mike ford, who i knew, died earlier this week. i was better friends with his partner elise; but that means that right now i am a little sad for me, and a lot sad for elise.

anyhow. for those who would like to see a picture, here is a link to a picture of
mike and his partner elise; looks like this was taken by kathryn cramer, in new york at the tor offices, very early in 2006. if you've been hearing talk about his eyebrows, those are them, right there.

We Knocked Em All Dead, Babe, Then We Brought It All Back Home -- Unqualified Offerings:

It is now official United States policy that our security depends on hiding people away and torturing them, said decision to be made in secret without review. This is what the United States says about who we are.

(emphasis added by me)

all i can think of to say right now is: not in my name.

i am so disgusted with this country right now.

here is what waterboarding looks like. there are pictures at the link from phnom penh. this is not "torture lite". this is not just being firm with people or inconveniencing them.

this is one of the two best techniques the khmer rouge had. this is one of the two singled out in a prison museum there, as being the best for getting people to say whatever you wanted them to say. not the truth, mind you. but whatever you wanted them to say. the locations of bombs that don't exist. that their own mother had sold out to the enemy. *anything* to get it to stop.

if you can't get it into your head that this is immoral, inhumane, and evil, read that last bit again. it's not even *useful*. it does not produce useful intelligence. people will say *anything* to get it to stop.

David Corn: This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like

Bottom line: Not only do waterboarding and the other types of torture currently being debated put us in company with the most vile regimes of the past half-century; they're also designed specifically to generate a (usually false) confession, not to obtain genuinely actionable intel. This isn't a matter of sacrificing moral values to keep us safe; it's sacrificing moral values for no purpose whatsoever.

These photos are important because most of us have never seen an actual, real-life waterboard. The press typically describes it in the most anodyne ways: a device meant to 'simulate drowning' or to 'make the prisoner believe he might drown.' But the Khymer Rouge were no jokesters, and they didn't tailor their abuse to the dictates of the Geneva Convention. They-- like so many brutal regimes--made waterboarding one of their primary tools for a simple reason: it is one of the most viciously effective forms of torture ever devised.

The legislation backed by Bush and congressional Republicans would explicitly permit the use of evidence obtained through waterboarding and other forms of torture. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and other top al Qaeda leaders have reportedly been subjected to this technique. They would certainly note--or try to note--that at any trial. But with this legislation, the White House is seeking to declare the use of waterboarding (at least in the past) as a legitimate practice of the US government.

my friend john m. ford lived for nearly an additional six years because some unknown person donated a kidney to him, when his were failing.

if you're missing mike, or even if you didn't know him but would like to do something for people after you're gone, make sure your drivers license says you'll donate organs, and go check this site out, too.

Donate Life America -- Donate Life -- Homepage

i just signed up with them, and the site says that now my next of kin does not need to be consulted (until/unless i revoke this document) and they can have my organs to give to people who need them.

i keep finding things that i'm horrified by, and want to blog about, but i can't figure out what to say about them.

The Blog | Gary Hart: The October Surprise | The Huffington Post:

It should come as no surprise if the Bush Administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election.
Were these more normal times, this would be a stunning possibility, quickly dismissed by thoughtful people as dangerous, unprovoked, and out of keeping with our national character. But we do not live in normal times.

[...]

In more rational times, including at the height of the Cold War, bizarre actions such as unilateral, unprovoked, preventive war are dismissed by thoughtful, seasoned, experienced men and women as mad.

hello, my name is betsy and i am a gen x computer geek.

i just caught the last four minutes of _the matrix_ on cable, and it still makes me cry like a baby.

if you thought this sort of thing didn't happen, you're wrong. here and now, in the united states.

those of us living in blue states, in big cities, we tend to forget that just because we can find somewhere in the city that will, if we look hard enough, give us emergency contraception, that doesn't work for everyone.

me, i'm on teratrogenic medications, currently. her, she thinks that three kids are enough. i think that both of these are good enough reasons. i think that any reason is good enough, and no one, NO ONE should have to go through this sort of rigamarole.

Den of the Biting Beaver: Morality clauses, EC, and broken condoms:

Monday, September 18, 2006
Morality clauses, EC, and broken condoms
I'm stunned. I'm utterly, completely stunned. I'm shaky and anxious and shocked beyond belief. I live in rural Ohio and I have been denied EC.

sorry for not having posted much recently; my family is having a garage sale this upcoming weekend (if you're twin cities local and a garage sale full of christmas things, antiques, and furniture sounds like fun to you, email me and i'll tell you the address) (actually, we're going to be part of the south st paul city wide garage sale; go buy a map from the organizers, hit all the sales, and you'll see us eventually! ;) and what with the garage sale and various health crises (none of which are mine but none of which are much fun anyhow) i am just about out of cope and have no brain left for writing.

so, what have you been up to?

go read this; go watch the youtube video, if you're somewhere where you can.

i've been avoiding the five year anniversary coverage, because i still grieve for what and who we lost.

in this piece, keith olbermann talks eloquently about what we lost in the days and months after the attacks.

Hoffmania!: Olbermann Gives The Commentary of a Lifetime:

The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the country. The government, the President in particular, was given every possible measure of support.

Those who did not belong to his party -- tabled that.

Those who doubted the mechanics of his election -- ignored that.

Those who wondered of his qualifications -- forgot that.

History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage.

Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.

The President -- and those around him -- did that.

They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, 'bi-partisanship' meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, 'validate the strategy of the terrorists.'

They promised protection, and then showed that to them 'protection' meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken, a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated al-Qaida as much as we did.

The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is 'lying by implication.'

The impolite phrase is 'impeachable offense.'

reported without comment:

ABC 9/11 Docudrama's Right-Wing Roots:

On Friday, September 8, just forty-eight hours before ABC planned to air its so-called 'docudrama,' The Path to 9/11, Robert Iger, CEO of ABC's corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, was presented with incontrovertible evidence outlining the involvement of that film's screenwriter and director in a concerted right-wing effort to blame former President Bill Clinton for allowing the 9/11 attacks to take place. Iger told a source close to ABC that he was 'deeply troubled' by the information and claimed he had no previous knowledge of the institutional right-wing ties of The Path to 9/11's creators. He reportedly said that he has commenced an internal investigation to verify the role of the film's creators in deliberately advancing disinformation through ABC.