Curse me. Curse me for being stupid enough to get engrossed in a ghost story in the middle of the night.

It's dark, it's quiet, and I have to supress the urge to turn around every 5 seconds to see if something is behind me.

Shhhh! What was that?

. . .

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Extreme Crutching

Straight from the good gentlemen and lady at Hate Everything. If you live in this city, you may recognize some of the locations.

God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

"Can't you people see? What are you, morons?"

~snort snort~ BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell - 'We Expected Eternal Paradise For This,' Say Suicide Bombers

~snort~ BWAHAHAHAHA

Just when you think the world has become permanently humourless and sad, The Onion storms back onto the scene and saves us all from crying in our beers and writing bad poetry.

Well, maybe not the poetry. But the beer-thing, definitely.

Found via A-Tard.

~deep sigh of relief~

Ah, this week is shaping up to be much better than the last. Real action, real mobilization is happening here. Things are taking shape, people are leaping into action. I went to two really excellent meetings today for the two peace groups that I'm currently involved with. Flyers are being put together and spread far and wide. Posters are being put up. Speakers are being recruited. Best of all, the vigils are really taking shape.

For next week's vigil, we will be having 2 speakers, one of whom will be FN himself. He will be sharing his own experiences about how he has been affected by the events of the last few weeks, and sharing some of his experiences of growing up as an Asian person in a small town in Alberta. We're hoping to have updates from a group that is working in Afghanistan that we can share with the participants. We're also hoping to have someone read a letter written by Gandhi's grandson (I think), in commemoration of his birthday. Then we will close with a joining of hands, a prayer, and possibly a song.

Things are really rolling, and the mere thought of it all gives me a warm, optimistic feeling. I finally feel like we're going to make a difference.

Life-affirming music to start your day:

David Gray - Babylon

I had to axe the mp3 of Abracadabra to fit Babylon. If you want Abracadabra, email me.

Reading Jon Stewart's opening monologue for The Daily Show was a very different experience from watching him speak the monologue.

I found the transcript of the monologue at Silly Cow and read through it. But then Asian Bastard (aka Alan Thicke) posted the link to the video of his monologue.

I've never seen The Daily Show, and I know nothing about Jon Stewart, but his heartfelt monologue made me want to put my arms around him and cry. As Asian Bastard said, and I think it's true, " . . . the most vicious, ironic satirists are often the ones who care the most deeply about the subjects they make fun of.".

I'd like to say that today is substantially less Kobayashi-Meroo than it was yesterday.

Once I finish calling all the press contacts for tonight's candlelight peace vigil, I'm going to do something cheerful and life-affirming. Like going to the lake, or something. After aging 10 years in the span of 5 days, I think I deserve a break.

I'm having the penultimate ass-licker of a week.

I made flyers for the vigil, but I was too sick to distribute them and I didn't get any response for help until today. I still have no speaker from the Catholic church, and I don't know whether or not to notify the press if there is only going to be 1 speaker.

If I'm lucky, this illness will kill me. Otherwise I may have to hurl myself off a bridge somewhere.

On Tuesday September 25 at 7:00 pm, there will be a candlelight vigil for peace at the Edmonton City Hall.

We will be joined by spiritual leaders who will share their thoughts on peace. The speakers will be followed by smaller group discussions on what actions can be taken to work towards peace and make our voices heard throughout Canada and the world.

I'm really moved by some of the content at this site.

It's a CBC site, closely related to this site.

Not only have they produced some excellent content, but damn, does it ever look good!

It looks like this is being linked all over the place, but it's so good, I'd like to add it here:

Rumors of War

A Plea For Tolerance

" . . . the terrorists who committed this bloody act were Muslim in the same way that Timothy McVeigh or David Koresh were Christian."

I've become very busy with a new cause. It's a peace group, in case you're wondering. It's probably going to eat up the majority of my time over the next few weeks or months, but I will try to continue posting with some regularity.

