I Thought It Was Me....

I happened to catch a review of new book about Mao written by Nicholas D. Kristof in yesterday's The New York Times, abook titled, Mao-The Real Mao by Jung Chang. This in itself is interesting in that it's probably the only modern book on Mao that depicts the atrocities he committed in great detail, unlike previous books about him.

What caught MY eye, however, was the following excerpt:

"...I have reservations about the book's judgments, for my own sense is that Mao, however monstrous, also brought useful changes to China. And at times the authors seem so eager to destroy him that I wonder if they exclude exculpatory evidence. But more on those cavils later.

"Mao is not only a historical figure, of course, but is part of the (tattered) web of legitimacy on which the People's Republic rests. He is part of the founding mythology of the Chinese government, the Romulus and Remus of 'People's China,' and that's why his portrait hangs in Tiananmen Square. Even among ordinary Chinese, Mao retains a hold on the popular imagination, and some peasants in different parts of China have started traditional religious shrines honoring him. That's the ultimate honor for an atheist - he has become a god. "

WTF? At first, I thought it was me but I found this observation a tad heartless. HELLO! Here is a man who tortured and killed millions of people but that was OK because he "brought useful changes to China."

I'm sure that I'm not the only person who winced upon reading these words. In fact, I know at least one other person who did: conservative talk show host Michael Savage. He was just as outraged as I, if not more so. He suggested substituting the name Hitler for Mao and Germany for China in the review. Its comparable to something like "Josef Stalin was a terrible human being but he got the trains to run on time." Scary.

I am anxious to see if any letters to the editor get published in the Times about this. Will keep you posted...stay tuned.

Selfish, Shallow People

Hearing about selfish, shallow people make me glad that I don't have too many of them in my life.

Spoke to a friend/former client of mine who lives upstate. He got remarried a little over a year ago to a woman he met online. (It was all on the up and up. His divorce had just come through to his first wife). She was from New Orleans but decided to pack up and move to upstate NY to be with him. The last time I spoke with my friend (about 6 months ago), everything was hunky-dory, peachy-keeny.

Well, last week I find out that divorce proceedings are in the works with wife #2. Seems that my friend's elderly mom had a stroke and he decided to take her into his home rather than put her in a nursing home (he's an only child). The wife was OK with this at first but didn't count on the MIL driving everyone crazy. She's driving my friend crazy, too, but it IS his mother so what was he supposed to do? Well, evidently, the wife couldn't take it and moved out. Not only moved out but is now filing for divorce.

I tell ya. People's true colors certainly come out when there's a crisis. A word to the wise: don't judge a relationship by the good times. Wait until the bad times and see how the chips fall. That's the true test.

Fallen Idol

Note to James Lileks: I usually love reading your column (not so much for its content, albeit, bit for your clever writing style) but did you have to write about your kid's barfing fit in the car? Was it really necessary (or funny)? Apparently you thought so, enough to devote half your column to it. I am sooo glad I was not reading this while eating. On second thought, maybe I SHOULD do that when I have a pesky pound or two to lose. Sheesh.

Repeat after me: Bodily fluids are NOT cute, whether they come from adults, children or cute doggies. Hey, I can sit here and devote a portion of my blog to my God dog's pooping habits. But I'll spare ya'll.

Which brings me to my next brilliant idea: I am stealing one of your ideas, which is to devote different days of your blog to different topics (None of them barf, thank God). Monday, for example, will be people; Tuesday can be places; Wednesday, dogs (since I don't have kids); Thursday, running (my fave pasttime; well, ONE of my fave pasttimes..:-)); Friday, current events of the week; Saturday and Sunday will be "open days," that is anything goes. I might post a short story or poem, a recipe, a health issue, whatevah.

I think this will help streamline my thoughts more and make this blog easier to manage.

Kapeesh?

Don't Date Him, Girl!

http://www.dontdatehimgirl.com/

There was a feature story on this web site today in the Star-Ledger and I'll bet a lot of women are saying, "Damn! Why didn't I think of that first?"

In theory, it's a great idea. The creator of the site, a young publicist from Miami, checked everything out with her legal eagles and apparently, it's OK to publish names and photos of these jackasses, as long as you don't print REALLY personal information like Social Security numbers, phone numbers, drivers' licenses numbers and such.

That being said, this site needs a lot of work! For one, many of the links on the site and its related blog DO NOT WORK. How frustrating is that? I'm not talking one or two links, I'm talking almost every other one I tried. Not a good thing.

Secondly, the navigational features don't work all that well. For example, if you're trying to locate just guys in NJ of a certain age group, you get not only guys from the Garden State but guys from Florida, Minnesota, even Sweden! [Yes, it seems that the USA does not corner the market on assholes]. Needs some work.

To be fair, the site's creator allows "outed" guys to rebut. She also says that there are plans in the work for a similar site for guys, Don't Date Her, Dude, or something like that.

And, in case you're wondering, no, I did not find any of my former boyfriends on there...yet.

Bush Has 2% Rating Among African-Americans

Well, uh, geez, what a surprise--NOT!Not that his rating among white Americans is stellar, but 2%? That's gotta be some sort of national record.

It's as if he said, "Let's see how I can get almost 100% of a group of Americans to hate me as much as possible."

