Is this Poe's world?

For some weird reason, the first thing that came to my mind as soon as I read this story, was the bizarre and gory but extremely engrossing short story by Edgar Allen Poe, “Murder at Rue Morgue”. He is one of my other favorite authors - classic horror - especially in stories like “The Pit and the Pendulum”. I think it is time for me to start reading his short-story collection again.

Gorilla escapes zoo, roams Boston

BOSTON, Sept. 28 - A restless gorilla broke out of its zoo enclosure Sunday, injuring a 2-year-old and a teenager before it was sedated and recaptured almost two hours later, according to zoo officials.

Apart from the bizarre horror, I like the way Poe thinks through his stories and lays open the human psyche in stories like the “Purloined Letter” and the story (I forget the name) where a nephew kills his uncle and buries him under the floorboards - the police absolve him of everything, but his guilt gives him away, because he thinks he is hearing his uncle’s heart beat under the floorborads(?). Terrific reads!

Upon Second Reading!

I have been pretty disillusioned these days upon re-reading books that were my favorites as a child and teenager. The first of these was of course, Little Women. Then came Irvin Wallace - I couldn’t believe I once thought he was a good author - he bored me to tears when I re-read the Fan Club and the Seventh Secret. It was terrible. It was in this apprehensive state of mind that I picked up a copy of the Jeffrey archer tome “Kane and Abel” from the local library. Boy, am I glad I did. This was one book I can safely say withstood the tests of time and was still interesting enough I zipped through the 600 pages in two days. I cannot wait to get my hands on the “Prodigal Daughter” and “Who will tell the President”(?) now.

Dumb idea!

With a grueling 82-game schedule over the regular season as it is, without counting the pre-season overseas and the playoffs, I think this is a little too much to ask of basketball teams to travel as far as China to play regular season b-ball. Not fair at all!

ESPN.com - NBA - NBA considering regular-season games in China

BEIJING — The NBA is considering playing regular-season games in China, where such stars as Yao Ming have boosted the popularity of the game.

PSA

I got this email yesterday allegedly from Ebay, asking me to verify my information before I could place further bids. The body of the email is really an image, which is linked to a bogus site -

You can see the reason is obvious for making the body an image - that way the bogus people were able to put a very “ebay-looking” address as if for the consumer to click, while the actual link being clicked on is really the bogus one the picture was linking to. The site asks for your SSN, debit and credit card numbers, the code in the back of your cards and your ATM pin. I am going to forward this email to Ebay’s customer support so they can do something about it. Be really careful, people!

Such bigots!

How can someone claiming to be preaching God’s word be as narrow-minded and bigoted as these people? It really boggles my mind to see such absurd declarations as this. Indians and Hindus in particular have allowed people from all religions to stay free and spread their faith freely among the indigenous population. This is because Hinduism is probably the only religion that I know of, which doesn’t claim to be the ONLY path to God and allows followers to explore paths that best suit their spiritual needs.

The other problem is of course, if you scroll down in the same article, you find these preachers complain of increasing persecution against them. Hmmm…they go to India, lure kids and tribals to accept their faith with offers of food and money - trash the faith of the majority populace every chance they get and then cannot for the love of God understand why their once gracious hosts want to turn hostile?

Christian Children’s Clubs Bless Communities in India

CBN.com - With more than 1 billion people, India has the second largest population in the world. More than a third of that population is made up of children under the age of 18.

The predominant Hindu religion offers children little hope for a better life. But, India’s Christians offer hope and a new life in Christ.

…

Specifically, DeVries said, “The impact and the answers to the prayers of children were just sweeping through that area. And, as our people visited the slum and then walked out of it, local leaders joined them and said to the leaders of our team, ‘You know, before we walked in darkness but now we walk in light.’ And these were Hindus talking to our team.”

Blog Mela #30

Go check it out now - Vinod’s Blog:Blog Mela 30 - you are bound to be surprised pleasantly by the writings of a few people you may have never read before. Good job, Vinod!

Score one more for my city!

Say what you may about Chandrababu Naidu (our Chief Minister), he has been pretty successful so far in attracting some good investors to setup shop in various parts of Andhra Pradesh. I wish more of the politicians were like him than like the Laloos, Rabris and the Mayawatis. Vision and education is what should make one Chief Minister - not the caste they were born into.

Volkswagen keen to set up shop in Visakhapatnam

HYDERABAD: German automotive major Volkswagen AG may locate its green-field automobile plant in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. After holding discussions with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, a high-level team is visiting the city, where it wants to set up the plant in the proposed Special Economic Zone.

