Rock The Vote To Sleep

This morning, over eggs with THIS, I read THIS. It got me REAL steamed and I (again) jumped with both feet into THIS. But then I read THIS, and started to once again believe that, as my friend Pepe is prone to say, when it really comes down to it, the Great American Political Pastime is really just the same guy in a different THIS.

So now I'm back to THIS.

Drinks on me.

And now, an off-topic before and after montage:

Lakers-Celtics: Danielson Takes Game One

The NBA/ABC/ESPN machine has managed to get me pretty stoked about this year's finals. It all started here for me:

Actually, it probaly started here:

How historically white are the Celtics that the NBA's first hip-hop ad stars two white guys? How white are the Celtics currently? o% white. Only NBA active roster with no white or European players.

Now, I could care less, except that Paul Pierce's 'tweaked knee-carried to the locker room by teamates-only to return triumphantly and lead my team to victory'-performance last night was wildly reminiscant of, that's right, yet another certain white guy:

Who will be the hero of game two?

backlogged one

okay... let's journey back to march, march 13th, when our first born turned his first year. i've been a mother for a whole year now and feel pretty good about it. friends have called me 'a very laid back first time mom.' i've put effort into it. when jackson wouldn't eat much his first two weeks i didn't panic. i travelled alone with him back to the dominican when he was 5 weeks. no problem. he's slept for months in the heat under a mosquito net, hit the swimming pool before he was 90 days old and didn't receive all the vaccinations under the sun. helping me in the backyard garden, he's consumed enough dirt to sprout vegetables all on his own. (i try to thwart this but he's quick you see). he's had lots of bug bits, bumps and scrapes. he shares drinks with dogs, enjoys pouring sand on himself, will seek out any puddle, pot, cup or toilet bowl of water to splash in and loves putting my hair in his mouth. this is my son... this is the life he likes.

i know he will grow up and not remember all these little secrets we share. all the sometimes gross little faux pas and rules we break around here. but i promise i'll keep our secrets.
ani deFranco and i have a kid the same ago. i unabashedly hope jackson marries miss petah lucia napolitano, daughter o'ani in about 25 years. i won't tell her he recently pooped in the pool.

anyway... he's to my warm, tender, charming, adventurous, dimpled little boy who is not interested in his toys and only wants to play with his dad's wallet or the water hose.

backlogged one-b

otro vez

i haven't blogged much recently. i have a great series of thoughts and updates and questions i'd like to pose to you... but i get tired quickly these days. when jackson is down for a nap and i look around me at my messy table, the dirty dishes in the sink, weeds in the garden i'd like to terrorize and i think the thoughts in my head i'd like to write... well, i take a nap. i sleep and wake up when i hear the lad babbling on to himself. my free moments of the day escaped on the other side of my eyelids. so i tell myself this... sitting here on this couch i am accomplishing so much, my body is literally exhausting itself in putting together a babe. i feel much better. but i do miss the little communicado world going on here. so today i start my backlogged blog series... we'll see.
for those of you requesting a tummy shot... here you go. for those of you who haven't learned the news... we're 5 months into baby TWO, due the first week of October. we figured hey, we had a baby last year and it was great fun so let's do it again this year! 19 months apart. lordy.

Hot!

Getting Warmer (For MOL jr)

Warm (More for MOL jr)

Cool (For MOL jr)

Once Again Mavs, You Will Be Missed....

Your absolute inability to score points in the paint, refusal to make adjustments and lack of heart however, will not.

Edgar Poe and King Have Me All-In On The Beijing Boycott

"The Poor People's Campaign has faded from historical memory. It remains the most overlooked part of King's legacy, Wilkins said. "It remains in the shadows because King rewrote the traditional civil rights script. As long as he fed Americans images of bigoted Southern sheriffs clubbing demonstrators, people could remain comfortable. But the Poor People's Campaign gave Americans a new cast of villains: themselves. Americans didn't want to look at the face of poverty, but King was going to force them."


Click here for more of the best article you've read in weeks.

Amazing, that the more the man marched towards the gospel, the more his closest friends began to desert him and even question his sanity.