I realize some of you may not agree with what I'm doing or what I'm supporting. I would like you to know that I do not and will not deny anyone their right to have their own opinion and perspective on things, and I do not expect you to share my beliefs in order to visit my site. I would, however, ask that you respect my beliefs and not deny me them, either.

That said, I don't think you'd be visiting my site if you were the sort of person to do that anyway.

That's all. Thanks for listening. :)

Okay, Reblogger is functioning again. You may now re-commence the chatter.

Curse you, Freeservers!

Unhand my site, you pirates! Where have you taken it?

Sorry, I accused the wrong people. Freeservers is not to blame. Reblogger is down. I'm removing the comments until it's back up and running again.

Falling . . . falling into lightheartedness . . . falling . . .

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. My sides hurt from laughing . . . I don't think I can take anymore!

Caution, more lightheartedness ahead:

If I can't find a way to make myself useful in the community tomorrow, I think I may be forced to find a corner somewhere where I can laugh hysterically for 8 straight hours. All the stress of the last week is giving me humour constipation. I'm either sombre and serious all day, with laughter missing in action, or I get a bout of laughter diarrhea which causes me to laugh at the stupidest things. This might be a good opportunity to watch some really bad comedies. Kind of like Metamucil for your sense of humour.

Oh, sorry. Was that too many feces metaphors in one post? I'm a free-wheelin' feces-humourist . . . WHOOPEEEEEE!!!!!

Somebody help me, it's a land-slide of lightheartedness!

Apparently Angry Asian Man is on temporary hiatus, so I'm going to step in for him for a moment:

THAT'S RACIST!

But hey, it's "NOT INTENDED TO INSULT OR OFFEND". Well thank goodness for that! Me love it long time!

Found via Blather.

Uh oh, more lightheartedness . . . I must be getting giddy with fatigue.

A-Tard mentioned that Blather, a fave blog of his, is back online. Never heard of it . . . gunna go look . . .

I think it must be pretty funny when you're not tired, but it's fucking HILARIOUS when you're tired. I almost peed myself laughing when I read this.

Okay, like I said, I'm tired.

If you're not laughing yet, read this, and you will be.

Are you laughing yet? No? Boy, you're a miserable bastard, aren't you?

If you're not in the mood for a lighthearted moment, skip this one.

I would just like to take a moment to squeal like a little girl and announce that I managed to find the mp3 of the very first song I ever really loved as a very small child. I loved it so much, and I think I was only 4 years old at the time.

It was the first popular music (i.e. non-child-music like Raffi and Sesame Street) album I ever owned. It was none other than the single, Abracadabra by The Steve Miller Band.

Dig it, baybee.

The following is written by an Afghan-American author named Tamim Ansary. I received it as a forwarded email, and you may want to do the same. (And I'm sorry I called him a woman earlier. I was mistaken.)

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I heard a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage," and he asked, "What else can we do? What is your suggestion?" Minutes later I heard a TV pundit discussing whether we "have the belly to do what must be done." And I thought about these issues especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's been going on over there. So I want to share a few thoughts with anyone who will
listen.

I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I fervently wish to see those monsters punished. But the Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who captured Afghanistan in 1997 and have been holding the country in bondage ever since. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a master plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would love for someone to eliminate the Taliban and clear out the
rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. I guarantee it. Some say, if that's the case, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban themselves? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, damaged, and incapacitated. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food.

Millions of Afghans are widows of the approximately two million men killed during the war with the Soviets. And the Taliban has been executing these women for being women and have buried some of their opponents alive in mass graves. The soil of Afghanistan is littered with land mines and almost all the farms have been destroyed. The Afghan people have tried to overthrow the Taliban. They haven't been able to.

We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble with that scheme is, it's already been done. The Soviets took care of it. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? There is no infrastructure. Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that.

New bombs would only land in the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. (They have already, I hear.) Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time.

So what else can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. I think that when people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done" many of them are thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. They are thinking about overcoming moral qualms about killing innocent people. But it's the belly to die not kill that's actually on the table. Americans will die in a land war to get Bin Laden. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that, folks. To get any troops to Afghanistan,
we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. The invasion approach is a flirtation with global war between Islam and the West.

