Friday, October 31, 2008

BEAM ME UP TO BEANTOWN

"I watched 'Boston Legal' nine times
before I realized it wasn't a new 'Star Trek
.'"
Tracy Jordan
'30 Rock'
I watched my DVR-tifact of the season premiere of '30 Rock' today, and quite frankly? I don't even remember that line.

I'm getting old.

At any rate, we can always count on '30 Rock' to Zonk the hell out of the TV Universe. What can you expect from a TV show about TV shows?

For us viewing at home in the Trueniverse, it's obvious what this Zonk implied - Tracy couldn't tell the difference between both shows because William Shatner starred in both. (I guess I have to get used to talking about 'Boston Legal' in the past tense.)

But the writers of '30 Rock' are not only brilliant, they also respect their audience. Some sitcom scribblin' hack might have overburdened that joke with splainins as to why Tracy made that mistake. The '30 Rock' writers know that we'll get it.

And that makes it easier to de-Zonk it!

Although we know the common factor between 'Boston Legal' and 'Star Trek' is Shatner, he was never mentioned; so we don't have to worry about getting around the fact that he plays Denny Crane on the former and James T. Kirk on the latter. As for the shows themselves, we've dealt with 'Star Trek' in the past. It has been mentioned and lampooned so often in the past on other TV shows (Halloween costumes, dream sequences, etc.), that it's almost tempting to just throw up my chubby meat-sticks in defeat. However, Toobworld Central has an all-encompassing splainin - somebody from the future, with knowledge of the "real" Starfleet came back to the 1960s and gave the televersion of Gene Roddenberry all of the information necessary for him to recreate the actual future of Earth Prime-Time, including such details as what the future participants looked like so that he could cast accordingly.

As for 'Boston Legal', we're lucky enough in that David E. Kelley gave it such a generic title. The joke had no mention of Denny Crane, or Alan Shore or of Crane, Poole, and Schmidt. So it could have been about anything that dealt with the legal profession in Beantown, even a reality show. And within the context of Toobworld, that just shows how off-kilter Tracy Jordan is that he couldn't tell the difference.

So as far as that Zonk goes, we can set our phasers on the highest setting and exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!

Okay, so I'm mixing my sci-fi shows. Go up to Boston and sue me.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

...From The Chippewa On Down


"We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time".
(Terry Jacks)

Not Wearing That You're Not


Of the many non-negotiables in road cycling, depending on one's level of doucheyness, there is one that even Mongo will sign off on...No baggy/mt. bike shorts when riding a road bike.
Instead of getting into the nuance of the subject, let me just say that it looks ridiculous.
It doesn't matter if you are Ned Overend himself and are kicking my ass up every climb...you still look silly.
That being said, Mongo faced off against a feisty opponent yesterday who looked like a serious mt. biker who had borrowed his friend's Trek. Baggy shorts and all, he couldn't believe that I was able to catch him and then pull away.
After my poor showing on Monday, it was good to mix it up again.

Hauntingly MAAAAAAAD!

Have a wonderfully fun Halloween evening. We debated going to a movie or to the high school football game, but decided to just stay at home and give out candy. As much as I love a jack-o-lantern, I'm not a big fan of carving them (figure that one out considering the craft queen I claim to be?!?!?!), so they usually have simple features. This year I gave him creepy eyes and snaggly teeth, using beads.

Mohawks: Canada's Aboriginal Army and Colonization

IS CANADA CREATING AN “ABORIGINAL ARMY” BECAUSE IT WANTS US TO COLONIZE OURSELVES??

MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Oct. 30, 2008. Nathan Wright of the Assembly of First Nations AFN is the liaison with the Ontario Provincial Police OPP. He was told about the unarmed peaceful opposition to this jail being built in Tyendinaga. The OPP were waiting nearby to be called in. “That’s news to me”, he said. He didn’t know the OPP had ”made themselves visible”. What did he mean by this? Who called in the invading “aboriginal” police from Moraviantown, Walpole Island, Akwesasne and elsewhere?

Tyendinaga Band Council Chief, R. Don Maracle, was at the demonstration until noon and then left for lunch, leaving the truckers behind. The multi-million dollar portable modular mega-prison was still on the trucks. Who needs a prison when many Mohawks have been waiting years for decent housing and clean water? They built a huge fire at the entrance to the site, cooked and served everybody some food, including the truckers. Then the truckers left.

Canada sent in what looked like a colonial invading army? If you blinked your eyes, you would have thought you were in the Middle East. The U.S. set up governments in Iraq similar to the “band” and “tribal” councils on Turtle Island whose goal is to “municipalize” and assimilate us. In Iraq they created local armies to protect these U.S. puppets. People were recruited and trained to terrorize their own communities. This is common totalitarian practice.

The RCMP and OPP have both indicated they do not have jurisdiction in at least two Mohawk communities, Akwesasne and Kahnawake. They operate behind a “smoke screen”. They use “aboriginal police” to do their dirty work. The aboriginal police have managed to sow seeds of suspicion and conflict in Ongwehonwe communities.

On October 23 2008 Prothonotary Mireille Tabib of the Federal Court of Canada ordered that Mohawk women, Kahentinetha and Katenies, who live in Kahnawake and Akwesasne, are not “Canadian residents”! Therefore, they must pay the crown’s expenses to defend itself from charges of assaulting and attempting to murder them at the Cornwall border check point on June 14, 2008.

We know that we Ongwehonwe are not Canadians or part of that foreign colony. They swear allegiance to THE QUEEN and came here to squat on our land. They have no jurisdiction over us, our possessions or our territories. They have no right to attack us, beat us up and try to kill us, not under our law which is the law of the land [Kaianereh’ko:wa], or under the international accords they have signed, or even under Canadian law.

If we are not careful Canada could try to turn Tabib’s Order calling us “non-residents” as a pretext to imprison us in our communities or expel us from our land to who knows where. They may want to illegally limit our country to our communities, rather than recognizing our title to the whole of Onowaregeh, Turtle Island, which we never and cannot gave up.

Canada and the establishment are always trying to create situations to attack us for resisting their colonial incursions. They have a whole bag of dirty tricks. One is to lay fake charges so they can impose conditions on us for years. When they have to prove their case, they drop the charges. Demonizing us in the media is part of it, calling us terrorists, smugglers and deviates. It’s meant to lull the public so they won’t object to the brutal, obscene and illegal attacks on us.

Where does the mid-community jail fit in? The risk is that Canada and the U.S. are setting up a Gitmo “no man’s land” jail system where Indigenous people will be taken to be jailed or tortured under no one’s scrutiny. The indigenous incarceration rate can be camouflaged by excluding the figures on those of us who are jailed on “reserves”. Is Canada going to pass martial law in Indian country? The scheme isn’t original. It’s already being done in Australia where some Aborigine communities are being run by the army.