Or maybe, that's exactly what happens when we lay hands on what this gospel really means.

I've been told before that I hate America. I sure hope this isn't true. Hate is an infectious disease. Who wants that in their system? Not me. But King hits on two things here that are vital to understanding why the American Mindset and the Kingdom will always be at odds with one another:

1. The "Make-Your-Own-Way" American Spirit looks a hell of a lot like what Christ called fundamentally, sin.

2. America sees absolutely NO NEED for forgiveness of any kind for the things, as a nation we've done. (See: Christopher Columbus, Native Americans, African Americans, Manifest Destiny, Women, the Spanish-American War, and most recently, the Beijing Games. (Buy one!)

Here's my point: The majority of Americans who profess to be believers hang their hat on their personal need for forgiveness. They hear it in sermons. They read it in books. They print it on T-shirts. They put it in songs. They train teenagers to go tell Mexicans about it. They see it as essential. And (hoorah!) they are correct!! They know, full well, that the bury-it-under- the-floorboards technique is deadly, that you cannot hide from the coming judgement:

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! - tear up the planks! here, here! - It

is the beating of his hideous heart!"

And yet, (AND YET!!!), these same folks, the very same who seem to grasp the fundamental importance of forgiveness, the very same who seem to see the futility of slapping shinola on shit, will defend, defend, and defend this nation's innocense as if it were a newborn child:

"I smiled, - for what had I to fear? I bade them search - search well. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim."

What they claim to understand for personal salvation they deny as a nation and thus they doom it. That's just insanity.

And not the good kind:





















Read more here, here, and here.

Watch more here:

365

March 13th, 2007

March 13th, 2008

Positively Unemployed

His Granny Fran got him that.
What's really amazing is that he put it together himself.

For And Thanks To Pepe!

Anarchy hasn't sounded this great since the Dead Kennedys (own that EP! Got it used at Vintage Vinyl in 10th grade. Ask Hamster). Missed these guys by about a week in Dallas opening for the Foo. Also, great comment thread at youtube all about how they're no longer anarchists because they wrote a catchy chorus. Classic!

Who's Coming With Me And I'm So Not Kidding!

Seriously. Give This Guy A Job.

Does the end of the strike tragically mean the end of the vlog? If so, Bobby saved his absolute best for last.

Same Guy!

(Except for the bit about severing a human head..)

Support This Man!

Tired of those American Gladiators in your usual Office timeslot? Help make my internet buddy famous and bring an end to the strike! URG readers (both of you!) UNITE!! Post this on your blogs with implicit instructions for your readers to do the same! Exclamation points!

Were Update

Here's a bit of an email we got from our friends Sara and Julius. If you'd like to email Julius personally or help financially, both of which I cannot encourage enough, shoot me a comment and I'll get you the appropriate contact info.

Friends,

Thank you for expressing your sympathies and offering your support. The last 48 hours have been difficult and quite a whirlwind, as you can imagine. Julius has a plane ticket in hand and is taking off today (Wednesday) at 2:15pm, and he will be gone for one month. We ask for your prayers for his safety. His priorities are to facilitate the burial of his brother, assist with managing his estate, and most importantly, to take care of his other brothers and sisters and get them moved into a safer neighborhood...

The Organization of Kenyans in Kansas City is hosting a prayer gathering and fundraiser at our home this Thursday night beginning at 6:30pm. Anyone is welcome to drop by. Donations will be put towards the cost of caring for Julius's family while he is there, as well as towards his travel expenses.

Julius will be sending my updates as often as he can, and I will post them on the Soulfari Kenya blog: www.soulfarikenya.blogspot.com You are welcome to send him words of encouragement at his email address.

Sincerely,
Sarah Were

Sara also listed a great story the KC Star ran on Julius and his family this morning. It's here.

These Are Our Friends...

Sara and Julius Were.

They run a great organization called Soulfari. It helps lots of people.

This was CNN's top story this morning. The murdered government official mentioned in the article was Julius' older brother.

Think of them today, aspire for peace and then do something. Anything. I'll update you on ways we can help the Were's directly as that information becomes available.