The favicon should be back

Thanks, Sweetie, for pointing out that my favicon had disappeared. Must have happened when I made changes to the layout of the blog. It should be back now!

Remembering today

September 2001 seems like 100 years ago and just yesterday. I remember thinking in the days right after the terrorist attacks that the feeling of communality, so pervasive at the time, would not last. I believe it did not survive long. The country has become fractured, far more than before the attacks, which, I believe, stems from the administration's response to the events of September 11th.

Anyway, today is a day to remember all of the innocent victims - of the September 11th attacks, of the ensuing war and of the terrorist attacks before and after. It is also a day to remember the members of our armed services who have died in the War on Terror (I dislike that term but can't think of another).

I searched for a quote that would sum up how I felt about today, one that captured my feeling of needing to remember everyone who has been affected, but I came up cold. I did find this quote from Mark Twain, which I thought spoke directly to the aftermath of September 11, 2001, specifically the war in Iraq:

Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.


May we always remember the innocent and the brave and may we never be fooled by cheap lies again.

So close yet so far...

"Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority."
~Mary Wollstonecraft, Writer, A Vindication of the Rights of Women

How naive I was to think that the Hillary Clinton speaking at the DNC on the anniversary of the certification of the ratification of the 19th Amendment meant that women had come so far in such a relatively short period of time. The nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as the GOP VP candidate made my heart sink. Not just because I believe her to be unbelievably unqualified to be the VP, let alone President, not just because of her stance on many issues that I care deeply about, not just because of the stunningly supportive response to her nomination and not just because it was a pandering, desperate act of a pandering, desperate man. But because of the focus on her physical appearance. How will women ever be taken seriously while a VP nominee is touted as the "Hottest VP from the Coolest State" by supporters and members of her own party?