Is there discussion going on right now about setting up “death squads”??? Don’t kid yourself. These armed groups kill civilians, mostly in secret, conduct extra judicial assassinations, killings and disappearances. They are associated with political repression, dictatorships and totalitarianism supported by colonial states. They could be “official” government units like the aboriginal police. Who are these non-natives in the aboriginal police forces? Squads may also be those organized vigilantes who are being sent into our communities.

On a “WATCH LIST” are youth, employment, social and community organizations which are infiltrated. Retired military officers, off duty police, strangers, “distant cousins” or imposters are sent in to exert influence.

The “SPOTTERS” are sent in as “subversives” who are fighting against drugs as a pretext, for example. They penetrate communities and assess the security needed to keep it under control. They collect names of those to be watched, imprisoned, tortured and executed such as traditionalists, political leaders, journalists or community workers. Traditionalists are called “extremists”.

Canada may be trying to set up these units within indigenous communities. Of course, the suckers who fall for this won’t be told what they’re doing. They’ll be manipulated into believing they are defending “law and order” and “protecting democracy”. Their extravagant pay is not guilt money .. they think they’re worth it! It’s a real trap for young, confused and weak-minded people.

As Secretary Rumsfeld said about U.S. trained Iraqi death squads, “The U.S. doesn’t have a responsibility to do anything about the crimes of the police forces it established and trained. Only to report it.”

Chief R. Don Maracle said that the prison is for “outsiders with criminal records”. This smacks of death squad mentality.

The state’s targets are predominantly young males, women and children. In Canada over 3000 young Ongwehonwe women have been “disappeared”.

We did not have police or jails. Social control is needed in all communities. When we were dependant on each other, elders and group opinions kept our communities in balance.

The settlers stole our hunting grounds, crowding us into small patches. Now they want this.

Settler societies need police to control the many deranged personalities without family and social ties that their society produces. The state has become the major instrument for assault, theft and murder of our people. Lest we forget, RCMP carried out the genocide, took our children to residential schools, protected the land grabbers and jailed our young men who tried to defend us. If they attack us, try to kill us and steal our children, they have a responsibility to investigate, charge, deter and protect us from them. They aren’t doing this. So what’s their purpose?

We are told the colonial ideal is that the police protect society. Some of the worst hoodlums we Ongwehonwe have to deal with are the cops themselves. It’s becoming harder to tell the difference between the cops and the thugs they are supposed to protect us from who are coming at us from every direction. Is this Berlin 1940?

It’s heavy. It’s no coincidence that the murder attempt on kahentinetha and katenies was by uniformed officers of the colonial state. It’s no coincidence that this story was not in the mainstream media. It’s no coincidence they want to build prisons in our communities.

Iako’ha:kowa & MNN Staff - Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com Eagle Watch, Sharbot Lake kittoh@storm.ca; katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com

Something’s going on. The actions of the bureaucrats/agents need to be measured in public against the standards of legality that Canada has signed onto at the UN. Some of the players who need to be investigated and unmasked seem to be:
- High up – Chantal “Who-Has-a-Dirty-Hand-in-Everything” Bernier chantal.bernier@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Margaret “Trying-to-Suck-Every-Last-Drop-of-Indian-Blood-Now-Wants-Her-Fangs-in-Tyendinaga-Mohawks” Bloodworth, “National Security Advisor” to Prime Minister, Margaret.bloodworth@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca, 613-957-5466;
Indian Affairs sewer rats
- Walter “Whose-Billy-Club-Has-Been-Taken-Away” Walling, wallingw@ainc-inac.gc.ca; Christian “Anti-Christ” Rouleau, rouleau.c@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Andre “Turn” Cote, cote.a@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Stuart “Swan-Song” Swanson, swanson.s@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Paul ”The-White-Man” Leblanc, leblanc.p@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Zuwena “Squeal” Robidas, Indian Affairs mouthpiece, zuwena.robidas@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca 613-993-2596;
- Helene “Parrot” Philippe, another Indian Affairs mouthpiece, philippe.h@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- David “Economic-Hit-Man” Hillman, DG Econ. Dev. david.hallman@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 819-953-0517;
More Emergency Preparedness creeps
- Jean “Lapse-of-Selected-Memory” Chartrand, jean.chartrand@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-8470;
- Denise “Who-was-in-there-like-a-dirty-shirt” Charron, denise.charron@spepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-991-1694;
Other excreta of the crown
- Yvan “Who-Maintains-Toilet-Supplies” Dery, for the Privy Council Office ydery@pco-bcp.gc.ca;
- Gilles “Pig-Shop-Keeper” Rochon, Aboriginal Policing, gilles.rochon@psepc.gc.ca 613-990-2666;
- Emanuel “Little-Lamb” Chabot, emmanuel.chabot@psept-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-4353;
- “Slippery” Jim Beaver jim.beaver@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Peter “Flat-Foot” Fisher, Police Services PSEPC fax 613-991-0961;
- Louise “Who-Doesn’t-Know-the-Half-of-It” Savage louise.savage@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Sylvia “Ambulance Chaser” McKenzie, Justice Canada sylvia.mackenzie@sppcc-psept.gc.ca 613-998-3952;
- Annik “The-Squeak” Pelletier, Justice Canada apelleti@justice.gc.ca;
- Louis-Alexandre “Who-Sits-on-a-Very-High-Chair” Guay, Justice, lguay@justice.gc.ca;
- Phil Fontaine AFN reception@afn.ca;
- Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister Aboriginal Affairs bduguid.mpp@liberal.ola.org;
- Angus Toulouse AFN Ontario Region 807-626-9339 Fax 807-626-9404 kathleen@coo.org
Give a piece of your mind to: GG Michaelle jean info@gg.ca; Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Fax 613-941-6900 pm@pm.gc.ca; Chuckie “Baby” Strahl, Indian Affairs Minister, 819-997-0002, Fax 819-953-4941 strahl.c@parl.gc.ca; Prothonotary Mireille Tabib, Federal Court of Canada 613-992-4238 Fax 613-952-3653; Chief R. Don “Warden-Wanna-Be” Maracle Mohawks of Bay of Quinte 613-396-3424 extension 106, Email: reception@mbq-tmt-org Fax 613-396-3627, 613-396-3089, Cell 613-391-9249 RDONM@MBQ-TMT.ORG info@mbq-tmt.org ; Superintendent & Commander, Smiths Falls, OPP Eastern Regional Headquarters 613-284-4500 fax 613-284-4597, L.G. “Who-Wants-to-Help-Set-Up-a-Feeder-of-Young-Offenders-into-the-Big-Pens-for-the-Old-Long-Termers” Beechey;

To help, please contact the Rotiskenekete: 613-391-4055, 613-813-4053,
Friends, allies and supporters: Call 613-813-1017, email wasoonde3232@aol.com

Go to MNN “Tyendinaga” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Note: These challenges of abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.

