Another collection of random thoughts and observations. A little more pissed off this time around.

Women get messages about their priorities that I don’t believe guys ever receive about their own lives. In college, one professor actively disliked me because I often had sex with my boyfriend before his class, making me late. The verdict: I didn’t have my priorities straight. Now out in the “real world”, the message directed at me through magazines, books, etc. is that sex with my partner should be a priority over a number of things, often even my job. I just find it very strange that my priorities are supposed to flip within a few years. (I also don’t believe I’ve ever seen a men’s magazine with a cover headline about keeping the relationship together or spicing it up. Not a priority for men.)

Driving on the highway, I saw a billboard, (I think it was advertising an apartment complex), that read: “People live here.” My first reaction….as opposed to what?

Newest movie I want to see: Into Great Silence. Something about being in a theatre with surround sound and yet emerging after the show with my hearing intact appeals to me. Not to mention the potential for film as meditation.

My boy Fareed is at it again. Although there are no easy or simple answers, I enjoy his thoughtful, common-sense explanations.
about the clash of Islam and the West
about female world leaders

An example of overwrought sensationalism from the 12/12/05 Newsweek in an article about the rising number of female suicide bombers. I can’t believe how this one got past the editor. You tell me what’s wrong with this sentence (answer below): “The clothes disguised her gender long enough for her to walk into a gathering….The clothes also concealed the explosives strapped around her womb.”

After the ongoing, terrible reaction to the Dutch editorial cartoon, I wonder if How to be Invisible will become part of the Journalism 101 required coursework in schools. At some point, anyone who publishes anything will offend someone in some way. Best to be invisible first.

I’ve discovered Tiny URL. Such a thing of convenience. I love the Internet. Really truly.

THE ANSWER
In case none of you realized, strapping a bomb to someone’s womb is a physical impossibility without surgery. Woman or man, a bomb can be strapped to the head, torso, arms, legs, hips or waist. Bombs cannot be strapped to internal organs, no matter how dedicated one is with the mission. The blaring headline made it quite clear the article was about female bombers. There was no need to make the point with lurid references to her sex. WE KNOW SHE WAS A WOMAN!!! Such an obsessive focus on female reproduction makes me wonder if the only thing the writer thinks is important about women is that we have wombs and are baby-makers. Doubly insulting.

I’m discovering a passion for raptors. I see hawks and falcons all over the place out here, with the occasional brown eagle too. In the zoo, the birds are fascinating and beautiful. On their own, they’re fierce and wild and free. I can understand why Native Americans revere them as symbols of the soul.