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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
Now, in the exacting twilight, to choose, not what we shall do or how we shall live but to choose the life whose dreams will hurt least in the nights to come. --Yehuda Amichai
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
09:00AM
Unique Readers:
Primarily
Public Domain
Everything I've written here, except my copyrighted
essays, poetry, lyrics, and music is hereby placed in the public
domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the pictures
used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair
use. Thus the license here would best be described as:
Primarily Public
Domain.
Please ask permission if there is any question in
regards to public domain usage.
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Wander-Lust
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| Tuesday, March 4, 2003 |  |
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 4 Mar 2003 @ 14:07
In line with cultural influences on males. I think this is an important topic. I'm glad this is being talked about. I wonder about the physical and psychological effects of circumscribed mutilation. What effect it had on me as well as with the effect of not being breast fed since it wasn't the trend in the 50's.
Maybe this is why I keep searching for the missing piece. :)
CIRCUMCISION OPPONENTS USE THE LEGAL SYSTEM AND LEGISLATURES
By Adam Liptak
New York Times
January 23, 2003
FARGO, N.D., Jan. 16 < Josiah Flatt, like about 60 percent of other newborn American boys, was circumcised soon after he was born here, in the spring of 1997. Two years later, his parents sued the doctor and the hospital.
They did not contend that the circumcision was botched or deny that Josiah's mother, Anita Flatt, had consented to the procedure in writing. They said,instead, that the doctor had failed to tell them enough about the pain,complications and consequences of circumcision, removing the foreskin of the
penis.
The suit will be heard by a jury next month. In declining to dismiss the case here before trial, Judge Cynthia Rothe-Seeger acknowledged that the case was unusual in that nothing "went `wrong' during the procedure." The
main harm Josiah seeks compensation for, Judge Rothe-Seeger noted, is "diminished sexual sensation injury."
The suit is but one effort by a small but energetic group of loosely affiliated advocates and lawyers to use the legal system to combat the practice < most American newborn boys undergo the operation when they are days old < which they liken to genital cutting in girls.
The advocates have been active in state legislatures, too. Ten states no longer allow Medicaid to pay for circumcision.
"They have reached the ears of legislators and insurance companies," Dr.Thomas Wiswell, a professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a proponent of the procedure, said about the opponents. "They are far more vocal than proponents of circumcision."
J. Steven Svoboda, director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, a group devoted to the issue, contends that circumcision is wrong as a matter of law, medicine and philosophy. Children of both sexes, Mr. Svoboda said,
should be entitled to "bodily integrity."
Josiah Flatt's case appears to be the first to go to trial based on the theory that the absence of an exhaustive medical briefing about the risks and benefits of circumcision is tantamount to a lack of informed consent.
Among the possible complications in the operation are excess bleeding,infection and ulceration and occasional permanent damage to the penis.
"This could be a very important test case," said Geoffrey P. Miller, a professor of law at New York University who has written about legal and cultural issues of circumcision.
Links and More >
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 4 Mar 2003 @ 09:07
QUICK POLITICAL SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST
This test consists of one (1) multiple-choice question
(so you better get it right!).
Here's a list of the countries that the U.S. has bombed since
the end of World War II, compiled by historian William Blum:
China 1945-46
Korea 1950-53
China 1950-53
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964
Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Grenada 1983
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991-99
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999
In how many of these instances did a democratic government, respectful of human rights, occur as a direct result? Choose one of the following:
(a) 0
(b) zero
(c) none
(d) not a one
(e) a whole number between -1 and +1 More >
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| Sunday, March 2, 2003 | |
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 2 Mar 2003 @ 19:17
My buddy Greg Hurley ( my ever so conspiratorial email friend)sent me this short family history of the Bush family hustle.
Sounds like a new kind of dance though in doesn't appear to be so new.
There are many families who have, what a good friend of mine calls, "circumstantial integrity". So I can't fault them for following tradition. We all have our own demons to face, some peoples are just larger than others. But who am I to judge, mine feel pretty humongous sometimes.
While opportunism isn’t new in U.S. politics, never did so many in one family extract so many dollars from taxpayers as when George Bush senior was president a decade ago. As documented below from impeccable cited sources, the exploits of six Bushes, including George W., range from stock sales that were probed or sanctioned to arranging U.S. business investments for a Japanese Mob front. They range from lobbying for a Mafia-linked businessman that enabled massive Medicare fraud to misconduct that helped trigger S&L collapses costing taxpayers $1.2 billion. More >
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 2 Mar 2003 @ 18:28
Join us and be a part of A GLOBAL ACTION FOR PEACE!
In over 750 cities in 45 countries
Monday 03.03.03
The Fabulous Monsters joins the..
The Lysistrata Project
A Theatrical Act of Global Dissent to Stop the War on Iraq
based on the sexy ancient Greek play about women on opposing
sides of the Trojan War who joined together
to get the men to end the war.