US Border Wall and Guantanamo cited as international human rights concerns


Inter-American Commission cites US border wall and Guantanamo as human rights concerns

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Photo by Jay Johnson Castro/San Diego border wall

WASHINGTON -- The construction of the United States border wall is now listed with the treatment of Guantanamo detainees as an international human rights concern by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.

In a statement released today, the Commission said it "received troubling information about the impact that the construction of a wall in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border, has on the human rights of area residents, in particular its discriminatory effects."

"The information received indicates that its construction would disproportionally affect people who are poor, with a low level of education, and generally of Mexican descent, as well as indigenous communities on both sides of the border. On another U.S.-related issue, the IACHR continued to receive troubling information during these sessions about the situation of detainees in Guantánamo. As it did on July 28, 2006, through its Resolution 02/06, and on subsequent occasions, the Commission again urges the government to shut down the detention center," the Commission said.

During the hearings, Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache, testified that Homeland Security was seizing her family's land on the south Texas border without proper consultation on consent. Tamez said the border wall would become a barrier to a place of prayer. Others from Texas offered proof of how the border wall targets the poor, while leaving a golf course unscathed on the border as the playground for the rich.

Tamez' testimony reflected the earlier comments of Indigenous Peoples living on the border in their ancestral territories from California to Texas. Indian people on both sides of the border are suffering because of the violations of all federal laws during construction of the border wall.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham and founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall, revealed in statements that O'odham ancestors were dug up by the border wall contractor Boeing in secret, during construction on Tohono O'odham land. Rivas said O'odham cultural areas are being destroyed and looted as the border divides ancestral communities and creates a barrier on the O'odham ancestral ceremonial route.

During the Indigenous Peoples Border Summits of the Americas in 2006 and 2007, Native people from the southern and northern borders, including Tohono O'odham, Yaqui and Mohawks, testified about the harassments and violations being carried out by the US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The borders became increasingly militarized with poorly trained and over-zealous border agents, now abusing and even murdering people in the border region. On the northern border, Mohawk Nation News publisher Kahentinetha Horn was beaten by border agents in Canada in June and suffered a heart attack in a stresshold that was used by the US military carrying out torture in Abu Ghraib. Mohawk Nation News editor Katenies was also beaten and jailed at the border crossing. The two Mohawk grandmothers have now filed suit against Canada.

US border policies have contributed to the large number of deaths in the desert at the southern border and the profiteering by private corporations now building private prisons, Indigenous Peoples testified at the border summits.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff voided all federal laws -- including those designed to protect Native American remains and cultural items and laws protecting the environment -- to build the border wall. Among the endangered species in Arizona whose wild territories have been violated are the jaguar and Sonoran pronghorn.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held its 133rd regular period of sessions from October 15 to 31, 2008, approving reports on cases and individual petitions, and held 57 hearings and 34 working meetings.

During this period of sessions, the Commission held hearings on human rights violations around the world, addressing the rights of women, persons deprived of liberty, children, Afro-descendents and indigenous peoples. The Commission received the government of Bolivia in a hearing in which the government provided information about the acts of violence that took place during the social conflicts of recent months.

The Commission expressed concern for the situation of children and adolescents in conflict with the law in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The Commission also received with concern information indicating that the State of Colombia's Administrative Department of Security (DAS) conducted intelligence activities against opposition political leaders, national senators, and nongovernmental organizations.

During these sessions, several hearings were held on human rights defenders. The Commission reiterates its call to the States to respect their work and guarantee their rights. The IACHR is preparing a report following up on its Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas.

Hearings were also held on citizen insecurity in Venezuela and Mexico. The IACHR is following with particular attention the state of citizen insecurity in the region, as well as the respect for human rights as an essential component of all public policies to address the problem. The IACHR is in the process of preparing a report on citizen insecurity in the region, as part of an agreement signed with UNICEF.

For the statement, audio and video of testimony:

http://www.iachr.org/Comunicados/English/2008/46.08eng.htm
Useful links
Video of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Transcript of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Audio recording of the IACHR Chairman’s speech at the opening session
Audio and video recordings and photos of the public hearings

TODAY'S TWD: THE GREAT HOUDINI

October 31, 1926:
Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born magician, died. (b. 1874)

Here's an excerpt of his biography from Wikipedia:

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) whose birth name in Hungary was Erik Weisz (which was changed to Ehrich Weiss when he immigrated to the United States), was a Jewish Hungarian American magician, escapologist (widely regarded as one of the greatest ever) and stunt performer, as well as a skeptic and investigator of spiritualists, film producer and actor. Harry Houdini forever changed the world of magic and escapes.

Initially, Houdini's magic career resulted in little success. He performed in dime museums and sideshows, and even doubled as "the Wild Man" at a circus. Houdini initially focused on traditional card tricks. At one point, he billed himself as the "King of Cards". But he soon began experimenting with escape acts. In 1893, while performing with his brother "Dash" at Coney Island as "The Brothers Houdini", Harry met and married fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice (Bess) Rahner. Bess replaced Dash in the act, which became known as "The Houdinis". For the rest of Houdini's performing career, Bess would work as his stage assistant.
Harry Houdini's "big break" came in 1899 when he met manager Martin Beck in rural Woodstock, Illinois. Impressed by Houdini's handcuffs act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts and booked him on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Within months, he was performing at the top vaudeville houses in the country. In 1900, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe.

Houdini was a sensation in Europe, where he became widely known as "The Handcuff King". He toured England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Russia. In each city, Houdini would challenge local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails. In many of these challenge escapes, Houdini would first be stripped nude and searched. In Moscow, Houdini escaped from a Siberian prison transport van. Houdini publicly stated that, had he been unable to free himself, he would have had to travel to Siberia, where the only key was kept. In Cologne, he sued a police officer, Werner Graff, who claimed he made his escapes via bribery. Houdini won the case when he opened the judge's safe (he would later say the judge had forgotten to lock it).
With his new-found wealth and success, Houdini purchased a dress said to have been made for Queen Victoria. He then arranged a grand reception where he presented his mother in the dress to all their relatives. Houdini said it was the happiest day of his life. In 1904, Houdini returned to the U.S. and purchased a house for $25,000, a brownstone at 278 W. 113th Street in Harlem, New York. The house still stands today.

