I would go to church more if Rev. Jeremiah Wright was the pastor

Why the media so obsessively focused on the bogus non-story of Barak Obama's preacher, Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Why isn't the media reporting actual news like the Iraq war? Fox News aired the very short clip of Rev. Wright' s sermon. They show an out of context (what could be construed as inflammatory) video clip of Rev. Wright's sermon.

I watched Rev. Wright and thought his sermons were spot on. What he said was not new to me. His sermon, "Chickens come home to roost" was brilliant. He is basically saying, "You reap what you sow." If you practice terrorism, kill innocent people, and practice injustice, then you (The U.S.) will reap what you sow. Other people (and the world) will react to how you act. Jesus taught the Golden Rule. He said, "Treat others as you want to be treated." How does America treat others? That's what Rev. Wright is saying. Look at how America is acting. What I took away from what he said was, America has committed sins, atrocities, and oppression in the past and now. The world has reacted to the behavior of the U.S.

As an aside, John McCain has accepted an endorsement from Rev. John Hagge. If I was a candidate for president I would rather have an endorsement from Rev. Wright than Rev. Hagge any day. Hegge has been described as bigot, anti-Catholic, and anti-gay. I have listened to his sermons and am afraid, very afraid. When I listened to Rev. Wright I felt like he "got it." I felt inspired and uplifted. The opposite was true for Hagge.

Check the following links:
Rev. Jeremiah Wright Isn’t the Problem
The hysteria over Obama’s former pastor’s attacks on America shows we’re still in thrall to knee-jerk patriotism. by Gary Kamiya
truth about the Trinity United Church of Christ
There's Nothing Wrong with Rev. Wright. By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet. Posted March 25, 2008.

screech owl

I saw this Screech Owl on my way to work, one day before the start of spring.

The owl in the early morning sleeping.

At noon the owl moved to the ground to hunt mice.

Catching some sleep after a mouse for lunch. (The mouse is at the right base of the tree.)

Basking in the warm sun.

five years later

In some ways I feel like I have been beating my head into a wall for the past five years since the Iraq war started. Although it really started long before the war began. We had been out in the streets saying no to war with Iraq. We knew it was wrong. We begged the American public to see our side of the anti-war movement. To see that war is not a solution and that Iraq had no connection to the events on 9/11. But our voices fell of deaf ears. Five years ago I hitched a ride downtown to an anti-war protest from a woman with a pink cape on (part of code pink). That night, there were hundreds of people in the streets of Minneapolis. Now five years later we are here again together protesting the war.

The Iraq war was unjust to begin with. There was no “Iraq Al Qaeda” connection to 9/11.
Between 82,249 – 89,760 of Iraqi civilians have died because of the war. The cost of the Iraq war could be at $1 trillion to $2 trillion dollars.
The Republicans are always saying that the democrats are the party of “tax and spend.” Why is it that the republicans, who started the war, will be spending trillions on the war? An unjust war, were more than four thousand U.S. troops have died and thousands of innocent Iraqis killed.

It’s difficult for me to find the right words to say. I’m frustrated with the U.S. government. I’m frustrated that the rush to war was so accepted by the masses. I’m frustrated that we are in the same place that we were in five years ago. So for now I ask that you go to the following links and I will take some time to digest the last five years. Take some time to digest the damage that has been done to the world in the name of the U.S.

For now I need to take some time to think and reflect.

Please read these links.
Iraq Body Count
Experts Calculate Billions in Long-term Costs of War
What is your state paying for the war?
Long term costs of the war
Timeline of the Iraq War
Al Qaeda-Hussein Link Is Dismissed

stand by your man, stand by your politician?

Another politician is involved in another sex scandal. The story hits the media and we are distracted from the real issues facing us. While the story of Governor Spitzer's sex scandal hit the news, the Iraq war waged on, the price of oil rose to more than $110 a barrel, and pollutants were discovered in the U.S. water supply. Titillating stories of sex scandals divert us from the issues that impact us (like the safety of our water supply). To top it off Heidi Fleiss was interviewed on Nightline about the Governor Spitzer scandal. Are you kidding me?

I feel for the wives of these politicians involved in sex scandals. Much has been commented on about the wives "standing by their man" in public at a press conference. If she is standing there by her man are we supposed to feel like, "gee we should support him too?" Personally I would be so flipping pissed off that there would be no way in hell I would "stand by my man."

