Make this House a Home

When it rains it pours. In the past 78 hours I’ve been offered 3 apartments. Now I’m not talking luxury living, but functional apartments for acceptable prices. All through my wonderful friends. Well, yesterday I got the call… a friend in the Oud West saying “Why don’t you take my place”… since he’s migrating to Spain for 6 months to a year. This works well for me, love the neighborhood, like the place, need the option in half a year to perhaps move somewhere else. Sure, moving is tiring, but you do get accustomed to it, and I’m not sure I could commit longterm to an apartment at the age. “I’m just not ready.” “It’s not you it’s me.” “I want to see other apartments.”

On yesterday’s Democracy NowI heard the son of a homosexual couple expressing his joy that his moms were getting married. It was such a sweet moment… even through the radio I could hear how much he loves his parents and what a wonderful home life he has. How shameful that it has taken this long to allow gay marriage in Massachusetts or anywhere!

I’ve started to read legal blogs… meaning blogs written by lawyers, law students and law professors. I find them quite insightful; to have an inside look into the world according to those who work in law. Some blogs, like How Appealing, are extensive linkdumps for legal news from around the net. Others simply contain honest reflections about law and the daily work these professionals do, such as Notes from the (Legal) Underground. That particular post I linked to talks about how this lawyer actually gained a client thanks to the blog. For collective opinions by a group of fun and interesting law students, De Novo is where I go.

These type of blogs represent another aspect I love about this method of personal publishing, the chance to get information straight from those involved in certain activities. Direct testimony from doctors, journalists, students, wives, children, etc. THAT-is a great new possibility.

Today’s Music: Vinicious Cantuaria-Vinicious

Waffle’s Anyone?

Quite exhausted after a nice birthday party for a wonderful friend in Utrecht last night. It was nice to get to speak with so many Portuguese and Brazilian folk. Plus during the day, I did make it over to Port Industry Day. There, I boarded a military ship and took photos of ships, including a Green Peace flagship. I love ports, and I found the event to be generally quaint. Photos to follow on Tuesday.

I’m about to skip off to Brussels for an overnight visit with my family there.It is always nice to get over to Belgium, especially because there are always so many cultural events taking place. I shall try and catch the tail end of the Brussels Jazz Marathon. Who knows, I meant even run into Belgian Waffle, who doesn’t seem to get sleep anymore.

While I’m out, I’m pretty sure this issue is going to get big: the videos that were taken of Guantanamo prisoner abuses. I think it’s a crime against humanity, what went on there, therefore I say let the videos get around… then let’s put these bums on trial.

Today’s Music: Fernando Lameirinhas – Alegria do Triste

Sonia meet Donald

Call me naive, but I was very excited by the Congress Party’s victory in the Indian elections. Their coalition with left parties shocked the Indian political world, who thought the success of the economy would carry the nationalists to re-election. Boy were they wrong. They forgot about the power of the vote that poor people are very good at exercising in India. So, let’s give a warm welcome to the future PM of a nation of 1 billion people, Indira Ghandi’s daughter-in-law, Sonia Ghandi!

Onto other subjects that warrant discussion. The guy with no head, I refuse to use his name because I haven’t used any other dead soldier’s names, so why start now – just because he gets more press then others? What I did find particularly interesting is that this guy’s story has more holes then swiss cheese. Not only has the authenticity of the video been questioned, but the reasons he was even there seem to have been fabricated. Was he just looking for work? Was he CIA? Was he a spy of any type? We’ll probably never know.

Lastly, and I know I shouldn’t waste my time, but – Donald Rumsfeld. During his “surprise visit” to Baghdad (some surprise, considering it’s his biggest embrassment), he said the following:

“I’ve stopped reading newspapers. You’ve got to keep your sanity somehow. I’m a survivor.” Is this man for real? He stopped reading newspapers? I wonder if he reads anything. Does he have time to when he’s not covering up war crimes?