From 1907 and throughout the 1910s, Houdini performed with great success in the United States. He would free himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in plain sight of street audiences. Because of imitators and a dwindling audience, on January 25, 1908, Houdini put his "handcuff act" behind him and began escaping from a locked, water-filled milk can. The possibility of failure and death thrilled his audiences. Houdini also expanded his challenge escape act - in which he invited the public to devise contraptions to hold him - to include nailed packing crates (sometimes lowered into the water), riveted boilers, wet-sheets, mailbags, and even the belly of a whale that washed ashore in Boston. At one point, brewers challenged Houdini to escape from his milk can after they filled it with beer. Many of these challenges were prearranged with local merchants in what is certainly one of the first uses of mass tie-in marketing.

Rather than promote the idea that he was assisted by spirits, as did the Davenport Brothers and others, Houdini's advertisements showed him making his escapes via dematerializing, although Houdini himself never claimed to have supernatural powers.

In 1912, Houdini introduced perhaps his most famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass-and-steel cabinet full to overflowing with water. The act required that Houdini hold his breath for more than three minutes. Houdini performed the escape for the rest of his career. Despite two Hollywood movies depicting Houdini dying in the Torture Cell, the escape had nothing to do with his demise.

In the 1920s, after the death of his beloved mother, Cecilia, he turned his energies toward debunking self-proclaimed psychics and mediums, a pursuit that would inspire and be followed by later-day conjurers Milbourne Christopher, James Randi, Martin Gardner, P.C. Sorcar, Dorothy Dietrich, Criss Angel, Derren Brown and Penn and Teller. Houdini's training in magic allowed him to expose frauds who had successfully fooled many scientists and academics. He was a member of a Scientific American committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities. Thanks to the contributions and skepticism of Houdini and four other committee members, the prize was never collected. The first to be tested was medium George Valentine of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. As his fame as a "ghostbuster" grew, Houdini took to attending séances in disguise, accompanied by a reporter and police officer. Possibly the most famous medium whom he debunked was the Boston medium Mina Crandon, also known as "Margery". Houdini chronicled his debunking exploits in his book, "A Magician Among the Spirits".

These activities cost Houdini the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle, a firm believer in Spiritualism during his later years, refused to believe any of Houdini's exposés. Conan Doyle actually came to believe that Houdini was a powerful spiritualist medium, had performed many of his stunts by means of paranormal abilities and was using these abilities to block those of other mediums that he was 'debunking' (see Conan Doyle's "The Edge of The Unknown", published in 1931, after Houdini's death). This disagreement led to the two men becoming public antagonists. Gabriel Brownstein has written a fictionalized account of the meetings of Houdini, Conan Doyle, and "Margery" in "The Man from Beyond: A Novel" (2005).

Harry Houdini died of peritonitis secondary to a ruptured appendix. It has been speculated that Houdini was killed by a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, in Montreal. Houdini died of a ruptured appendix, caused by Whitehead delivering multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen.

Although in serious pain, Houdini nonetheless continued to travel without seeking medical attention. Harry had apparently been suffering from appendicitis for several days and refusing medical treatment. His appendix would likely have burst on its own without the trauma.

When Houdini arrived at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, Michigan, on October 24, 1926, for what would be his last performance, he had a fever of 104 degrees F (40°C). Despite a diagnosis of acute appendicitis, Houdini took the stage. He was reported to have passed out during the show, but was revived and continued. Afterwards, he was hospitalized at Detroit's Grace Hospital. Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. in Room 401 on October 31 (Halloween), 1926, at the age of 52.

Harry Houdini was portrayed in Toobworld several times, mostly in TV movies, but in episodes of 'Voyagers!' and 'Mentors' as well.

1976 - Houdini was played by Paul Michael Glaser, of 'Starsky and Hutch' fame, in a 1976 TV movie called "The Great Houdinis" (aka "The Great Houdini"), which was also highly fictionalized. The film focused on Houdini's relationship with his wife and mother, who were portrayed as frequently bickering (although, in reality, they had cordial relations) and on his fascination with life after death. The cast also included Sally Struthers, Bill Bixby, Vivian Vance, and Ruth Gordon.

1985 - Wil Wheaton played Houdini in "Young Harry Houdini", a made-for-TV movie that aired on ABC as a "Disney Sunday Movie." The film also featured Jeffrey DeMunn as the adult Houdini. DeMunn first played Houdini in the film version of "Ragtime".

1998 - Johnathon Schaech played Houdini in the TNT original movie "Houdini". The film co-starred Stacy Edwards as Bess and Mark Ruffalo as his brother, Dash (aka Theo. Hardeen). The TV movie first aired on December 6, 1998.

[Plot descriptions from Wikipedia]

Thanks to the leeway given to recastaways due to the aging of characters, I think "The Great Houdinis" (by virtue of being the first presentation of Houdini's life, even if it was greatly fictionalized) and "Young Harry Houdini" can both be placed in Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.

As for his portrayal by Michael Durrell in the 'Voyagers!' episode "Agents of Satan", it's been the Toobworld Central contention that the main characters of the show are part of Earth Prime-Time, but that they are always meddling in alternate timelines so that they follow the follow chronological flow of Earth Prime-Time. So the Houdini that they met was of an alternate dimension.
BCnU!
Toby O'B

Warm Fuzzy

Aren't there certain vignettes in your home that make you happy just to look at them? I captured one today in a picture. I've blogged many times about the passion and fortitude that I put into getting myself back on my feet after my divorce and finally buying a home. This vignette is a reminder of that rough journey paying off. The place where we drop off our keys at the end of the day, and pluck them up in the morning. Where my binoculars hang, so that I can grab them on a whim and sit on my patio and watch the birds. The keyholder itself is a picket fence, reminiscent of my backyard. This vignette speaks to me of constancy. And all it is is a few pieces of wood with hooks and a picture above it. And if that's all it takes to make me happy, then I'm in a pretty darn good place.

I'm Off Today and Monday!!!!

Took vacation days today and Monday and am already relaxed and gettin' stuff done! Got up at 4:30 this morning with Harleigh and took her into swim practice. It was really a nice way to start the day. I like the warm, wet air of an indoor pool, along with the clean chlorine smell. Watched the team practice — they swim solid for an hour and a half. What a crazy good way to wake up in the morning, exericse and get energized (for them, not me, mind you). In the one pic, Harleigh is the one with the green goggles around her neck.

We left practice, stopped and got breakfast, then went to school where we sat in the car in the student parking lot, ate and talked to her friends, who were also just arriving. Now I'm home to tackle bills and paperwork (filing is out of control — long overdue to make a dent in that!).

Shit! I am so late in posting!!

