212

tammy212

So feminists have achieved their revolution? Women are equal? Our rights have been won in our enlightened country?

Apparently not as far as law enforcement in Texas is concerned.

...

It was bad enough that this "lead" was given to law enforcement a year ago. But today it comes out, according to MSNBC.com, that Schleichler Counter Sheriff David Doran has had an informant in the church compound for four years. He has known that underaged girls were being forced into marriage against state and national law for four years. But this upstanding representative of the public's civil rights has this to say:

"We are aware that this group is capable of (sexually abusing young girls)," Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry. I've said that from day one."

There, you see? Forced marriage is only important if women and girls living in a compound under the control of men complain to outside authorities. Otherwise they should just be left to the control of their men, who today are weeping as the chapel where the marriage beds are is being searched. I would like to give each of those men a red-hot iron handkerchief for their tears.

This is the United States. We are going to respect the rights of adults to force sexual behavior on underaged girls. We are going to respect the rights of men to hold women and girls captive. Have I got that right?

I am too angry to breathe. The next person who tells me we women have it made will be lucky to walk away without my teeth in his/her throat.

Nor are we free of guilt.
Long since, in history's mirror,
we became accomplices,
awaiting the day we might
seep down through the layers of stone
into subterranean pools
to contemplate darkness again.
- From "Accomplices," by Bei Dao, translated by Donald Finkel, via breathe_poetry

Sex and religion prompt newspapers to censor "Opus" comic

In Opus -- Berkeley Breathed's comic strip followup to Bloom County -- the ever-changeable Lola Granola has taken up conservative Islam as her latest fad. In response, chickenshit newspaper editors across America have pulled the strip, scared of offending people with sex and religion. As Dan Gillmor writes at The Center for Citizen Media Blog, "Puritan prudishness and political cowardice: Now there's a combination that's just certain to attract more readers."

dalbino83

1. Good news for la_directora: As evidence of a major shift in Spain's attitude toward animal rights and violence, Spain's state-run TV service has decided to stop showing bullfights at times when children might be watching. I wonder if they allow lesbian kisses? Full story from The World here. Scroll down to "Spanish TV cancels bullfight coverage"


2. The Goddess is alive and magic is afoot. Evidence of older, female-centered rituals exist in the Islamic tradition, too. The description of Zar (or Zaar) music in the last segment of the same show listed above sounds awfully familiar. It's led by women, it builds to a fever pitch or trance, it has healing qualities, it's designed to get the participants in touch with their own spirit, or the spirits, or The Spirit. It's familiar because it's the same thing I've been doing in ritual here in the US for well over ten years. It's also similar to what I know of Sufi ritual.
   
   A Google search on the topic turns up mixed results. These are three I found interesting:
   
   
   • Arabic writings on Zar (PDF) A scholarly bibliography of a number of sources. Useful if you'd like to do some library research.
   
   
   • Chapter Twelve of The Influence of Animism on Islam. The Christian/modern patriarchal bias (they liken the ritual to Black Mass) makes me squicked, but if you can read past it you may actually find accurate details.
   • Homosexuality in "Traditional" Sub-Saharan Africa and Contemporary South Africa I find it interesting that zar appears to be linked to homosexuality. Well, it is female-centered, so men who participate must be gender-suspect. Funny how humans constantly conflate gender identity with sexual orientation.
   
   


3. Okay, so I really dug last night's show of the The World. There was a great story on women in combat in Iraq. The segment includes excellent interviews with a number of female soldiers profiled in Band of Sisters, a book written by journalist Kirsten Holmstedt about women in combat situation. Military law still states that women cannot fight "in combat," but as Holmstedt notes, "in Iraq, the front lines are everywhere--and everywhere in Iraq women in the U.S. military fight."
   