Aristophanes' Lysistrata a women's translation by Drue Robinson Hagan
presented as a
A Tag -team Staged Reading First Amendment Bacchanalia
20 L.A. theatre companies coming together to present the world's first war protest comedy!
The Wilshire Ebell Theatre
4401 West 8th Street (Lucerne/Wilshire)
doors open at 6:30pm, reading starts at 8:00pm
with peace orgs, speakers, celebrities, food and bev, music
suggested donation: $20 for reserved tickets
pay-what-you-can at the door
benefiting OPERATION USA- direct aid to Iraq and
THE ACLU FOUNDATION-protecting our civil liberties when our leaders are hell-bent on war More >
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| Friday, February 28, 2003 | |
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 28 Feb 2003 @ 23:15
One sentence can say it all. Brevity is a blessing.
From Jean Hudon Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator by way of Letecia Layson.
Click "more" so you can see a larger version of the pic and read the words on this woman's relevent poster. More >
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| Wednesday, February 26, 2003 | |
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 26 Feb 2003 @ 08:27
I never knew this play existed until recently when Letecia and I went to see the Vagina Monologues and the reading of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" was also announced.
I'm not sure that a witholding of sex would in actuality be that effective. Given the financial losses the sex industry would incur,which I assume is in the tens of billions annually,and the syndicated crime organizations that run it, I rather doubt that commercially available services would be suspended.
I have maintained for decades that one of the greatest pro peace actions that we can take is to severly cut back or stop altogether our consumer activities for at least a week. That kind of "buying strike" would cause corporate shareholders of the military industrial complex and ancillary companies to take notice. Another good reason to shop responsibly, support your local farmer markets, start a personal or community garden and make sustainable choices.
Lysistrata, a comedy written in 410 bc by Greek dramatist Aristophanes (c. 447 c. 385 b.c.e.), tells the story of a group of women from opposing states who unite to end the Peloponnesian war.
After matronly storm troopers take over the Acropolis, where the treasury is located, the women rise to end the war by withholding sex from their mates --- until, desperate for intimacy, the men finally agree to resolve their conflicts through peaceful diplomacy rather then violence.
This classic and somewhat bawdy comedy is being performed on Monday, March 3 worldwide in 36 countries and numerous cities in the US. It originated in New York as the “Lysistrata Project” to emphasize the need for peace and to refrain from war.
In Ojai a group of men and women are joining this event in the auditorium of Chaparral High School, at 114 N. Montgomery St. at 7:00 PM with a reading of this play in a translation by Drue Robinson Hagan.
This performance is free and open to the public . A donation is of course welcome to cover expenses and to benefit Citizens for Peaceful Resolution
Information abounds on the net that speaks to the current activism surrounding it,excerpts,the entire script and educational materials. More >
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| Sunday, February 23, 2003 | |
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 23 Feb 2003 @ 12:41
One of my music collaborators, Greg Hurley, sent this to me.
Given the numerous occassions that I use PayPal, I guess my anonymity is shot. Aaarrgghh... another seemingly "ease of use" programming where ideology has shadowed integrity.
Originally I saw this article here.
"When someone uses our site and clicks on the 'I Agree' button, it is as if he agrees to let us submit all of
his data to the legal authorities. Which means that if you are a law-enforcement officer, all you have to do is send us a fax with a request for information, and ask about the person behind the seller's identity number, and we will provide you with his name, address, sales history and other details - all without having to produce a court order. We want law enforcement people to spend time on our site."
The quote comes, apparently, from Joseph Sullivan, director of law enforcement and compliance at eBay, the largest retailer in the world. It's in a February 21 online Ha'aretz story. More >
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| Thursday, February 20, 2003 | |
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 20 Feb 2003 @ 18:55
Several years ago I researched and declared myself a sovereign citizen of the Republic of California. I gave back my Social Security number, refused letters that did not have my correct township address, and asked my employers , at the time, to not withold taxes from my wages. I wholeheartedly believed, and still do, that the information that was presented to me regarding the hostory of the U.S., the tax ID system, the zipcode system, the Federal Reserve the DMV laws etc. wre/are illegal under constitutional law.
I nolonger live outside of The System, because frankly it was too difficult to re-educate almost every person I spoke to and the fight for freedom seemed to perpetuate internal and external agression. An "us and them" scenario that you also see sometimes at activist rallies. After losing two jobs because of my views and consistent heat from other sovereigns who thought I should sue those companies, I decided that the calories used towards this endeavor just wasn't an efficient use of energy. It was not a sustainable practical idealogy though the information is a powerful tool to have.
An interesting article came across my desk about a man who uncovered some political relationships and met with some opposition. In fact, he wound up in a mental institution.
Most of the account is taken directly from the source, apolitical prisoneer Stephen Ames, locked up in a Pennsylvania Mental Hospital. More >
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Sounding Circle - Category: Activism