XIAXUE'S GUIDE TO LIFE



BFF challenge Part 4!



BFF challenge Part 5... Now you can to see the final two!


CHICK VS DICK





Kaykay and Paul guess the prices of objects.
And they get to keep the object! Hahaha!



Meet Paul's science project: A penis volcano.
He is so funny I swear!!!



Happy Halloween y'all!!!!!!!



I'm getting old so this Halloween imma go have dinner with Shuyin and Weili and after that, imma play mahjong again!


I know right? My life is so exciting!

(Am I a prude or what? I saw some of the costumes Singaporeans are wearing and I am seriously quite shocked by the level of skimpiness. Do you think it's ok to wear a bra top or panties bottom on Halloween? Is it just me? Am I getting old and narrow-minded????????)


UPDATE:
Quit quoting Mean Girls, you fucktards. I heard that shit so many times I could implode if I see another comment spreading that dumbass quote as gospel.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Burn Down The Mission


”Brown dirt, green grass …a reflection in a puddle
No breeze, portrait sky…an absence of motion
Beauty in the gloom is absorbed through the pores
A crack in the pavement or a hole in the fence"

On A Steel Horse I Ride


Everyone knows that Mongo is an old-timey skater who tends to be stuck in his ways. There is one thing though that I will always embrace and encourage in anyone, young or old...and that's individuality. Whether you're a young punk or an old dude or dudette, if you carve your own path through life with dignity and respect for others, then you're Mongo's kind of person.

Skateboarders, particularly street skaters, are the last of a dying breed. In essence, they are urban and suburban cowboys...riding their steeds wherever the shred takes them. Accountable only to themselves and the occasional lawman, they canvas the landscape searching for the next session.

For the sake of everyone who values true freedom of expression, these artists cannot be fenced in and marginalized. They must be allowed to roam.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS!

Otherwise "Day of the Dead" in English! These were a last minute idea that I had for the Halloween page I had on my website www.ditziecakes.com. I couldn't believe how many orders I got for this cupcake. The flavors were to be simple...either deviluscious, vanilla bean or a dark red velvet. The work however on these was just solid laborious. Can I make them any simpler next time? Nah, I just love making things complicated. Anyway, they were a crowd pleaser. I had made the Day of the Dead for an old friend of mine who works for Brighton. You know the really great place that designs handbags, wallets, jewelry and accessories. I hope your fellow employees enjoyed the cupcakes this afternoon Catherine Hong! Sorry, I didn't get a chance to see you today. But let's try it again!

Princess Kitty

When my co-worker Courtney asked, pretty please, if I could make a Halloween costume for her niece Bakail, I jumped at the chance. I remember, with such happiness, making Harleigh's costumes when she was little. Bakail wanted to be Princess Kitty. This is not a real cartoon or television character but one that a child comes up with which gives them free reign to bark or meow all the time instead of talking. (I remember as a child mimicking Henrietta Pussycat from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Meow meow, remember meow meow her?)

Bakail's mom was originally going to have her wear last year's princess dress without much fanfare or a nod to the kitty portion of the character, but was told by her sister that that was lame. And that's when I was asked to intervene.

Rather than create a Princess Kitty costume from scratch, I decided to repurpose the princess dress as the base for Princess Kitty. I started by cutting off the scratchy shoulder straps and replacing them with white "fur" that also framed the neckline. I bought the scepter and headband, both already adorned with little crowns (and with purple accents to match the dress). I made kitty ears out of felt and attached them to the headband. Then I used the same "fur" from the top of the dress and made the tail, giving it shape by inserting a coat hanger. (Had to rig a cushion inside the dress so that the hanger would not poke Bakail or prove to be uncomfortable.) I also made a kitty collar with a bell (not seen in these pictures).

Here she is visiting us at the office. She and I had a lovely meow meow conversation and I was showered with lots of sweet thank-yous and even got a bippity boppity boo blessing with her magic wand. I truly had just as much fun crafting the costume as Bakail has had wearing it. (The last picture shows her with funny glasses, not a part of the costume, but, hey, even a princess can have a sense of humor.)

Meow.

Isabel Garcia: Border Patrol acting with impunity in murders


By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Photo copyright Brenda Norrell
TUCSON -- Isabel Garcia, cochair of Derechos Humanos, describes how the US Border Patrol has acted with impunity, murdering people of Mexico. Listen to the interview now, recorded outside the federal courthouse. US Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett is on trial for the murder of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, from Morelia, Mexico.
"We are talking about a poisoned atmosphere against immigrants," Garcia said, comparing today's racism toward migrants with the pre-Civil Rights era in the south.
Garcia said border agents are murdering and getting away with murder.
"We are living in really, really, dangerous times," Isabel said. "This case is about accountability, this case is about impunity. That is the bottom line."
Attorneys are presenting their final arguments today, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. Corbett is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. His first trial ended in a mistrial after another jury deadlocked.

Border Patrol agent on trial for murder of migrant


By Brenda Norrell
Photo credit Brenda Norrell

TUCSON (Thursday morning) -- A Border Patrol agent is on trial today in Tucson for the murder of Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, of Morelia, Mexico. Eyewitnesses testified that Javier was shot and killed by the agent at close range. On Wednesday, Roy Warden, previously known as a Minuteman who engaged in burning Mexican flags, harassed and yelled at family members and supporters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Tucson. US Border Agent Nicholas Corbett, 39, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. Photo: Shrine for Javier outside the courthouse this morning, Thursday morning. Photo Brenda Norrell

NANANANANANANANA - DEBATEMAN!

Thanks to Win Scott Eckert of The Wold Newton Universe site (link to the left, True Believers!), I found out where Senator John McCain's campaign found the tactics they've been using against Senator Barack Obama:


Sarah Palin could be a new character - Moosewoman.

Villain or heroine, that's for you to decide.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

October 30, 1938 - Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds", causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States.

Vera:
"Anybody know it was a prank?"
Stillman:
"The power of radio in those days, Nick.
It was the only live news source."
Lilly:
"Back when the news wasn't about the latest starlet's drunk driving bust."
'Cold Case'

As Lisa Swan puts it in today's New York Daily News,
"The Martians are coming! The Martians are coming! Seventy years ago [today], that was what some listeners of Orson Welles' radio dramatization of "War of the Worlds" feared was taking place. The Halloween-themed broadcast, which aired Sunday night, October 30, 1938, scared the living daylights out of millions of listeners."

From Wikipedia:

"The War of the Worlds" was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series 'Mercury Theatre on the Air'. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938 and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.