And that is Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants and why he did this thing. Read his speeches and statements. It's all right there. At the moment, of course, "Islam" as such does not exist. There are Muslims and there are Muslim countries, but no such political entity as Islam. Bin Laden believes that if he can get a war started, he can constitute this entity and he'd be running it. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the West wreaks a holocaust in Muslim lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, even better from Bin
Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong about winning, in the end the west would probably overcome--whatever that would mean in such a war; but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden yes, but anyone else?

I don't have a solution. But I do believe that suffering and poverty are the soil in which terrorism grows. Bin Laden and his cohorts want to bait us into creating more such soil, so they and their kind can flourish. We can't let him do that. That's my humble opinion.

Tamim

Late Friday, the cockpit voice recorder was found for United Flight 93, the flight which crashed in Pennsylvania.

The voice recorder could prove that heroic measures were taken by some of the passengers, as some had been speculating based on calls made by some of the passengers to their families.

What a mess my site is. I'd like to organize things into something more cohesive, although I'm afraid that it will not offer any links or information that cannot be found on 50 other sites. I'll try to work on that today.

I've been looking for this link to Rex Murphy's commentary all day long.

A photo essay of yesterday's attack.

Found via Metafilter

This song is making me cry.

Found via Liz

My friend got an email from a stranger that begins:

Dear Canadian terrorist harborer,

What a pleasant surprize. I could slap you, but alas my hands are busy doing other things.....

Please, I implore everyone, stop this madness before it goes any further. This fire is begging for fuel. Don't feed it.

This is what I sent to my friends and family yesterday:

Today was a tragic, tragic day. I don't think I've ever been through any event which has changed me so deeply and so completely. I awoke this morning to hear that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been hit by a terrorist attack, and that the death toll will be in the thousands. I will never be the same.

As Rex Murphy said on CBC news tonight, the horror and the evil of the world finally came home. Today we began to understand what life in the war-torn parts of the world feels like. Our safe cocoon was ripped wide open.

I'm writing because I want to know what the people I care about are going through right now. I'm in a state of mixed shock, horror, dismay and fear, and I have an irrepressible urge to run outside and hug all of my neighbours. I want to tell complete strangers that I love them.

Most of all, I want to implore the world to not go to war. I want to implore the world to not allow the hate to grow. I've seen it already. My dad told me that a Muslim school in Vancouver was trashed today. Everywhere I hear people calling for revenge and retribution. Everyone is convinced that they know who is responsible, but no one knows yet. People are victimizing more innocents out of fear and anger.

What are you feeling? Where were you when you heard? Do you know anyone who was in New York or Washington when it happened? What do you hope will come of all of this? Tell me. I want to hear from you.

I'm off to get ready to go and volunteer for the Canadian Red Cross.

They need help, so if you can, please help them.

It turns out they didn't need us, and may not need us at all. Now I have nowhere to channel my excess energy.

All of us who wish for peace and non-violence in this world, this will be the greatest test of our beliefs.

It's easy to wish speak of peace and non-violence when the world is quiet, when the sky is not opaque with smoke. It is when horrors and atrocities unlike anything we have ever seen before take place that our beliefs are truly tested.

After barely a snippit of sleep, I'm somewhat short on eloquence. But I implore everyone to try to control their anger.

I am most concerned about attacks against Arab and Muslim Americans and Canadians. They will be easy targets, but these people are innocent. There is so much talk of war and retribution, I fear everyone getting carried away by profound emotion and commit further atrocities.

Please, protect all the innocents from further violation, and help others do so as well. Don't let this day become a day of more horror.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

- Mahatma Ghandi (1869-1948)

Quote from Jish

I slept in front of the TV, what little I did sleep. I couldn't bear to turn it off all night . . . somehow the constant hum of the CBC news broadcast was reassuring. Without that, I don't think I would have slept at all.

If anyone needs to talk, my AOL IM is on. My name is Limegirl6. Feel free to message me.