Here is something I might be thinking if I was her; (this is purely fiction just thinking out loud)
He should meet my knife "Lorena." He spent how much on a prostitute? (You expletive, blank expletive, bleep bleep expletive.) He wants me to stand by him at a press conference as we face the press and discuss our marital problems in front of the world? ......He made is own bed and he can face the press by himself. I wasn't there in the room with him and the prostitute. It wasn't a three-way. Fuck it.....let everyone think I want a divorce. Who wouldn't want a divorce if their husband spent $80 thousand on prostitutes? WTF

But I'm not her and I have no idea what she is going through. I hope she will be strong and do what she needs to do. It is impossible to put oneself in her shoes and say what she should do. I do know that prostitution affects all women. It degrades and hurts women. In college, I knew a woman that worked with former sex workers (strippers and prostitutes). From her, I learned that the women she worked with didn't want to sell their bodies. Prostitution was a means of last resort. Most women, engaged in prostitution, had been sexually abused as children and entered prostitution in their early teens.

Radical feminism sees prostitution as rape, "Radical feminism opposes prostitution on the grounds that it degrades women and furthers the power politics of the male gender." I see prostitution as putting a price on a woman's body. Seeing her as a commodity to be rented bought or sold. He can buy her and use her how he wants because he has "paid for her." She is doing it for survival. Poverty and abuse forces women into prostitution.

Prostitution has affected me. I have never sold my body for money. But, when I worked at a casino, a man walked up to me and flashed a $100 bill and said, "what will you do fit it?" Implying that I would fuck him for it. I thought, I'll slap you upside your head with it. Instead I said something like, "Yeah, go fuck yourself." When I worked in a bar I waited on a table of men. They rang up a huge tab. When I closed the tab the man paying said, "kiss me and I'll give you a tip." I said, "keep it." I wasn't going to kiss him, touch him or anything else for a tip. When I waitressed I didn't stand for being groped or grabbed by anyone. I dumped a tray of hot coffee on a guy who groped me, I hit a guy with a tray when he tried to grab me. As a cocktail waitress, in a bar or casino, you are often viewed as one step away from being "for sale." Anyway, the insinuation was there. What will you do for money? What's your price?

Prostitution is illegal in most of the U.S. and the law is often skirted. In an article in Mother Jones Magazine, and reprinted on Alternet, "What a Choice! Sex With a Sleaze for $100,000 or Writing for Peanuts" by Nicole McClelland. She exposed the world of "sugar daddies." She said,

"I learned about SugarDaddy.com when an acquaintance I'll call ‘Kim’ recommended it to my friend, who's had trouble finding a job despite (or because of) earning her master's in media arts several months ago. Kim collected $900 every time she went on a date with one of her sugar daddies; another gave her $3,500 in less than a week before announcing that he had to quit her because his wife had found out."

McClelland's entry into the world of "sugar daddies" was easy. She created a profile at SugarDaddy.com. The day after she created her profile she had received “13 emails and 6 kisses, whatever that means, and been checked out by 36 older, wealthy men." McClelland talked about her "dating" experience with a man she met online at SugarDaddy.com. During the date he offered her $500 to, "get in her cooch." She elaborated, “My friend of the disheartening post-graduate-school job search initially scowls when I tell her what Daddy No. 2 offered me. When I point out that it took me two days to get two offers that pay more than my job at Mother Jones, that I could make $9,600 a month -- $115,200 a year -- and the average starting salary for someone with humanities masters' like ours is $39,808.”

I don't know about you but this is very sad to me. I hope that this scandal will open a conversation about the abuse women face as prostitutes and sex workers and how and why they enter the world of sex work. Not to mention sex trafficking, which is another topic. The woman who was identified as the prostitute that Gov. Spitzer sought "services" from "Kristen" doesn't want to be seen as a monster. The only monster I see is Gov. Spitzer. He degraded two women, Kristen (the prostitute), and his wife. And that is a politician I can't stand by.

Resources
http://www.breakingfree.net/
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/factsheet.html
http://www.prostitutionrecovery.org/prostitution_timeline.html
http://www.rapeis.org/activism/prostitution/prostitutionfacts.html

an early sign of spring

In mid March crows gather sticks for their nests. The crow in the photo is picking twigs off the the Elm tree. During this time of year crows can be seen flying to their nests with twigs carried in their beak.

This crow is trying to keep its balance while picking a twig.

The crow tried a few different ways to pick the twigs off the branch.

common goldeneye, mississippi river mpls

It's almost time for spring migration. But for now, the Mississippi River at Minneapolis is ice free. Every winter there are Mallards and Canadian Geese on the river but this is the first time I've seen Common Goldeneye and Common Mergansers on the river.

Common Goldeneye on Mississippi River by Washington Ave. Bridge.
Click on photo for larger view

Common Goldeneye is in the right lower corner.
Click on photo for larger image.