Ridiculously overpaid

I really don’t think Iverson deserves KG, Webber-like money for the what he does and for the age he is at (28). Heck, considering the current luxury tax implications, I am not sure even KG and Webber deserve KG and Webber-like money. This contract is only guaranteed to keep Philly over the cap for atleast 4 more years and thus preclude them from acquiring any good freeagents to help their team in the play-off hunt and the post-season. Bad move!

ESPN.com - NBA - Iverson extension: four years, $76.7 million

PHILADELPHIA — Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers have agreed on a $76.7 million, four-year contract extension, a team source said Tuesday.

Debasing the dead

Let me preface my comments by saying that first of all, I don’t know how credible this news is - a Google search turned up nothing, so take this with a huge grain of salt. IF TRUE though, this incident really stinks and I hope Chawla’s parents sue the perpetrators’ pants off and get them arrested for committing such fraud.

Funds for conversions in Kalpana’s name?

Kalpana Chawla, the Indian astronaut who died tragically in the Columbia spacecraft crash, may be a heroine for many in the country. But to a Christian group, operating a trust from Tamilnadu, her name is good enough to raise funds. Though the trust has not specified for what it is raising the funds, speculations are rife that it could be for conversion activities.

Toys of Iraqi tots

Dean has a very nice post - Dean’s World: The New Uncle Wiggle Wings - describing the effort of an American GI during the WWII to share with the local kids, what little he had. He is telling this, of course, in an effort to publicize the soldier-blogger-in-Iraq Chief Wiggles’ effort to collect and donate toys for Iraqi kids. Go check it out - it is a really interesting read and it is a very worthy cause.

Do I want to know?

NEW! Bow-Lingual® Dog Translator

Hmmm…I am not so sure I would like this on my babies - sometimes the way they bark - especially Rocky the black-and-white Springer mix - it seems to me as if they are scolding me and leaving no holds barred. I’d rather pretend everything is hunky-dory and imagine they love me more than anything else than get something like this to shatter my precious illusions, thankyouverymuch!

What’s pestering your pooch? Find out with the Bow-Lingual translator! It analyzes your dog’s bark to determine which of his six emotions he is feeling. Whether your dog is happy, sad, frustrated, on-guard, assertive or needy, the Bow-Lingual will provide a phrase based on the emotion, to let you know what he is trying to say.

Racism at the Economist?

Vote for a turban and a beard

Enough to win the wary hearts of Illinois’s voters? Mr Kathuria is more than a colourful sideshow. He talks fluently to farmers about the global agricultural market and tells small businessmen that he understands their problems. He has ideas on health-care policy and space-based defence. The state’s Republican Party has not yet backed any particular candidate. The White House’s influence could matter. Does Mr Rove really want to chase the Asian vote? Or is it too risky to leave a crucial Senate seat to a first-time candidate whose nickname is Baboo? (The Economist)

Umm…what does the candidate’s having a nickname of Baboo have anything to do with his political savvy and skills? The profile is pretty well-done all through, which makes you wonder why the author couldn’t resist slipping in that little barb at the end. In any case, this article in the Illinois Leader seems to suggest that not everybody feels a great need to put Mr. Kathuria down for his race. It will be interesting to see how this progresses.
(hat tip to reader Patrick and some info from the Volokh Conspiracy)

Go Vizag!

Vizag (also known as Waltair and Vishakhapatnam) is the city I was born in and lived for 22 years of my life before I left for the US. It used to be a beautiful town - green hills, blue ocean - when I lived there. I have heard it turned a lot more cosmopolitan and way more populous in the recent days, but looks like the beauty is still there :)

AP bags the honours for best run cities in India - The Economic Times

Hyderabad, Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam were joined by Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Indore and Nashik as the winners of the first Crisil Awards for Excellence in Municipal Initiatives.

So much for freedom of speech

Prasenjeet Dutta has a good link-filled post on the Indian Government trying to censor and shutdown dissent on the internet, by blocking some of the Yahoo Groups - I guess it is freedom for only the government-approved groups on the internet and silence for the rest.

The ChaosZone! Blog

Dear Government of India, if you must censor the Internet, can you please do with a bit more style and technical savvy? Maybe by spending a bit of money asking Cisco to build you a decent firewall? Hamhanded efforts like these to censor Internet access kinda kill India’s rep as a “software superpower”. Maybe you can get cybersavvy folk like SM Krishna or Chandrababu Naidu to consult before writing dumb memos like these? Yours very sincerely, a scandalized Indian Internet User.

I have just one question...

ABCNEWS.com : Arafat: I Can Prevent Suicide Attacks
Ummm….OK - then why the heck didn’t you? Y’know, when we were going through that stupid farce called the hudna (or shudna as a certain blogmom of mine puts it)…huh? You didn’t feel like helping that poor puppet PM of yours or you are reaaally afraid for your life now? What is it, Yasser?