The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast was presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual Martian invasion was in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a 'sustaining show' (i.e., it ran without commercial breaks), thus adding to the dramatic effect. Although there were sensationalist accounts in the press about a supposed panic, careful research has shown that while thousands were frightened, there is no evidence that people fled their homes or otherwise took action.

The news-bulletin format was decried as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast, but the episode launched Welles to fame.Welles's adaptation was one of the Radio Project's first studies.

That historic broadcast was a factor in several TV productions and thus is incorporated into Toobworld. 'Studio One' presented "The Night America Trembled" which showed not only a recreation of the broadcast in the studio, but its effect on various people listening in the area. Among the actors were Warren Beatty, James Coburn, and Ed Asner. Over twenty years later, the TV movie "The Night That Panicked America" did the same thing with Vic Morrow and John Ritter as men caught up in the panic caused by the show and Paul Shenar as Welles. In 2003, "Days That Shook the World" presented "Fact or Fiction: The War of the Worlds and the Hitler Diaries".
It was also integrated into the plotlines of a few TV series. In 'The War of the Worlds', one episode took place in Grover's Mill during the 50th anniversary of the broadcast, it is revealed that Orson Welles was hired by the government to orchestrate the broadcast in order to cover up what was a reconnaissance mission by the same aliens who would launch an all-out war 15 years later. 'Touched By An Angel' featured parts of the original broadcast in a Halloween episode titled "The Sky Is Falling", where an old man had to deal with the trauma he endured during the nation wide panic, including the death of his father due to a misfire by a paranoid citizen.

The November 4, 2007 episode of 'Cold Case' dealt with a murder that took place during the panic surrounding the original 1938 radio broadcast. In the October 15, 1956 episode of 'I Love Lucy', "Lucy Meets Orson Welles", Lucy is shopping for scuba gear in Macy's at the same time Welles is signing record albums of his Shakespearian readings. After Lucy approaches him still wearing a Scuba mask, flippers and assorted air hoses, Wells takes one look at her and says, "My 'Man from Mars' broadcast was 18 years ago...where were you?"

[Those four plot descriptions were also from Wikipedia.]

For a great website about the historical perspective of "The War Of The Worlds",
click here.

"This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that 'The War of The Worlds' has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying 'Boo!'

"We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night. . . so we did the best next thing. We annihilated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the C. B. S. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn't mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business.

"[Remember] the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian. ... It's Halloween."
- Orson Welles

TV Crossover Hall Of Fame inductee (televersion)
October 2001

BCnU!
Toby O'B

LEAVE IT TO LAME BEAVER

Since I went to Colorado, 'Centennial' country, I've been playing around with an online English to Arapaho dictionary - I like to figure out how "Toobworld" might translate into other languages.

Near as I can tell, it would be ce'ískuu3óó hee3éí'o'béé', literally "Television World". (ce'ískuu3óó also stands for movie, so this would work for Craig Shaw Gardner's Cineverse.)

With those 3's in there, don't ask me how to pronounce it.

Just for kicks, I came up with some names for Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.

híni' céése' - That One

beh'iihehi' - Old Man

As for me? You can call me hoohookee heesooku'oonoo (The Crazy Guy Who Is Watching)!

heetce'noohobe3en!
Toby O'B

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Watch 'Before Tomorrow' trailer

PHILLY FLASH

My sense of "serendipiteevee" came into play again tonight. I turned on the World Series at 9:58 pm, just in time to see the last pitch.

My team wasn't in it, so neither was my heart. But congrats to the Phillies.

Now I can only hope that it's reflected in some future episode of 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia'!


BCnU!
Toby O'B

TODAY'S TWD: DON GIOVANNI

While I was in Colorado, I was privileged to watch my young friend Rachel record an EP-CD and DVD for her college admission auditions to study opera. O'Bviously I'm prejudiced, but she's very talented and I am certain she'll find her niche in that world.

So today's Tiddlywinkydink is dedicated to her.....

October 29, 1787:
Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague.

From the burgomeisters of Wikipedia:

Don Giovanni (K.527; complete title: Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, literally "The Rake Punish'd, or Don Giovanni") is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. It was premiered in the Estates Theatre in Prague on October 29, 1787. Of the many operas based on the legend of Don Juan, "Don Giovanni" is thought to be beyond comparison. Da Ponte's libretto was billed like many of its time as dramma giocoso: "giocoso" meaning comic, and "dramma" signifying an operatic text (an abbreviation of "dramma per musica"). Mozart entered the work into his catalogue as an "opera buffa". Although often classified as comic, it is a unique blend of comic (buffa) and drama (seria). Subtitled "dramma giocoso", the opera blends comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote a long essay in his book Enten/Eller (Either/Or) in which he argues, quoting Charles Gounod, that Mozart's "Don Giovanni" is “a work without blemish, of uninterrupted perfection.”

The basic plot is this:

Don Giovanni, a young nobleman, after a life of amorous conquests, meets defeat in three encounters. The first is with Donna Elvira, whom he has deserted but who still follows him. The second is with Donna Anna, who must postpone her marriage to Don Ottavio after Don Giovanni tries to rape her and kills her father, the Commendatore, while escaping afterwards. The third is with Zerlina, whom he vainly tries to lure from her fiancé, the peasant Masetto. All vow vengeance on Don Giovanni and his harassed servant Leporello. Elvira alone weakens in her resolution and attempts reconciliation in the hope that Giovanni will reform. Don Giovanni's destruction and deliverance to hell are effected by the cemetery statue of the Commendatore, who had accepted the libertine's invitation to supper.

As a staple of the standard operatic repertoire, it appears as number seven on Opera America's list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America.

By my count, there have been 17 performances of "Don Giovanni" on television since 1967. Among those who have played the title role for TV are Eugene Perry and Bryn Terfel (whom even I, an opera imbecile, have heard of). Thomas Allen and Samuel Ramey have each played it twice for TV productions. Renowned stage director Peter Sellars set his TV production of "Don Giovanni" in the streets; I think Giovanni's final descent into Hell was through a sewer manhole.
"Don Giovanni feels that you can live without rules or obligations,
but that doesn't work.
Hell is (Don Giovanni) being himself. "
Nicolette Molnar
Utah Opera

