Guantanamo--one concrete step

I don't do a lot of politicking on this blog, but Guantanamo is one thing I make an exception for. Amnesty International is asking that in light of President Obama's speech yesterday, he take one step today and release Shaker Aamer today. Britain has asked for his release and he has been cleared for release twice. It would be a good faith gesture to get him off that island.

 

Thinking of you folks in Moore

I know this one will go viral with no help from me, but just in case you haven't seen it, here's a little good news coming out of Moore, Oklahoma despite the devastation. 

Having been through an earthquake that destroyed our downtown, I know a little about what these people are going through, and I am also willing to bet on them rebuilding and coming back.

Hyperbole and a Half

I don't know when it was exactly that someone made me aware of Hyperbole and a Half. I had only read a few posts of this terrific blog when the author announced a book deal for her work. But it was only a couple of entries later that the blogger mentioned going down into depression and then stopped posting.

I have often wondered what happened to this writer, but as with so many things in the blog world, I figured I was destined never to know. However, tonight I happened to notice that there was a new post.

It is about depression, and it is really good. I think what is slightly ironic is that this blog has more comments than any I have ever seen. As an example, this post has had 5000 comments since 8 AM this morning. The ironic part, at least for me, is that all the well wishing and fulsome praise obviously didn't make the slightest bit of difference in the author's righting herself. Apparently, it was actually corn.

Anyway, there seems little point in adding to the comment stream, but I am glad that the deepest depression has lifted. And also that she managed to write about the state so lucidly. And I'm also glad that I rarely delete any blog from my blog roll--just in case... 

The Drone Hearings--Farea Al-Muslimi

Last week, I learned about a Senate hearing on drone warfare that I could watch live on my computer, and as it was my day off, and since I really have no sympathy for this whole program and even have a blog where I post news I glean from a few places, I thought I should walk my talk and watch it. I liked the tenor of the conversation as a whole, and found it quite different from the often fractious proceedings on the Senate or House floor. But I think many people would agree with me in saying that the most moving and compelling testimony came from a Yemeni citizen named Farea Al-Muslimi, who had come to school in the U.S., and loved this country, but had returned to find his own country to be a sanctioned drone target area. I think in that moment, he was the voice of his people, and I am so happy that Just Foreign Policy gave us a link to his part of the hearing.

 

If you would like to watch the hearings in their entirety, you can find them HERE.

Run For Boston

I'm not a runner, but I heard about this on Chris Hayes' show, All In, and thought my running friends might like this way of showing solidarity with the Boston Marathon runners. It's not a fundraiser per se. But as a poem by Rumi called "Things Are Such" that I picked up at our store today goes:

"Things are such, that someone lifting a cup,
or watching the rain, petting a dog,
or singing, just singing -- could be doing as
much for this universe as anyone."

Or running. Just running.

Ezra Klein on the Boston Marathon

I love the wonky Ezra Klein with his buoyant way of teaching us all about statistics and data. Still I don't normally think of him as the first person I'd turn to for moral uplift in a time of crisis. But I found his piece on today's Boston Marathon tragedy moving but also hopeful. Thus, I share it with you. 

Mantis shrimp

You may not have missed this, but I certainly did. If it wasn't for a friend at work, I never would have known about this shrimpy dynamo.

First, the cartoon.


Now, a short film:

 

This all came up because a couple of mantis shrimps seem to have found their way into the Monterey Bay Aquarium, just on the other side of the bay on which I live. My friend was highly amused that the best plan for catching this creature, which can punch through aquarium glass and devastate a fish tank, not to mention see a specturum of colors that is about five times what we humans can see, apparently involves using a set of tongs...