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Sept. 19 - In his first interview with a Western reporter since the Israeli security Cabinet last week voted in principle to expel him, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat claimed he still has power to facilitate peace in the Middle East.

I wonder why!

There is a pretty interesting article in Rediff that talks about the views of a young, 22-year-old woman, who is a member of the banned SIMI. She is baffled at the government’s persecution of Muslims and SIMI and cannot understand why people look upon Muslims as terrorists. It is an interesting story and here are a few excerpts of her making her case that leapt out at me -

‘SIMI does not teach to kill innocents’

The government, she says, is blaming Muslim organisations and individuals to defame the community.

…

Why is the government targeting SIMI? “They [government] target all Muslim institutions because we are doing well. We have our reach in all sections of the society.

“They have read the Koran and it is written there that Islam will dominate and rule one day. So they are scared of Islam. There is an international conspiracy to suppress Islam,” she says.

…

She is upset many educated Muslims move away from Islam under the Western influence. But she firmly believes there will come a day when the world is one big Islamic state.

“This will happen sooner or later. Islam has to rule the entire world. We are fighting for this.

…

But why does she want an Islamic rule? “We don’t believe in democracy. Islam is the best way of living. Islam advocates justice and rule of law. We are upset by this democracy where we are suppressed.”

Well, now that we have heard her side of the story, do we all wonder why poor SIMI is banned and looked upon as a terrorist outfit?

29th Bharatheeya Blog Mela

Simple, clean (my excuse? Ia m not as creative as some of our fellow bloggers ;)) and in the spirit of the Carnival of Vanities that inspired us to do this - here we go! We have two categories for the posts today -

1. Political Commentary:

Sandeep wonders if India’s not having had any major revolutions might explain…

Gandalf on the other hand, thinks that BJP and allies are trying to give a communal color to events in the NE…

Suman Palit talks about the long, dead fingers of EU. Really!

Jivha shills for independent Indian media - a highly admirable effort.

Dheeraj has an interesting discussion of the outsourcing of jobs from America to India, Ross Perot and the “giant sucking sound”.

Vinod thinks - “It’s amazing how 2 people can take the same observations, make the same projections, and come to utterly opposite conclusions about the outcome’s desirability.” - he has proof.

Suruj Dutta has a great post commenting on Saudi Arabia’s quest for nuclear weapons and what it could mean for the world in the future (permalinks not working to scroll down to the post “Armageddon : A Universal Right ?” made on 9/18). Niraj has a few interesting thoughts of his own to add to the subject.

2. Culture, society and life in general:

Malavika writes about marital relationships and if a woman has to live with her in-laws…

Austereseeker reviews Rahul Da Cunha’s play, “The Class of 84”.

Mahesh Shantaram wonders if in the pursuit of money and a richer lifestyle, we are ignoring something er, a little more important.

Lazy geek has lots of good info on the “maestro’s” new effort - Thiruvasakam Symphony, a symphony inspired by Tamil spiritual literature.

V has some goods on mechanical devices performing and “performing”…

Kingsley sez that geeks are not nerds and defines each of them for us.

Smorgasbord thinks that building more libraries can be a solution to make better and enrich the lives of ordinary people around the world.

Here ends this week’s effort - more participation and more nominations are always appreciated :) Next week’s mela of course, is going to be hosted by Vinod.

Apropos of nothing!

Survivor 7 - Pearl Islands (Panama) starts tonight at 8/7 Central - That will be enough to keep me reined in till the NBA season starts end of October :)

Ooooh, scary!

I bet Oprah is quaking in her little booties, while laughing all the way up to the bank ;)

IOL : Swedish watchdog slams ‘pro-war biased’ Oprah

Stockholm - Sweden’s broadcasting watchdog said on Wednesday it was censuring an Oprah Winfrey talk show for showing bias towards a United States military attack on Iraq.

(link via LGF)

We need someone who can read around here

NY Daily News - front - No Iraq link to 9/11

WASHINGTON - Breaking with other top Bush administration officials, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice disputed the possibility yesterday that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Really? Which administration official asserted Saddam was involved with 9/11? Bush? Cheney? Chomps? Are you kidding me? Oh, looks like they dug up a quote - let’s take a look at it.

But with the White House having asserted otherwise, recent polls showed nearly 70% of Americans believe there was an Al Qaeda-Iraq link to 9/11, and Vice President Cheney said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Iraq was “the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11.” Cheney said that, in the aftermath of the attacks, “We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the ’90s; that it involved training, for example.”