BCnU!
Toby O'B

Sheep Dog Nation: The Oppressor's Politics



By Sheep Dog Nation Rocks

BIG MOUNTAIN, Navajo Nation -- It is that season again for societies to commences to its every fourth-year ritual of being caught up in the politics of the ruling class and eventually, after being caught up into this false mindset, they will go out to cast their votes for the best, assumed candidate....
If you wish, read more about the thoughts/land-based aboriginal perspective from a non-U.S. Citizen thinking and indigenous activist at http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/
And by the way, A Happy DINEH New Year to all.
(October Moon Phase was the time when the old ancient Dineh observed the New Year.)
-Kat
(Excerpt) "Do my traditional elders know about the U.S. politics? They certainly do, and when one is being oppressed by a foreign government, they will know more about the oppressor’s politics because that targeted society or community would have experienced the brunt of harsh policies. Currently, the Big Mountain matriarchs made up of traditional Dineh (Navajo) elders are still defying relocation and land-partitioning policies that were passed by the U.S. Congress in 1974. This executive order, Public Law 93-531 and which has been amended several times since, has reduced the indigenous population from 20,000 to about 400 within an area of 900,000 acres. The only reason behind this 1974 Act and that which has been proven also was for the purpose of coal and profit. There were no evidences found to support the U.S. government and Peabody Coal Company’s claim that there was a “range war” taking place between the Dineh and the Hopi tribes." Read article ...
http://sheepdognationrocks.blogspot.com/

The goons at Tyendinaga

TYENDINAGA - CANADA AND OPP ADMIT THEY HAVE NO JURISDICTION HERE .. BEWARE BEWARE OF COLONIAL PANIC

MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Who brought in the Aboriginal goons to do Canada’s dirty work in Tyendinaga? Does the fact that they’re “aboriginal” from Walpole Island and Moraviantown make them legitimate? No. Some of the goons on the “aboriginal” police force are non-native! Who are they? JTF2 and RCMP in disguise?

The pre-fab, state-of-the-art, high tech prison has arrived. Canada wants to plant it in the middle of our community. The Mohawks are at the site to stop the multi-million dollar prison from going up. The people were asked if they wanted it. The majority said “no”. But here it is anyway. Going against the wishes of the people violates both democratic and Indigenous principles. It is not legal.

Band council chief R. Don Maracle said the community wanted this and that the building is needed specially for “outsiders” with “criminal records” and “the jail will be built today”! This goes beyond arrogance.

Normally the RCMP is not invited into a settler community unless the elected representatives invite them. This can only happen in an Indigeous community with the full and informed consent of the people who live there.

As in Kahnawake, Six Nations, Akwesasne and Kanehsatake, the band council is a creature of the Indian act which was imposed under foreign colonial laws. Until 1951 the Indian act defined a person as an ‘individual other than an Indian’. Nothing set up under those terms is legal ­ unless “might makes right” is the law, which is not.

We saw the same situation at Kanehsatake in 2004. The police commission was charged with running the security. Canada gave James Gabriel almost $1 million to do an end run around this arrangement and to set up and impose a different police force under his personal command. He brought in outside aboriginal goons to impose his will. This was illegal. Just because the guys he brought in were aboriginal did not make it legal. It violated the laws of Kanehsatake that had appointed their own Commission.

The Ontario Provincial Police OPP are waiting for the “aboriginal” goons to say they can’t handle the situation and then they will swoop down on Tyendinaga.

What questions does this situation raise?

First of all, does this mean that Canada is following through on Madame Mireille Tabib’s Order from the Federal Court of Canada, dated October 23, 2008 in “Kahentinetha & Katenies v. THE QUEEN”? Has Canada decided to stop living a lie and recognize that it has no jurisdiction over any indigenous people, our communities or our territories? Is this why the OPP didn’t accompany the prison? Or has colonial society recruited a lot of “hang around the fort Indians” to do their dirty work for them?

Colonization is not legal even when it is in aboriginal dress. The only position we can take is to stick to the truth, remain calm and peaceful and don’t get provoked. But we must stand our ground.

We smell some rats here. Do they work in Ottawa? Do some of them have names like “Chuck Strahl” and “Stockwell Day”?

It looks like this whole macabre fantasy has been engineered by the “Halloween Cabal” in Ottawa. They are a law onto themselves. They treat democracy as a joke and give a sweet s**t about treaties, indigenous rights or the Canadian obligations to respect us. They all work together to plan these attacks on us. Here they are, unmasked.

- High up ­ Chantal “Who-Has-a-Dirty-Hand-in-Everything” Bernier chantal.bernier@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Margaret “Trying-to-Suck-Every-Last-Drop-of-Indian-Blood-Now-Wants-Her-Fangs-in-Tyendinaga-Mohawks” Bloodworth, “National Security Advisor” to Prime Minister, Margaret.bloodworth@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca, 613-957-5466;
Indian Affairs sewer rats
- Walter “Whose-Billy-Club-Has-Been-Taken-Away” Walling, wallingw@ainc-inac.gc.ca; Christian “Anti-Christ” Rouleau, rouleau.c@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Andre “Turn” Cote, cote.a@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Stuart “Swan-Song” Swanson, swanson.s@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Paul ”The-White-Man” Leblanc, leblanc.p@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- Zuwena “Squeal” Robidas, Indian Affairs mouthpiece, zuwena.robidas@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca 613-993-2596;
- Helene “Parrot” Philippe, another Indian Affairs mouthpiece, philippe.h@ainc-inac.gc.ca;
- David “Economic-Hit-Man” Hillman, DG Econ. Dev. david.hallman@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 819-953-0517;
More Emergency Preparedness creeps
- Jean “Lapse-of-Selected-Memory” Chartrand, jean.chartrand@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-8470;
- Denise “Who-was-in-there-like-a-dirty-shirt” Charron, denise.charron@spepc-sppcc.gc.ca 613-991-1694;
Other excreta agents of the crown
- Yvan “Who-Maintains-Toilet-Supplies” Dery, for the Privy Council Office ydery@pco-bcp.gc.ca;
- Gilles “Pig-Shop-Keeper” Rochon, Aboriginal Policing, gilles.rochon@psepc.gc.ca 613-990-2666;
- Emanuel “Little-Lamb” Chabot, emmanuel.chabot@psept-sppcc.gc.ca 613-990-4353;
- “Slippery” Jim Beaver jim.beaver@pspec-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Peter “Flat-Foot” Fisher, Police Services PSEPC fax 613-991-0961;
- Louise “Who-Doesn’t-Know-the-Half-of-It” Savage louise.savage@psepc-sppcc.gc.ca;
- Sylvia “Ambulance Chaser” McKenzie, Justice Canada sylvia.mackenzie@sppcc-psept.gc.ca 613-998-3952;
- Annik “The-Squeak” Pelletier, Justice Canada apelleti@justice.gc.ca;
- Louis-Alexandre “Who-Sits-on-a-Very-High-Chair” Guay, Justice, lguay@justice.gc.ca;
- Phil Fontaine AFN reception@afn.ca;
- Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister Aboriginal Affairs bduguid.mpp@liberal.ola.org;
- Angus Toulouse AFN Ontario Region 807-626-9339 Fax 807-626-9404 kathleen@coo.org
Help! Give a piece of your mind to: GG Michaelle jean info@gg.ca; Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Fax 613-941-6900 pm@pm.gc.ca; Chuckie “Baby” Strahl, Indian Affairs Minister, 819-997-0002, Fax 819-953-4941 strahl.c@parl.gc.ca; Prothonotary Mireille Tabib, Federal Court of Canada 613-992-4238 Fax 613-952-3653; band council Mohawks of Bay of Quinte Band TELEPHONE: 613-396-3424 Email: reception@mbq-tmt-org Fax 613-396-3627; OPP Eastern Regional Headquarters 613-284-4500 fax 613-284-4597 L.G. “Who-Wants-to-Help-Set-Up-a-Feeder-of-Young-Offenders-into-the-Big-Pens-for-the-Old-Long-Termers” Beechey, Chief Superintendent & Commander, Smiths Falls; MBQ R. Chief Don “The-Warden-Wanna-Be” Maracle, 613-396-3089, CELL 613-391-9249 RDONM@MBQ-TMT.ORG 613-396-3424 ext. 106 info@mbq-tmt.org