4. Daily Dharma quote about right livelihood:
   

   
   Right Livelihood Today
   Right Livelihood appears to be harder to practice these days than in
   the time of the Buddha. The rule is still the same: Right Livelihood
   is organizing one's financial support so that it is nonabusive,
   nonexploitive, nonharming. However, these days what is abusive and
   exploitive is not necessarily self-evident. When the Buddha taught,
   unwholesome livelihood categories were easy to distinguish.
   Soldiering, keeping slaves, manufacturing weapons and intoxicants--all
   were on the proscribed list. In our time, soldiers sometimes serve as
   peacekeepers. It's hard to know the wholesomeness of all the products
   of any corporation, corporate mergers being what they are. Who knows
   what else is being manufactured by my detergent company's
   subsidiaries? . . . For me, a complete picture of wholesome Right
   Livelihood is even larger than the proscriptions that reflect external
   choices. Wholesome internal choices--healthy attitudes about one's
   work--also contribute to mental happiness and peace of mind.
   Everyone's livelihood is an opportunity for self-esteem.
   -Sylvia Boorstein, It's Easier Than You Think
   from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book
   http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_478/dailydharma/4044-1.html
   

   
   This is a question I struggle with quite a good deal. Anyone who saves for retirement by investing in mutual funds may inadvertently be funding a company that participates in icky things like warmongering or child labor. I've looked into the new lines of "socially responsible" investment funds, but find that their rate of return is less than stellar. And one still needs to wonder about who decides what company is socially responsible. They tend to be heavy on the tech stocks, which leads to extra volatility.
   
   Right livelihood is why I refused a gig at Raytheon, a defense contractor and pretty big employer here in the Boston area. But defense contractors often come up with new technologies that substantially improve one's quality of life--and I'm not just talking Tang. My second-generation-immigrant grandfather spent his life working at Lockheed, which makes both passenger aircraft and war planes.
   
   Boorstein's notion of "wholesome internal choices" is helpful. And one must be centered and well to do good effectively in the world. But it's also easy to become complacent and believe that living well and taking care of oneself is enough. It's not.
   
   



5. I received some feedback recently regarding my communication style, which was described as "abrasive." While opportunities for self-improvement abound, I find myself caught in the same conundrum many women in business face. Early on in my career, a friend of mine suggested I read a book called Hardball for Women, which did an excellent job at helping me adapt to a culture that was originally made for men, by men, and about men--I'm talking about the business world. It helped me to understand the different ways that men and women communicate, and I began to modify my communication style as a result. But here's where the dilemma sets in: they see my tits. So they expect different things from me than they would of someone with no tits (or man-boobs). A man expresses anger or impatience, he's seen as powerful or important. A woman expresses anger or impatience, she's seen as out of control or moody. And God forbid you mention these different expectations in the actual business world! That's playing the gender card!
   
   The tightrope, the challenge, the opportunity for personal growth (or AFGO, as they call it in some circles), is this: to appear competent, powerful, in control, while still personable and approachable. It's fun, kids! Now you try!
   
   

China Insists on Naming Living Buddhas
China on Friday asserted the sole right to recognize living Buddhas, reincarnations of famous lamas that form the backbone of the religion's clergy.

All future incarnations of living Buddhas related to Tibetan Buddhism "must get government approval," the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the State Administration for Religious Affairs.
[...]
A copy of the new rules posted to the administration's Web site said the selection of reincarnates "must preserve national unity and solidarity of all ethnic groups."

"The process cannot be influenced by any group or individual from outside the country," it said in an apparent reference to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
[...]
China in 1992 rejected the exiled Dalai Lama's choice for the latest reincarnation of the Panchen, seizing the boy and appointing another boy in his stead.

Do you want to know my opinion of the whole Boston-Cartoon-Network not-bomb scare PR stunt for Aqua Teen Hunger Force?

In Rio Rush Hour, Women Relax in Single-Sex Trains
In Rio de Janeiro, women traveling on rush-hour trains can find a haven from sexual harassment in single-sex cars, a result of a law enacted last month. Even critics of the law acknowledge the mood in the "pink cars" is relaxed and cheerful.
From Women's eNews, a really excellent online news source. Free subscriptions.