So, Cheney believes that Iraq has been a base for “terrorists” - terrorists are affecting America as they did on 9/11 - Iraq has links with Al Qaeda - ummm, how does that mean Saddam is involved with 9/11 again? In a roundabout way and extremely vaguely, implicitly it can be said that that was what Cheney is “hinting” at - not so if you realize that he did stop short at drawing a clear link…

Oh Yeah?

Ummm…Mr. Blix, if that was the case, then what was the UN doing trying to inspect Iraq for the last 10 years, levying sanctions on the country and enforcing no-fly zones? Why wasn’t Saddam cooperating with you? Why did you want more and more time to complete your inspections? Why the heck did you yourself claim Iraq violated the sanctions by trying to import missile engines? Why did Iraq refuse to grant any interviews to El Baradei as the same report suggested, if they were hiding nothing?

Yahoo! News - Hans Blix: Iraq Destroyed WMD 10 Years Ago

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix now believes Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago and that intelligence agencies were wrong in their weapons assessment that led to war.

Workin' it

Well, I really wanted to get back on track with my workouts, so I went directly to the gym from my work this Monday. I saw that I was just in time for this class called the Bodypump and a friend of mine had recommended this to me, so I went in. It was an hour of intense torture and my body is still sore, but boy, do I love the class! I am going in this evening again and hopefully this class twice a week with 30 minutes of walking the dogs on alternate days and Yoga/mat Pilates on Saturday, I am hoping to get back in shape ;) I feel so motivated right now :)

The Carnival is one-year old

Go check out the wee baby at Silflay Hraka: Carnival of the Vanities - #52!

I am a log!

How you sleep may reveal your personality

29th Blog Mela

Send in entries for the 29th Bharateeya Blog Mela by leaving a comment below or by emailing them to madhoo.1atemail.com. The Mela will be held at http://www.realwomenonline.com, the birthplace of the Mela.

1. Send your entries in by 7PM CST tomorrow (We are trying to get the Mela on track to wednesdays - since the last one was on Sunday, this should give some additional time to get some good posts in).
2. No personal posts.
3. All posts should be made by Indians or focus on India.
4. Send links to individual entries made between the time period - 9/14/2003 through 9/17/2003.

Go Girl!

Hah! Take that, people! I think this is a step in the right direction. I understand that this ruling might be misused by women who consider their in-laws burdens just because they exist, but it also frees a woman to live in peace with her husband instead of being forced to suffer her in-laws’ brutality just so she can stay married.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India faces key marriage ruling

Ashis Ghose says he will ask the Supreme Court to overturn the judgement. He was speaking a day after two judges ruled that his wife should live with him, but separately from her in-laws.

Good News

Some good news on the US job frontier. I am sure this will make some of us sleep better in the night - now if only this translated into a raise or a bonus for those of us still employed in good standing. Do you think that would be asking for too much?

MSN Money - Extra!: 7 reasons the job market is about to take off

Unemployed? Worried about your job security? Scared by the negative stuff you read in the papers and hear on television? Most of these concerns reflect the recent past. But I’m here to tell you there’s strong reason to believe the Great American Jobs Machine is about to crank up yet again. In fact, there are seven strong reasons

More candles, please!

Yes, Nayar and other people like him can be called naive - but when they are in a position to influence public opinion by spouting nonsense that could affect India’s security, they cease to be harmless to the nation.

GN Online: Kuldip Nayar: Appeasing Israel could affect India’s stock in Middle East

The same Israel has travelled a long way. It has forcibly occupied territory of neighbouring countries. The moderates have been pushed aside. The state has acquired a face, which is brutal and vindictive. True, the fear of annihilation has contributed a lot to what Israel has become today. But it does not realise that it has tried to solve political problems through the military. Instead of pointing out this, the joint statement issued by New Delhi and Tel Aviv gives the impression of India going along with Israel. We have avoided the name of Palestine. It is like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.

So what should Israel do? Light candles at the borders and hope that the suicide bombers, er, martyrs don’t use them to light the fuses of the bombs strapped to their stomachs?

This is a policy which is directly opposed to the sensitivities of the Arab nations. The reason for Arab anger was that Israel was planted in their midst despite their opposition. Still they could have been mollified if an independent state of Palestine was founded.

Yes, we need to worry about the Arab nations - the same ones that don’t even grant citizenship to the Palestinians and keep them in refugee camps? The same countries that don’t give Palestinian refugees any right to work? The same countries whose “freer” people are driving Palestinians away from their country? The same Arab countries that NEVER once sided with India against Pakistan and likely NEVER will? You tell it like it is, Mr. Nayar - What would we do without you?

stupid things about Patriot Act

Now this is taking things a little too far, me thinks - MSN Money - Your bank can blacklist you - I understand it is terribly important to be able to track financial records and statements and to curtail those that are intended to help support terrorists, but that doesn’t mean you can flag any random person and just make their life a living hell, till they are cleared of the suspicion - whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I recently got a card from my local public library - strangely, I felt a little apprehensive checking the books out, since I now know that the government can track my library records and deem my checkouts suspicious. A little chilling, I must say.