We need to tell Canada and their agents to: (1) immediately stop their attacks, police brutality and trying to impose a prison on the Mohawks; (2) to honor Indigenous rights and jurisdictions; (3) to support the Mohawks struggle for self-determination; and (4) to get Canada and Indian Affairs out of Haudenosaunee Territory.

To help, please contact the Rotiskenekete: 613-391-4055, 613-813-4053,
Friends, allies and supporters: come immediately to be witnesses; bring cameras, camcorders, food, cells, phone cards and warm clothes, especially gloves. Directions: take the Trans Canada Highway 401 to the “Marysville” exit, head south on #49 all the way to #2 then turn right into the community. Call 613-813-1017, email wasoonde3232@aol.com

Posted by: MNN Staff Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Go to MNN “Tyendinaga” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Note: These challenges of abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.

'Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School'

Photo: Carlisle Indian Boarding School
Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School" a Native American perspective on Indian Boarding Schools, wins top honors at film festival.
Film: 'Our Spirits Don't Speak English'
Indian boarding school film named ‘Best Feature Documentary’ at ICFF (NATIVE TIMES, TEXAS) -- On and off camera, Oklahoma Indians played key roles in Rich-Heape Films “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School” that won the “Best Feature Documentary Award” at the International Cherokee Film Festival Oct. 11 in Catoosa, Okla. Chip Richie was honored as the best feature documentary director for the film. News from Pechanga Net
This DVD produced by Rich-Heape Films, Inc. uncovers the dark history of U.S. Government policy which took Indian children from their homes, forced them into boarding schools and enacted a policy of educating them in the ways of Western Society. This DVD gives a voice to the countless Indian children forced through a system designed to strip them of their Native American culture, heritage and traditions.

Listen to American Indian Airwaves online


Wednesday, 10/29/08, on American Indian Airwaves
Special Programming on the Presidential Elections & Undermining Indigenous Sovereignty"
Part 1: John Tahsuda (Kiowa Nation), Co-Chair of the American Indians for McCain and Louis Gray (Osage Nation), Native American Policy Council for the Obama Campaign and the "Get Out and Vote" Coordinator for the Osage Nation and Central Oklahoma for NCAI, join us for this panel discussion on the two leading presidential candidates platform on Indigenous issues, and Lauri Weahkee, member of the Sacred Alliance for Grassroots Equality (Sage Council) and organizer for the Native Americans Voters Alliance will also join us to provide a third-party/independent perspective.
Part 2. Professors David E. Wilkins (Lumbee Nation) http://www.law.umn.edu/facultyprofiles/wilkinsd.html and Robert Odawi Porter (Heron Clan of the Seneca Nation) http://www.law.syr.edu/faculty/facultymember.aspx?fac=107, join us for the second part of the show and panel to discuss the presidential elections & its ramifications, Indigenous sovereignty & its diminution, self-determination, treaties, and what this means for future Indigenous peoples and their respective First Nations.
American Indian Airwaves regularly broadcast every Wednesday from 3pm to 4pm (PCT) on KPFK FM 90.7 in Los Angeles, FM 98.7 in Santa Barbara, and by Internet with Real Media Player, Winamp, & Itunes at http://www.kpfk.org/ , and American Indian Airwaves now broadcast every Saturday from 3pm to 4pm (ECT) on WCRS 98.3/102.1 in Columbus, OH. Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/aiairwaves
SPECIAL NOTICE: weekly shows can now be heard on the KPFK web site (http://www.kpfk.org/) under "audio archives" located on the left. Scroll down and click on American Indian Airwaves.

Native Vote image

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

TMI WITNESS: FLIPPER

I'm not one who wants to know about the actors and actresses playing my favorite characters. I LOVE Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, but I don't need to know about Mary Tyler Moore's behavior on the set of the sitcom 'Mary'; it's too depressing and has no relevance to what goes on in the TV Universe. Unless of course, the actor or actress later appears as themselves in fictional settings - like the experience of Jennifer Grey's cosmetic surgery, which became a running joke in 'It's Like... You Know'.

So this exchange from an LA Times interview with Jessica Walter gave me pause... and more information... information... information than I needed to know!

You went out to L.A., and thought, "I'll hustle at the TV scene and do an episode of 'Flipper.' "

That was out of Florida! One of the first shows I ever did. I was 18, or 20 or something. . . . This is the worst. The story is, I remember, that we were in trouble on our boat, and medicine was dropped from a helicopter and it missed the boat and went into the ocean, so they sent Flipper to dive down and nudge it up with his nose. So I was saying to the other actors, "Isn't it amazing, they had Flipper fall from the helicopter and into the ocean and he doesn't swim away!" And they said, "Oh, that's the dead dolphin, they keep it on ice." Remember the little pelican, Pete? I said, "Isn't it amazing, Pete doesn't fly away!" They said, "Oh, they broke his legs." Welcome to TV!

It's like finding out Lassie's been beaten and burned!
I really didn't need to know any of that......

BCnU!
Toby O'B

Fall Ikebana

This is how the day felt here in SF today.
The day was a typical San Francisco Day. It was cold and foggy one minute and then the next it was muggy and sunny and then by 4:45 as the class was wrapping up, it was sunny and bright but starting to get that Fall chill.

I have been gushing about how I love the fall and apparently I'm not the only one!
Look at these autumnal Ikebana arrangements.

My freestyle.

Two other beauties...the first one is an orange dyed cabbage flower and the second are green sunflowers.


Well actually they are yellow sunflowers that you can make look like this by removing the dry yellow petals. I love the look.