Kaka de Luxe es bien caro comprar en eBay

Why does this cost forty euros? I want it "real bad!", to use a Napoleon Dynamite-ism. I'd even buy it if it cost forty DOLLARS, but 40 euros is a lot of goddamn money for a 7-track album. Sigh.

iggy pop + peanut butter = cincinnati

cada vez que el sol cruza el cielo

Paul Coelho happens to be quite quotable. Here's an especially good one which Proverbia.net sent to me today:

Cuando todos los días resultan iguales es porque el hombre ha dejado de percibir las cosas buenas que surgen en su vida cada vez que el sol cruza el cielo.
- Paulo Coelho

"Every day comes to seem the same when a person has stopped recognizing the good things which come up in her life every time the sun crosses the sky."

fragile, mortal, beautiful

I wanna read me this book. Sounds like my kind of thing.

Another example of why English is confusing

"A cat has claws at the end of its paws. A comma is a pause at the end of a clause."

Palestinian man killed in Bil'in by Israeli Forces

from http://www.imemc.org

One killed, dozens injured at the Bil'in weekly protest

A Palestinian man was killed and dozens more injured on Friday during the weekly nonviolent protest in Bil'in village, near the central west Bank city of Ramallah.

Local sources told IMEMC that Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahmah, 30, died when soldiers shot him in the chest with a tear gas bomb.

The residents of Bil'in village marched towards the wall today after Friday prayers. The protest was joined by Israeli and international activists.

Protesters' held banners condemning Israel's ongoing policies and violence against civilians and demanding the release of the Palestinian political prisoners held by the Israeli army. The protest began in the center of the village then headed towards the Apartheid Wall which is being built on Bil'in land.

An Israeli army unit stationed behind the wall prevented the crowd from going through the gate and fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets to break up the crowd. In addition to the fatal wounding of Bassem, an international supporter was hit in the head and sustained moderate wounds from Israeli fire. Dozens were treated for gas inhalation.

Abdullah Abu Rahmah, from the local committee against the Wall and Settlements told IMEMC that the soldiers shot Bassem with a new type of gas bomb as he was imploring the soldiers to stop shooting as the protest a peaceful one and there were children present.

Abdullah Abu Rahmah added that Bassem will be buried on Saturday after the midday prayers.

B.S.

marriedtothesea.com

Donkey Xote

This is hilarious! I need to find it and watch it, post-haste.

Israeli Forces Arrested and Beat 2 Youths yesterday in Bil'in

from Friends of Freedom and Justice Bil'in:

Four injured and Dozens Suffered Teargas Inhalation during International Children’s Day Demonstration in Bil’in

Following Friday prayers in Bil’in today, residents held a protest against the wall and settlement building. A group of children from the village were at the front of the protest holding Palestinian flags and banners remarking International Children’s Day. Some banners said “It’s our right to live safely”, “The wall kills our hopes and dreams”, “Settlements and the wall leave us with no future”. There were also pictures of children with the caption “wanted by the Israeli occupation, for resisting the wall”.

The protest began in the center of the village and was joined by international and Israeli activists. The demonstration headed towards the Apartheid Wall, which is built on Bil'in's land. An Israeli army unit had been stationed behind the wall since early morning and prevented the crowd from going through the gate. The army fired tear gas canisters to disturb the crowd, causing dozens to suffer gas inhalation, and they injured four young’s, one of them journalist his name Mohammed Muhesen working in AP ,and Kubi from Israel, Abdullah Aburahma, and Adeeb Aburahma.

On the other hand, the Israeli army, which is at the wall,they arrested two children from Bil’in Wajdy Ali Shehada Abu Rahma (16 years) and Hamouda Emad Hahmouda Yassin (16 years), they have beat them and then leave them near the village of Qatana after midnight, where they have access to the city Ramallah, and then arrived in the village on foot early in the morning, and this is came within the suffering of the Palestinian children by the Israelian solder , which coincides with the Children's Day, for this the Popular Committee for wall resistance in the village they intervention of human rights organizations in general and children's rights in particular, to stop the violence from the solder that they injured or arrest, or beat them and intimidate them and leave them in areas far from their homes after midnight.

the best word i've heard lately

fike, n.2
(from the OED SECOND EDITION 1989)

Sc.
(fak) Also 7-9 fyke. [f. FIKE v.1]

1. Something that causes one to fidget; esp. the itch. Also, the fikes = the fidgets. Obs.
In first quot. possibly a different word; ? the piles. Cf. FICUS.

a1605 MONTGOMERIE Flyting 313 The frencie, the fluxes, the fyke and the felt. 1736 RAMSAY Sc. Prov. (1750) xliii. 87 Ye have gotten the fikes in your arse or a waft clew. a1758 RAMSAY Address of Thanks xxii, A Briton..as his fancy takes the fykes, May preach or print his notions. 17.. LADY DALRYMPLE in Lives of Lindsays (1849) II. 322 Your mother's cold was another of my fykes.
b. A restless movement.

1790 MACAULAY To Cheerfulness Poems 129 No ane gies e'er a fidge or fyke Or yet a moan.
2. Anxiety about what is trifling, fuss, trouble.