Update: Of course, then there are the so-called imaginary misdeeds by the current government that circulated around as Bush’s resume a while ago - here is a good refutation of the allegations. (Found via Worldwide Rant)

Dilbert goes IIT

(Click thumbnail for larger version)

From Dilbert.com

Indian Blog Magazine Mela!

Mahesh Shantaram of Filter Coffee takes a pretty innovatice approach in hosting this week’s Blog Mela - here is the magazine version of the 28th Bharateeya Blog Mela.

Sick and sicker!

Ok - I usually don’t pick on other bloggers, since I understand everybody has an opinion and blah, blah, blah. But then, once in a while I come across such stinkers as this post and I cannot help but castigate.

Life is a Random Draw
Definitely NOT Fair and Balanced
: Let the Breast Beating Begin

Here is how it starts -

It is September 11th once again. Let the breast beating begin. Two years ago, in case you have not heard, 3,016 people died in NY city, Washington DC, and aboard four hijacked commercial jets. Those are the facts and just the bare facts. The event was televised and seen all over the world. Oh what a circus, oh what a show … The whole world was beaten over the head to mourn those dead, to join in a public display of grief, to express horror, to vow vengeance, to bring the criminals to justice. Suddenly, as it were, the world woke up to the horrors of terrorism, and indeed death. It was as if neither terrorism nor death was a factor before Sept 11th, 2001.

Excuse me - if the world chooses to mourn with America, go blame the world - what is America’s fault in it? I love the use of the words “circus” and “show” to describe the cold-blooded killing live on TV, of thousands of innocent people.

It is not immediately clear why the death of 3,016 should merit all that global attention and grief. Yesterday, 10,000 children died of malnutrition and preventable childhood diseases. Three times as many died yesterday as were killed on Sept 11th 2001. They were humans too. Where is all the breast beating and the public mourng for those innocent 10,000? And not just those 10,000. What about the 10,000 that died the day before? And the day before? What about them? What about the 7,000,000 children who died since Sept 11th 2001? Is it because the 3,016 were Americans that all the world has to put everything on hold and mourn those dead? Is it because the US can bomb 10,000 innocent Afghanis in retribution for their 3,016 dead that the world has to collectively mourn the American deaths and not give a second’s thought to the 7,000,000 children that have also died for no fault of their own?

So, children died of diseases - I wonder how people dying to poverty can be any different from people deliberately murdered - Can someone tell me that? 10,000 Afghan civilians were bombed - links, please! (Marc Herold’s bogus analyses don’t count) - Afghanistan actually has an economy and a marginally functioning government now - I guess the US was wrong to weed out Taliban from there. They should have just let the bearded ones keep torturing the women - don’t you know that it isn’t only the American lives that mean more but also those killed by America - their deaths mean a lot more than the lives of those that will live in relative prosperity, since they have the freedom to do so.

For the special 3,016 killed on Sept 11th, 2001, about $3,000,000,000 will be paid in compensation from a special fund set up for them. (Only 40% of the victims’ families have claimed compensation so far. The others are waiting to file suit and claim even more.) Where is the fund for the 7,000,000 children who have died needlessly since that day?

Oh My! Big bad US is compensating her people and people from all the other countries who lost their lives in a murderous attack - trust an ideologically blind person to spin it in a negative light.

So you will excuse me if I feel a little nauseated when I see yet another poem, yet another expression of grief for the 3,016. I have little grief left over for them because I am mourning the other 10 million innocents that have died since Sept 11th 2001 who are not being mourned.

This never fails to get me - why is there supposed to be a hierarchy for politically correct mourning? I must have missed the etiquette books in which it clearly said incidents must be mourned in a certain order and no more and no less. Get off your freaking high horse and shut up! It is people like you, who make me nauseous.

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday, Dear Ashwini!!

I hope you have a great time today and I wish you a wonderful year ahead!!! May you buy all the Harry Potter memorabilia you can get your hands on ;)

In memory

I wish I could post something profound and moving - something clever and inspiring. Words fail me in expressing my thoughts fully, so here is a little something I wrote a few months ago, to explain to a few of my Indian friends why I feel the way I feel about America right now.

Dancing with Dogs: What America means to me……

Listen to this to imagine how we in the US felt that day - lgf: What We Heard or read this - Voices, an effort by Michele Catalano of A Small Victory to collate the stories and memories of various people about 9/11.

A list of all the people who died in the attacks - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-name/index.html.