Watched Bill Maher a couple of nights ago. I don't agree with everything he says but he can be funny. He had on columnist Andrew Sullivan whom I adore; author Salmon Rushdie, who is actually a very funny guy; and Ben Affleck, who I don't care two shits about what he thinks. I mean, this is a guy who almost married J-Lo. Do I give a rat's ass about his opinions on national politics? No way.

Anyway, like myself, Sullivan is TOTALLY disillusioned with Bush and his ilk. I was glad to see him come out and admit that. I think a lot of conservatives feel the same. In fact, I'd venture to say that the majority of conservatives feel that way. Even the right-wing fundies are beginning to say that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.But, the question remains, who WILL be our next emperor? These is not a soul out there-Democrat or Republican-that I like.

The only person I'd consider for job at this time is Nader and he just does not have a strong core following. I don't know why this is. If you ask a cross-section of people what they think about Nader, the answer is usually a positive one. He just doesn't have the $$$ that the BIG 2 parties have. It's a doggone shame.

Got an 18-Mile race coming up...

on Sunday and the way I feel today, I'll be lucky to do half of that! Don't get me wrong, I've been running well lately. It's just that today I am sooo tired. Plus, it's boring as hell here at work as almost everyone is out due to Rosh Hashanah. I really don't celebrate it. As a matter of fact, the number of holidays I DO celebrate can be counted on one hand: Spring Solstice (which I consider the true New Year anyway), Halloween (I love to dress up! I love candy, too, but have had to curtail its intake), Fourth of July (I'm patriotic and not afraid to say I love America) and that's about it. Yes, I celebrate Christmas but it's not the Christmas of my childhood in that it's gotten soooo commercial and now you see the retail ads as early as late August. Yuck. I just exchange gifts with my boyfriend and three or four close friends and that is IT. With the exception of the boyfriend (who always buys me really cool things), I would prefer it if my friends just gave $$$ to my favorite animal charity or whatnot. I have everything I need and no one has yet offered to buy me a house...:-)

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

http://www.vhemt.org/
Q: Will new viruses, wars, famine, and toxic waste help the cause of human extinction?
No. Epidemics actually strengthen a species if enough of them are living to have an adequate survival rate. With over six billion of us, there is no virus that could get us all. A 99.99% die off would still leave 610,000 naturally-immune survivors to replicate, and in less than 50,000 years we would be right back where we are now. For any disease to simply hold the human population where it is, more than 210,000 of us would have to succumb to it each day. Suffering and death cannot help but hurt.
Millions have died in wars and yet the human family continues to increase. Most of the time, wars encourage both the winners and losers to re-populate. When troops were called up for the Gulf Massacre, sperm banks were taking deposits hand over fist. The net result of war is usually an increase rather than a decrease in total population size.
Resource shortages are dealt with by resorting to mass murder and calling it war, but the results are only temporary. Besides being impractical, killing people is immoral. It should never be considered as a way to improve life on Earth.
The massive die-off of humanity, predicted by so many as a result of our over-shoot of Earth's carrying capacity, is what the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement hopes to avoid.
It's possible that VHEMT will not succeed in staving off ecological collapse. So, couples contemplating procreation may want to consider the possibility that they will be sentencing their off-spring to a rapidly-deteriorating quality of life and unimaginably horrible death.
Something to think about, anyway.

What's Your Type?

I found this book called "Diabetes: Fight It with the Blood Type Diet" by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo. I'm not diabetic but I was diagnosed with glucose intolerance last year. However, after losing 10 lbs., I was told that is no longer the case. BUT...I plan to be diligent about it.

Now back to the book. Basically, this doctor says that if you follow a diet that is tailored to your blood type, you can control your blood sugar. I'm a little skeptical about the whole thing, though. Yes, he may have a point to some degree but there are soooo many other factors involved here (your age, your weight, your genetics/ancestry, activity level, to name a few) that it just seems too cut and dried for my tastes.

For example, my boyfriend and I have the same blood type, A+ (yay, we're compatible!). But, from a physiological standpoint, we're very different. He has some gastro issues (IBS, GERD); I do not. He also cannot tolerate alcohol any longer (he gets very dehydrated). He has a much higher triglyeride level than I do; mine is at 55. He has an HDL level of around 35; mine is 68. However, my glucose level is a bit higher as is my total cholesterol. You can't tell me that a healthy diet that works for me would be the same one that works for him, based on the fact that we share the same blood type. I don't think so.

I need to find a book that tells you how to keep your glucose level down below 100. So far, all I've been able to find are books geared toward diabetics. So, if anyone knows such a book out there, gimme a holler!

Drama Over at NK Board

There appears to be some drama going on over at the No Kidding board, regarding a name change. Seems the founder of NK, Jerry Steinberg, doesn't want the unaffiliated board to use the No Kidding name any longer. It's his right but the bickering going on over there? Sheesh. Personally, I don't care WHAT the name is, I'm still gonna visit and post there. In my opinion, it's the best CF site out there and I give a lot of credit to the mods and administrators who've kept it going for so long. I hope they resolve this name bullcrap without having to disband the board. I'm staying out of this one myself but for the record, I DO like childfreedonia.com!