1719 HAMILTON 2nd Epist. to Ramsay i, O sic a fike and sic a fistle I had about it! 1790 BURNS Tam o'Shanter 193 As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke. 1808 E. HAMILTON Cottagers of Glenburnie 169, I dinna fash wi' sae mony fykes. 1827 SCOTT Surg. Dau. ii, Have I been taking a' this fyke about a Jew.
3. Dalliance, flirtation.

1808-80 JAMIESON, ‘He held a great fike wi' her.’ 1810 J. COCK Simple Strains 144 (Jam.) They had a fyk thegither.

Keep it real

"Sólo si me siento valioso por ser como soy, puedo aceptarme, puedo ser auténtico, puedo ser verdadero." - Jorge Bucay

Translation: "Only if value myself for being as I am, can I accept myself, can I be authentic, can I be real."

These sentiments seem especially salient to me of late. One has to accept oneself as being worthy, taking into account deficits, proficiencies, and geniuses, so that one can be an effective human being leading a meaningful life. If one follows the maxim, "To thine own self be true," the result, says Bucay, is good. The result is acceptance, authenticity, and a firm rooting in reality, where one can subsequently effect changes. The opposite implication, then, is that refusal to accept one's worth--i.e., lack of self-esteem, or self-esteem based on fantasy and not reality--can only lead to falsehood, fakery, and impotence in the world.

Tangible worthiness

You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of other people. And it's okay to be proud of yourself, as long as you're proud of actual accomplishments and not dreams!

You have a lot to offer, Clare. Everyone really does appreciate who you are and what you have to contribute. Yet you have been unable to give yourself credit for all that you've accomplished. It would be worthwhile for you to take some time contemplating why this is so. You have a strong need to be loved, but you must first love yourself. Yes, we know it's a cliche to say; nevertheless you know it is true. Your family and friends will support you, but first you must support yourself.

Miedo

El miedo es natural en el prudente, y el saberlo vencer es ser valiente.
- Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga

My dad's famous (part 2)

Green Tree Gazette article

My SUV doesn't run on corn

Everywhere between LA and NYC really IS fly-over country, ain't it?

There are more things, Horatio...

Understanding human experience must occur only with the utilization of both sides of our brains. All emotion and gestalt perception can't see the trees; and all abstract, sequential reasoning can't see the forest! When we try to make sense of ourselves and the world in which we live, we have to think intuitively and rationally. They are two sides of the same coin of knowledge, understanding, sense-making, truth-finding.

And so, to those who think that reason is the only way to truth, I mention this quote:

El hombre que pretende obrar guiado sólo por la razón esta condenado a obrar muy raramente. -Gustavo Le Bon
(translation: "The man who functions solely by reason is condemned to function very rarely.")

I'm especially good at expectorating

I have a cold. Therefore, I am coughing ALL THE EFFING TIME. It's getting super-old, as I'm now in Day 7 of Cough-a-rama. I don't deal well with being ill, as I'm impatient and frustrated whenever my health forces me to slow down even a little. Argh. I just get angry and resentful when my body gets sick. Stupid corporeal self.

My sole comfort is the mental amusement I experience every time I cough in a phlegmy way; whenever this happens, the line from the song "Gaston" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, "In a spitting match nobody spits like Gaston...'I'm especially good at ex-pec-torating *ptooey*!'" comes into my head. Haha.

Classic.

For your consideration:

Hospitals steal from those they should serve

When I read this, my first thought is not that UofL should offer more money to its surgeons.

My first thought is, rather, that the way to avoid such incongruity of care between rich (those served by Sub-urban, as my boss used to say) and poor (those who must go to University Hospital to receive emergency care--I include myself in their numbers) sectors of the population is to stop incentivizing it. As it is now, there is no incentive for doctors to remain part of a university system--even one as well-respected as UofL's--when Norton can open its little robe and display it's goods, including shorter work hours for more pay, more expensive surgeries, and more technology.

The way to stop the drain on doctors from the public to the private sector is to make all medical jobs government jobs. Then you have a system, like public education (at least in terms of pay scale), where pay is uniform and based on years of experience and educational level, NOT on how much money an individual doctor can bring to a hospital.

In short: hospitals are the Boss Tweeds of the medical system, and it is immoral, it does a disservice to Louisvillians in particular, and a capitalist medical system violates human rights in general. So let's stop this shit now: Single-Payer Health Insurance NOW. Check it out, dude.

National DO NOT CALL Registry

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Went Public in January.

REMINDER.... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. .... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS!!!!!!!

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 1-888-382-1222.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS. It takes about 20 seconds to complete the registry.

ALSO: Same goes for your home phone. Call the same number above from your home phone and register it to stop receiving telemarketing calls! Woo hoo. It's great.

A caveat, however: this registry doesn't completely block out telemarketers, because if you have an account with a bank or a credit card company, that company is still allowed to call and harangue you with "great offers" from Bangalore. Nevertheless, it is worth it to register, because when those companies you actually have accounts with sell your info to other companies, THOSE companies can't call you. Hahahaha.

Barbie says "English is HARD!"

Here are some examples of why English is so difficult, despite the fact that it has a relatively simple morphology.

"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." (homonyms are effing impossible for non-native speakers)
"She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off." (multiple meanings of verb phrases; nongendered pronoun 'it' makes for unclear antecedent)
"A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine." (contractions make English difficult to understand)
"A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat." (again, multiple meanings/homonyms: hard, beat)