A friend’s memories of 9/11 and how she spends the anniversaries, in her own words -

Last year I was sitting around on the 9/11 anniversary crying and just getting depressed. I thought to myself that I couldn’t allow that to be my whole day and felt that if maybe I did something for someone else, it might help. So last year I bought goodies for one fire unit that is near my home that I had taken my son over to get a “talking” to about playing around the BBQ pit.

With the 2nd anniversary of 9/11 coming up, I knew I wanted to do the same thing again. But I wanted to expand it. Not only did I want to do it for the fire department unit from last year, but I decided I wanted to do it for my “official” fire department unit that actually serves my neighborhood. I also thought that this is 9/11 and there are men and women serving overseas because of what happened on this date. In Mesquite there is actually all four armed services located in the same shopping center and I thought they were just as worthy of a thank you as our fire department. So this morning I went to Campisi’s Pizza (and the owner knew what I was doing for and gave me all the pizza’s at half price), Einstein Brother’s Bagels (an assortment of their goodies), Tom Thumb for cookies, cheesecakes, pies and cakes, and Starbuck’s for their Breakfast Blend and Kenyan coffee. I spent my morning dropping all of these off at the various locations. My last stop was the Marine’s. As I was unloading my car one of the guys asked me what all of this was for. I told him that it was 9/11 I just wanted to say thank you and how much I appreciated what the guys were doing to keep us safe. He got a tear in his eye and looked at me and said. “I was at the Pentagon that day”. He also told me that they don’t hear that very often. I cried all the way home.

Last year I decided that I was never going to forget 9/11 and what happened to our country that day. As long as we can afford to do this, I am going to remember that date and try to do the same thing every year.

An excerpt of an Indian’s POV on 9/11 -
v2 : psychobabble - read the whole thing!

Amidst all this, there is a growing reluctance by liberal thinkers the world over to use the one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter line to justify acts of terrorism. Whether it is Northern Ireland, Palestine or Kashmir, the people weilding the AK-47s must be separated from the often legitimate political struggles. Anyone willing to bomb a shopping mall or blow up a civilian airliner is not a freedom-fighter; he (or she) is a ruthless killer and should be dealt with as such. And finally, senile old men like Yasser Arafat (lest we forget, he was the man who developed international terrorism as a political tool) must be stopped from sending impressionable teenagers to their deaths to fulfill their own bloodlust.

He got something right!

Purported bin Laden videotape airs

Sept. 10 - A videotape purporting to show al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden aired Wednesday on the Arabic-language news channel Al-Jazeera. The videotape was accompanied by an audiotape in which the voice of a man claiming to be bin Laden’s top deputy promised new attacks in the United States and denounced the U.S.-backed Middle East peace process as a “road map to hell.”

[emphasis mine]

Right up JK's alley

This is really interesting to think that people have been living in India since 2 million years ago…

Major anthropology find reported in India - The Washington Times: United Press International

CALCUTTA, India, Sept. 8 (UPI) — Scientists report they have found evidence of the oldest human habitation in India, dating to 2 million years, on the banks of the Subarnarekha River. The 30-mile stretch between Ghatshila in the province of Jharkhand and Mayurbhanj in Orissa has reportedly yielded tools that suggest the site could be unique in the world, with evidence of human habitation without a break from 2 million years ago to 5,000 B.C.

More interesting archeological stuff - Kansascity.com - Your Kansas City Everything Guide

A tunnel that snakes under the ancient walls of Jerusalem likely was built around 700 B.C. during the reign of King Hezekiah, as described in the Bible, a new study suggests. The tunnel’s age had been debated by biblical scholars, a few of whom had suggested it was built centuries later. The only surviving clue to its age had been an inscription discovered in 1880 on a tunnel wall, which supported the link to Hezekiah but did not specifically name him.

Awesome!

Every time I get cynical, depressed and in general bored with life around me, science and nature have ways of making me feel like a little girl again :)

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Black hole hums B flat

Astronomers have detected sound waves from a super-massive black hole. The “note” is the deepest ever detected from an object in the Universe. Sound waves ripple through the hot gas
The black hole lives in the Perseus cluster of galaxies, located 250 million light-years away.

Letters or news?

Since when did letters to the editor like this - Letters: Watch out for GOP power grab - become sources of news to Google? If some pissed-off peoples’ letters can be deemed newsworthy, why not blog-rants as news sources? How low can they go?

It's a Party!

I guess this was the party Palestinians threw for the Israelis on the event of their (Palestinians) getting a new Prime Minister. How absolutely charming! I hope the a$$h__s who carried this out go directly to hell and burn there for an eternity.

Huh?