Today’s Music: Azure Ray-Burn&Shiver

Until someone says uncle

Special announcement: I’m an uncle. On May 13th, around 8pm, Alexander Marsh Rendeiro was born in New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Out of respect for the privacy of my nephew, photos are only available upon request for now. From what I gather, the family is good, just very, very exhausted.

Back to the Ironbound Age

A combination of the prospect of a new baby in my family and a recent blog about the Ironbound by TPB, Esq, has had me thinking of my childhood back there in Newark, NJ. While he talks about the courthouses; where I spent quite a few of my days collecting facts and leads as a happy slave at the Village Voice, as a child I never went near those courthouses. My world was the Ironbound, Ferry St., to be exact, was the center of my universe. The wonderful mix of Portuguese and a plethora of other nationalities that made up that neighborhood.

Of course to me this was Newark. After the train station was the end of the earth and my world was flat. My biggest priorities back then were, “Will I go all the way around the block today.” For a trip of that length meant I could stop at the fruit market, or more importantly, the candy store. At least I thought it was a candystore, a better definition would have been a blue-collar lunchonette which always seemed to reek of cigarettes and fried meat smell. The most important days were when dad or mom would walk me to the bakery where one of those pointy cupcakes with green or red sprinkles could be had. Of course, on those same days, I would have to endure the stench of the fish market, and the sight of dead sea dwellers like squid, octopus, swordfish, and of course- bacalhau. I think the octopus struck the most fear in me, those suction cups seemed deadly.

Ahh the Ironbound… Great years.

While I don’t have the desire to speak much about the horrendous prisoner torture scandal today, I do have several articles that might deserve attention. The first is by former dem. president candidate Wesley Clark, basically his analysis of how Bush is handling things. I got bored half way through and started playing along to BDB. The other is one of those uncomfortable network TV interviews, this one with the Pfc. England and her take on what happened-creepy. The final recommendation is perhaps the most important one, an LA Times story about rape in military prisons. (you’ll have to do the sign-in thing)

Today’s Music: Badly Drawn Boy – Hour of..

Pull the Wool

Good blog news to follow my frustrated statements on the issue of the day:

I now fear that people will grow weary of the Iraq Prisoner Abuse issue. I’m worried that the horrific scale of these crimes will cause people to look away in disbelief. This is sooooo not the time to look away. This goes way beyond a few bad soldiers misbehaving, Rumsfeld himself alluded to that, in all his stumbling and fumbling. There is an absolute DO NOT MISS article by Seymour Hersh in the latest New Yorker Magazine. In it, he takes inventory of the mountain of evidence that is emerging about crimes committed by the military, including:
unreleased photographs showed American soldiers “severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner, and “acting inappropriately with a dead body.” The officials said there also was a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.” (NBC quoting military officials)

Bush and other officials have offered half-hearted apologies, saying “This is not America.” Yet if we look at it, two soldiers being charged, are prison guards in the US! These criminals have jobs back in the US, where they use the same sick practices and values. Furthermore, when you think back to recent American history, Abner Louima (assaulted with a plunger), Mental hospital guards sexually abusing patients, etc, etc.. are you sure this is not America? I know there are plenty of people out there who do their jobs well and respect others, that’s America. But we should never forget the dark and shameful traditions of disrespecting and humiliating those who are considered different or inferior… that too is America. (for more on this, listen to this radio program)

Note: I’m pulling Salaam Pax’s blog “Where is Raed,” I used to love it, but like so many now-famous bloggers, he never posts, so off my blogroll he goes.

Also:Great news for the blog: IT WORKS! My RSS feed works! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read closely. RSS (really simple syndication) is a format for websites that makes them easy to grab and read using RSS feed reading programs. I myself use Feedreader, which is free and opensource. Also, it’s a small program. Using it, I have an enormous world of news available to me, just by clicking on a subject like “Technology News,” “Mexico News,” or “New York City News”.. the list is endless. My blog is now available via this service, just cut and paste my RSS feed into any of these programs, and bam – all my posts will appear automatically in that program. (the icon appears just below my archives on my menu)If you want news from all over the internet/world, try RSS!