French Fry Fellowship

I just reinstalled Hello so here's a test photo. It's from the recent French Fry party I threw in Seattle. Bill Gates, eat your heart out.

New territory

I applied for a Nevada Arts Council Fellowship this year. The council awards $5000 to six individual artists – two in literary arts, two in performing arts and two in visual arts including media arts (film, video). The deadline was Friday. I hand-delivered my 5 sets of 10 poems about 3 hours before the cut-off but I wasn't the only last minute entry. Tim Rhodes, another Ash Canyon poet, passed his envelope through the door at 5pm, just as they were closing. Ah, the drama! Cowee tells me the winners are selected in June at a day long, public event. Until I went through my files looking for material, I hadn't really appreciated the work I've done in the past year. I must say it's mostly due to Ash Canyon and especially Bill Cowee. He kicks everybody's ass into gear.

Bill Cowee, one of poetry's true honky-tonk angels.

PETA and PETCO agreement

Rat Woman, Hagwar and Buug
Invisible Theatre

Good news. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc. announced an agreement today that will advance animal welfare across the country. PETA will end its campaign against the national pet food and supply retailer and PETCO will end the sale of large birds in its stores. As there really is no such thing as a "cage bird", this is encouraging. PETCO also agreed to make some changes to benefit rats and mice, including separating the animals by gender to prevent breeding. A lot of these mice end up as live food for pet snakes. Ugh. I don't respect people who do that. Anyway, now the mice will have a bit better life along the way. That counts for something.

Empath

Another point of view

Perhaps I'm an empath. I've always had the ability to feel and see from opposing points of view at the same time. Grab a few, current hot topics out of the hat... abortion vs. choice, whether or not it's okay to perform medical experiments on animals, the death penalty, environment issues, gay marriage...I appreciate, even have strong feelings for both sides. I wonder how many people are like this. Hard to say. I don't think we make the news. People become famous basing their careers on being one-sided, the more inflexible, the more confrontational, the better. The public loves 'em. In fact, Big Media operates like a brothel madame for the media whores ever busy pandering all the sound and fury the world is willing to pay for.


Big Media Madame


Guess which one is the empath.

But don't assume that because I have a live and let live attitude, I don't have my own point of view. I have a very strong point of view. And I act on it. My bias? Compassionate Progressive. Are you surprised? Why am I telling you this? I don't know. I woke up with these thoughts on my mind and just had a very strong cup of coffee. By the way, did you write your senator yet about blocking the Rethuglican one party rule? See below.

Body screen TV protest

Bound to a wheelchair and repeatedly crossing the road in front of a local KFC, a protester in a giant chicken costume led a protest today against KFC suppliers’ abusive treatment of chickens. People passed out leaflets and held signs that proclaimed, "KFC Tortures Chickens." One man wore a body screen TV showing shocking undercover video footage of chickens in factory farms and slaughterhouses.

What is done to chickens would be illegal if it were done to dogs, cats, cows, or pigs. However, chickens are excluded from the only federal law that protects farmed animals, the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. An undercover investigation at a Moorefield, W.Va., slaughterhouse that supplies chickens to KFC revealed that workers were kicking, throwing, and stomping on live birds. Recently, PETA released the findings of an undercover investigation of a slaughterhouse operated by KFC'’s number one supplier, Tyson Foods, and found that workers were ripping conscious chicken's heads off, slaughter machinery was systematically mutilating chickens, and thousands of birds were being scalded to death after entering the defeathering tank while they were still conscious.

For more information, please visit KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

Oppose one party rule

Dickhead Republicans

 

Radical Republicans plan to hijack the nomination process of Supreme Court Judges in their ongoing grab for absolute power. To accomplish this, Dick Cheney says he'll deploy what he proudly calls his "nuclear option". His "bomb" is a parliamentary maneuver to overturn the 200-year-old right to filibuster judicial nominations. Its purpose is to silence all dissenting opinion. Right-wing extremists are passionately committed to crushing all opposition and without a minority voice, democracy is replaced by tyranny. To do so, they must disable the system of checks and balances upon which our democracy is founded and by which it is protected. If they succeed, this will be the first time since America was founded that there is no check on the ruling party.

As a senior adviser to President Bush told Ron Suskind, former senior national-affairs reporter for the Wall Street Journal, "We're an empire now". We are history's actors . . . and you, all of you (people he called members of the "reality-based community", will be left to just study what we do.'"

We can't let neoconservative bullies pad the Supreme Court with "yes men". If they do, they will suppress dissenting opinion for generations. Write or call your Senator and complain. Sign the petition at the MoveOn website and while you're at it, email a letter the newspapers in your area. Silence is compliance so speak up.