Why would Amazon recommend these books for my wishlist? Seriously, they are the only books they recommended. I swear all I bought from Amazon were the Harry Potters, some Linda Goodmans, some “Survivor” books and some Roald Dahls…

1. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
by Al Franken; Hardcover

8. Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth
by Joe Conason (Author); Hardcover

11. Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America
by Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose; Hardcover

17. What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News
by Eric Alterman; Hardcover

23. The Clinton Wars
by Sidney Blumenthal; Hardcover

24. Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations
by Al Franken; Paperback

Scary!

RIAA lands big, bad music thief who is single-handedly causing them losses to the tune of billions of dollars -

The RIAA sees the face of evil, and it’s a 12-year-old girl

The RIAA has nailed one of the most prolific file-traders in the U.S., filing a lawsuit against 12-year-old Brianna LaHara. When not at the playground with her friends, “Biggie Brianna” is trading music files from her home in New York. The little girl received one of the 261 lawsuits filed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) on Monday, according to the New York Post. She may look like a sweet and innocent child, but the RIAA says it’s only going after major copyright violators at the moment. So you make the call.

Update: They caught one more and this one is even scarier -
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Grandfather caught in music fight

Durwood Pickle, 71, of Texas, said his teenage grandchildren used his computer during visits to his home. “I didn’t do it, and I don’t feel like I’m responsible,” he said.

Ok, I am back!

(warning - this post might offend those with prudish sensibilities)

Ok, this isn’t exactly apropos of nothing, but I cannot reveal my motivation behind this post, so let us just discuss the question - “Should there be sex-ed in Indian schools?” I am not being flippant here - I am being extremely serious about the way us Indians and Indian women in general, view sex. It is supposed to be this taboo subject and even when it is spoken about, it is considered as something that only men enjoy and women just grin and bear. I have met grown women who are scared at the very thought of sleeping with a man and don’t view it at all as a means for them to get some pleasure too.

I mean isn’t that the whole theory behind women withholding sex to get favors from their men or to get them to change their behavior - that somehow men miss it a lot more than women do? I agree that with women, sex is a lot more mental as it is a lot more visual and sensory with men, but I think it is a little hypocritical to pretend that people of both sexes don’t enjoy physical intimacy equally. Unfortunately, in most places in India, women are still taught to fear sex. To them, it is this “zombie-thing” that cause you to have kids and be relegated to a life of a “sinner”.

I have met women who are so afraid of sex, they make up excuses to not sleep with their husbands. But then, it is also not fair to blame this all on women - the men are in similar predicament too. They know they want to do something, but they have no idea how to go about doing it. Most haven’t heard of the word “foreplay”. They get in, get done and leave - to put it bluntly. When that happens, the womens’ fear that there is nothing in it for them gets reinforced and I suspect there are a lot of women in India stuck in marriages where they have sex just so the husband doesn’t leave them or to have kids.

I believe that sex isn’t fully pleasurable until both the participants are enjoying what they are doing and are into it, physically and mentally. To get young men and women into that state of mind, I believe they need to know what is involved and how to about feeling good and not guilty. What do you guys think?

More excuses

Ok, here is my excuse for the intermittent blogging…the dogs ate my posts!!! Not working? Alright! Have you ever spent a lot of days between a lot of people and after a while felt all drained and talked-out and needed a little break to recharge? That is precisely how I feel right now - I am definitely feeling better than I felt over the weekend, but it is hard to leave my anti-social self behind ;) Don’t worry, I am addicted to shooting my mouth off and will be back soon (as if I ever really leave) with lots more crazy rants and theses.

Disturbing news from Iran

I wish atleast half of those millions of people who marched to protest “American Imperialism” would get off their butts and march against a truly imperialistic and oppressive regime, where demonstrating against the Government is enough to get yourself killed. It is a sad situation in the world when more people show up to protest against democracies than against theocracies and thuggish mullahcracties.

- 10,000 people in Tehran stage anti-government demonstration

Some of the people arrested during antigovernment demonstrations Iran in June and July have been executed, according to reports from inside the jails of the clerical regime. Gholam-Hossein Mohammadi from Amol (northern Iran), who lived in Akbar-Abad district in the south Tehran suburb of Islamshahr, was executed together with two of his friends for participating in evening uprisings in June and July. The authorities informed their families a few days after they were hanged and warned them not to hold any mourning ceremonies.

What's in a name?

Ok, on yahoo messenger, my ID is “madhoo” - is that some kind of a Muslim or Arab code word? I am asking because I get about 10 requests per day on the messenger from people who “want to be my friend” and want to “chat wit [sic] me”. Almost all names are Muslim-sounding, so I wonder if the name has some special meaning that I am not aware of. While I am figuring this out, aisha_farheen, tahirahmedqureshi and ahsanahmed, I really don’t want to chat with you - get a freaking life, will ya?

