action figures sold separately

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there’s a christian review (who knew?) and then a whole slew of movie critics who saw the film as i did. such as:

“This film is too busy hitting all of its assigned marks to take on any life of its own.”
and
“An entertainment so in love with its overinflated mythology that it no longer recognizes the needs of moviegoers for real characters and compelling plots.”
and
“Lucas has in fact come closer than anyone could desire to the cheap, graceless, hackneyed sci-fi serials of the ’30s and ’40s.”

and so on… but as my sister said (and both a and i agreed, with some sense of having been thouoghly taken), when we came out of the theater, the planets and cities and ships are just so cool! ug. but wait, via randomwalks, fellow portlander Brian Libby has a new piece in salon that makes me feel that much better, by reminding us of the brilliance of the original.

of course, george. an independent probe would be most inappropriate.

for the real deal, see this piece about ashcroft. [via the excellent smirking chimp]

it’s been and will continue to be a very hard road, and one which, despite such strong feelings of frustration and betrayal, i so hope to approach with compassion and tolerance. my thinking about it has lead me to some resources which, given the chance, i would use as starting points for a diologue.

my hopes for this dialogue would be for them to read these pieces and respond thoughtfully, challenging any specific points that they thought were wrong, or that they thought came from a place other than the desire for true peace through justice. my fear for this dialogue is that it would degenerate into name-calling and cynical bickering, where we are both mutually pigeonholed by the other into our respective corners, trust being eroded further than it already has.

so i’ve compiled those resources here. i think they are a pretty good starting place (listed here in no particular order):

• Starhawk’s excellent piece on seeing from the edge, Heresies in Pursuit of Peace: Thoughts on Israel/Palestine
• Maureen Meehan’s 1999 piece in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Israeli Textbooks and Children’s Literature Promote Racism and Hatred Toward Palestinians and Arabs
• Any and all of Trevor’s dispatches
• The BBC’s May 1998 pieces on Israel defending torture in interrogation methods
• the Refuser’s FAQ
• the fact sheet slideshow at Not in My Name
• and the other fact sheets, perspectives, and resources listed on our new links page

This years Queer Health Lecture Series, organized by LGBT-Meds was well planned and well attended, despite the fact that flyers promoting the events were torn down and ripped up, and recently, some hardcore homophobe took it upon themselves to go even further and spray paint red cross-outs over them. Amanda’s been campaigning against this crap, and to get the administrators off their butts to do something about it. fyi…

LGBT Meds, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Students and their allies at Stanford Medical School, exists to provide social support to LGBT students in the School of Medicine while serving as a link to faculty, residents, and staff at the medical center.

Of course, this isn’t the first time hate crimes have happened (and been resisted!) at Stanford. Latino and Asian students have recently been attacked. Though they did cover the anti-Asian graffiti, the Stanford Daily has chosen not to cover the recent hate crimes at the med school.

made 80 new links today. lots in the activism A-Z category, several in “feminism and womens rights and grrl power,” and a few in the new, not yet filled up, Portland, Oregon section.

lots and lots of really great hightlights, but the two i’ll stress at the moment are the banana splits web (oh yes, that was such a wild and wakalicious show!) and on a more serious note, the fact that, finally, i’ve collected a lot of excellent sites into their own category: Israeli occupation of Palestine, under “ActivismA-Z: Middle East.” Grab the info and get it out there!

Ed Rosenthal grew pot, and got busted. But not cuz he grew pot, but rather because he knew what he was talking about.

Georgina’s journal and photo pages have excellent views of the situation on the ground and ongoing accounts of the struggle of the internationals. Palestine IndyMedia Center also has good updates. Note the right hand column is mostly a lot of junk from extremists on both sides, but the main content is fairly solid, with clear actions for people to take.

still not posting anything significant here at the moment. i’m too overwhelmed with the struggle to free Trevor and the others. Do folks believe that humanitarian relief workers and international peace observers and those expressing solidarity with oppressed peoples deserve to be imprisoned without charges for weeks, and be abused, and possibly die in prison? No? Then please, please take this urgent action now. See the site, read the background, and call the embassy and your elected officials to protest and demand their release.

from the madness (see recent blog re trevor), i came across (thanks to uffish) this blog, The Much Anticipated Return of Katie Raygun : ONLY MORE SO. check out april 24: remember that time?

I guess I forgot to tell anything about prom. sophmores don’t get a prom, so it’s not that major of an issue, not that i wanted to go anyway. but I found out that say I wanted to go with my friend morgan next year, i totally could not. fucking bullshit inforced heterosexuality. i can’t go to the prom unless some BOY asks me? what kind of fucked up asshole thinks up something like that. the people who run this school are hateful abortions. but what am i supposed to do. i’m probably one of like 3 people in the whole school who give a shit. am i supposed to pass around a petition during gym class or something? the cheerleaders are too busy getting felt up by the football team or whatever.

so annoying. I pretty much wish every day away between now and when I turn 18. I feel like my teeth are melting from all this stress. My jaw is killing me all day every day. One morning I’m going to wake up with a mouth full of chalk dust.

rock on and hang in there katie, it only gets worse and it only gets better. both. at the same time. yum and yuk. yeah!

See more at indymedia and here on our page: Trevor and a host of other activists carried out a kick-ass action in support of those under seige in Bethlehem.