The Road Not Chosen

“140 chars is a novel when you’re being shot at.”

The statement above is one of the thousands of tweets (Twitter updates) on Twitter at #Iranelection. You have to admire people who are living in a dictatorship and risking their lives to try and tell the world what is going on in their country. Twitter only allows you 140 characters to update your status on that social networking site.

During the last couple of days, if you haven’t heard, hundred of thousands Iranians are protesting what they feel is a rigged Presidential election. They are doing their best to keep the demonstrations peaceful but have been attacked & shot at by the government police.  The government has basically shut down the web, TV stations, etc. Outside journalists are not allowed in the streets to film or talk to people. However, free speech is not so easily destroyed. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook & Flickr are still available in Iran because they are run from outside the country. The Iranians have been getting the news out through those outlets.

The title of this post got me thinking. What would I say, what would you say, if you only had 140 characters to get a message out before your freedom of speech was completely taken away? (Excluding goodbye to loved ones.)

Think about it and get back to me. I’ll post mine in a couple of days.

Today’s Brilliant Quote

I am a huge admirer of writer/professor/social critic Camille Paglia’s ability to sum up a situation in an intelligent, thoughtful manner. While Ms. Paglia’s view on several subjects (feminism, sexuality, politics) can at times seem a million miles from my own views I love the way that she refuses to bow to the sacred cows of the aforementioned subjects. For instance, she is a devout atheist who admires those who have deep and sincere religious beliefs. She is an ardent feminist who is not afraid to call her sisters out when they are being hypocritical. or man-bashing, or elitist. She is a lifelong Democrat who has long been very critical of the party’s tendency to demonize Republicans.

I was reading her current essay in Salon titled “Obama’s hit & a big miss”. She was writing about Obama’s trip to Egypt and the speech that he gave there. This speech was supposed to be ground breaking and start Muslims, Chrisitans & Jews on the road to peace. Paglia so succinctly summed up some of my pet peeves about Obama that I thought this was worth sharing.

“It was also puzzling how a major statement about religion could seem so detached from religion. Obama projected himself as a floating spectator of other people's beliefs (as in his memory of hearing the call to prayer in Indonesia). Though he identified himself as a Christian, there was no sign that it goes very deep. Christianity seemed like a badge or school scarf, a testament of affiliation without spiritual convictions or constraints. This was one reason, perhaps, for the odd failure of the speech to acknowledge the common Middle Eastern roots of Judeo-Christianity and Islam, for both of whom the holy city of Jerusalem remains a hotly contested symbol.

Obama's lack of fervor may be one reason he rejects and perhaps cannot comprehend the religious passions that perennially erupt around the globe and that will never be waved away by mere words. By approaching religion with the cool, neutral voice of the American professional elite, Obama was sometimes simplistic and even inadvertently condescending, as in his gift bag of educational perks like "scholarships," "internships," and "online learning" -- as if any of these could checkmate the seething, hallucinatory obsessions of jihadism.

…At the finale, his recitation of soft-focus quotes from the Koran, Talmud and Bible came perilously close to a fuzzy New Age syncretism of "all religions are the same" -- which they unequivocally are not. The problem facing international security is that people who believe something will always be stronger and more committed than people who believe nothing -- which unfortunately describes the complacent passivity of most Western intellectuals these days.”

Drive-by Opinions Day

Bill would let Obama shut down 'Net, networks amid emergency

Federal legislation introduced in the Senate this week would give President Obama the power to declare a cybersecurity emergency and then shut down both public and private networks including Internet traffic coming to and from compromised systems. The proposed legislation, introduced April 1, also would give the President the power to "order the disconnection of any Federal government or United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks in the interest of national security."

The scary thing about this story is that a) Harold & I were wondering the other night how long it would be until the President tries to (or does) shut the internet down, and b) no one is screaming about our First Amendment rights being violated if this happens. There is nothing that says “free speech” more than the web. The web that cannot be accessed freely in China, N Korea, Iran, etc. I’m thinking of trying to find either an old mimeograph machine (Google that if you’re under 35) or an actual typesetting rig like newspapers used to have. Just in case….

N. Korea taps 26-year-old son as successor

North Korea's Kim Jong Il has anointed his 26-year-old son — said to be competitive, proficient in English and a heavy drinker — as the next leader of the communist state, news reports said Tuesday.

The son already is being hailed as "Commander Kim," and North Koreans are learning the lyrics to a new song praising him as the next leader, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said. South Korean lawmaker Park Jie-won told a radio show Tuesday that the regime already is "pledging its allegiance to Kim Jong Un." He said he was briefed by South Korea's spy agency.

Just what we were hoping for! A heavy drinker in charge of nuclear weapons! And he’s competitive also. Now where did I put those how-to-make-a-bomb-shelter instructions my grandpa had in the 50’s?

Gibson’s new life at odds with his faith

I’m not going to link to this. Even though I haven’t committed adultery I’m sure there have been things in all of our lives that could read “(Your Name Here)’s life at odds with her faith.”  His bad decisions are on display before all. I’m glad mine aren’t.

Inside the White House

Let’s see, the Work Out room is on the 4th floor and Calligraphy is on the 2rd. (Wow, who knew?) The Situation Room is in the basement. Poor Wolf Blitzer, having to work down there. I always thought he was in the CNN studio.  ;)

Actually the link takes you to a way cool multi-level, interactive of the White House. Strangely it doesn’t show where the bathrooms are…

In Local News

This is my neighborhood around 6:30pm yesterday. So in the last 30 days we’ve had tornadoes, floods and are waiting on the locust to arrive any minute now. Seriously. I’m not kidding. It’s that time of year….

Last But Not Least

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

“The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up.” - Mark Twain

“The taxpayers are sending congressmen on expensive trips abroad. It might be worth it except they keep coming back!” - Will Rogers