Bharateeya blog Mela #27

Check it out right here - Jivha - the Tongue: Bharateeya Blog Mela #27! Going by Mahesh Shantaram’s suggestion, I have created a url - http://realwomenonline.com/blogmela, which will always redirect to the latest blog mela, in case you don’t want to go searching every week. Enjoy!

Why get married?

The Marriage Trap - A new book wrestles with monogamy and its modern discontents. By Meghan O’Rourke

A good article in Slate critiquing a book called “Against Love” by Laura Kipnis - a few extracts -

What’s curious, though, is that even though marriage doesn’t seem to make Americans very happy, they keep getting married (and remarried). Kipnis’ essential question is: Why? Why, in what seems like an age of great social freedom, would anyone willingly consent to a life of constricting monogamy? Why has marriage (which she defines broadly as any long-term monogamous relationship) remained a polestar even as ingrained ideas about race, gender, and sexuality have been overturned? Kipnis’ answer is that marriage is an insidious social construct, harnessed by capitalism to get us to have kids and work harder to support them. Her quasi-Marxist argument sees desire as inevitably subordinated to economics. And the price of this subordination is immense: Domestic cohabitation is a “gulag”; marriage is the rough equivalent of a credit card with zero percent APR that, upon first misstep, zooms to a punishing 30 percent and compounds daily. You feel you owe something, or you’re afraid of being alone, and so you “work” at your relationship, like a prisoner in Siberia ice-picking away at the erotic permafrost.

I find this argument highly shallow and that of a person who has never been love or has never committed to herself anything. Although Meghan O’Rourke pretty much agrees with me, as a married women, let me tell you what I think of this - to put it simply, DRIVEL!

No, marriage is not a capitalist phenomenon at all - it is an institution that has been a part of our lives and cultures in one form or another and has endured for thousands of years and many different religions and non-religions. To speak non-spiritually, marriage is a commitment between two people to be there for each other and to share and love through life. What is so wrong with that?

How many of us own pets? How many of us take care of the pets through their lives and hold them close when they are dying? It isn’t like pet-ownership is all fun and play - no, you have ups and downs and ultimately being close to the pet and have the pet close to you enriches your life in so many ways, you work on the relationship with your pet and you plod through the bad times, because the good times make it worth it. Isn’t that some sort of a marriage on a simplistic level?

You don’t marry just for kids, but we need kids around to sustain our race and ourselves. The kids that we raise cannot have healthy, balanced childhoods that they need to develop into good individuals unless they have a semblance of a family and a support system around them - see the crime statistics, for instance - most criminals are from single-parent families or are orphaned at an early age. If we lived in the kind of free-for-all world the author must like, where is the support? Where is the sense of security?

Lastly, I think a free-for-all society in which there is no marriage, but just consensual co-habitation-with-no-obligation is more of a capitalist structure than the current marriage system.

Excuses

I have one of my doggies (Raju, the fawn Dane) at work today, so I need to look like I am working extra hard, which means there won’t be much blogging unless I find something really interesting or the NBA season starts at once as a surprise. In the meantime, head over to Jivha’s place and nominate your posts for the Blog Mela.

The Mela will be stopping by at Mahesh Shantaram’s place next week, so you know where to do a little self-trumpeting ;)

Bidwai shoots his mouth off...again!

The whole article is patently stupid in typical Bidwai-ishtyle, so I am just commenting on a few egregious errors -

Cancel the Sharon visit!

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took over all these areas. They have since been under its military occupation. Likud staunchly justifies the occupation in the name of Biblical-era ‘Greater Israel.’ When it came to power in 1977, it vigorously promoted the illegal settlement of the Jewish colonies in the occupied territories.

Ummm, Mr. Bidwai, have you forgotten something in the opening line? you know, stuff about who actually started the war - Israel was attacked - she won the war and as the winner, laid claim to the territories…I know it is easy to selectively “forget” stuff like that, when you have to vociferously defend suicide bombers who target women, children and the elderly celebrating festivals, so that God will hook them up with divine hookers in heaven. And then there is this, further down -

Third, Mr Sharon has played an extremely negative role in the recent past. He opposed the Oslo accords, even though these favoured Israel. The second intifada was triggered by his highly provocative walk in September 2000 on the holy Haram al-Sharif site in East Jerusalem. Under him, Israel has pursued targeted assassination and ruthless repression, by relying on tanks, helicopter gunships, laser-guided weapons, and F-16s carrying 2000-pound bombs. He is more culpable than Hamas for the collapse of the ceasefire on August 21, triggered off by a missile striking killing senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab.

So, let me get this straight - Sharon walked on the Temple Mount - whic