Editorial cartoons that rip my heart out.

Found via Metafilter

A really good source for media and links about this tragedy is Kottke.

I'll stop mindlessly reposting his links now, and just send you over there. Sorry. I'm a bit wound up.

More photographs:

1

2

Bertie tells of how this event hit oh-so-close to home.

Amazing photographs of a horrific event. It doesn't look real.

If you'd like to donate for those who have been affected by this crisis, Amazon.com has a Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund page set up.

Again, if you are in Canada or the US and you are able, please give blood. It won't cost you anything but a bit of your blood and a bit of your time. Please help.

Okay, I have to take a break. I've been blogging for 8 straight hours, and that can't be healthy.

I hope I was able to contribute something worthwhile today. If nothing else, I needed to know that other people were still out there and okay.

Hugs to you all. Please stay safe.

By the way, my friend in NY is safe, thank goodness. But I'm afraid to hear of who she lost today.

I have nothing to compare it to yet, but it looks like the Cdn$ and US$ are fairing poorly in the wake of this attack.

You can join a mailing list that was created by someone at Metafilter to allow people to discuss the attack on the World Trade Center.

Kottke has a very comprehensive list of links.

More cams

You can check in at these sites to either report you're okay, or check if someone you care about is okay:

here and here

Found at Metafilter:

Arab Americans, like all Americans, are shocked and angered by such brutality... American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee posts press release about the attacks. Have you witnessed increased racism towards Arab appearing folks today? What have you done about it?

Indeed. I've heard that attacks against Arab Americans are increasing.

The WNBC cam is almost blacked out by smoke:

You can see the smoke in the sky on this cam.

You can't see the ruins of the World Trade Centre from this cam, but it's shocking to see how empty the streets are, both of people and vehicles.

This World Trade Centre webcam will be no more.

Found at FilePile

Well, I'm going to go cuddle my cat and follow the broadcast on CBC Radio.

It is a sad, sad day in this world of ours.

It's reported that an aircraft that has landed in Whitehorse is being treated as a hijacked aircraft.

Schools are being evacuated, the airport is being evacuated, and Yukon government buildings are being evacuated.

Our candles are lit, and I am praying that I will not experience a world war in my lifetime.

Moreover, I hope my future children and grandchildren won't either, but I'll try to keep my hopes small.

From my bunny mailing list:

My nephew is a brand new nuclear weapons expert (just graduated last month) in the Navy. They called and are deploying the nuke subs. Navy is at Third Con Delta, maximum security alert. War is next.

He's only 19...

This ends his education if not a whole lot more. He's somewhere off the east coast now...

Please god keep him safe, and all the others

Cindy (crying at her computer)

Ev has very kindly provided all of us with a search to find blogs that are talking about the attack.

If this doesn't give you shivers, nothing will.

If you are in the US and you are able, please donate blood. There is a desperate need for blood.

1-800-give-blood

I was chatting with Frytopia, and she told me that the following bloggers are the NY area:

http://www.camworld.com/

http://www.dashes.com/anil/

http://q.queso.com/

They're okay, so don't worry.

If anyone wants to contact me or chat with me, I've got AIM on. My username is Limegirl6.

chat with me

An excerpt:

< CC >THIS IS OBVIOUSLY AN ACT OF

< CC > WAR THAT'S BEEN COMMITTED ON

< CC > THE UNITED STATES OF

< CC > AMERICA.

< CC > >> WHAT DO YOU MEAN

< CC > OBVIOUSLY AN ACT OF WAR,

< CC > SENATOR McCAIN.

< CC > >> THESE ATTACKS CLEARLY

< CC > CONSTITUTE AN ACT OF WAR.

< CC > UNWARRANTED, UNPROVOKED

< CC > ATTACKS AGAINST INNOCENT

< CC > AMERICAN CITIZENS IS CLEARLY

< CC > ACT OF WAR, ONE THAT

< CC > REQUIRES THAT KIND OF

< CC > NATIONAL RESPONSE,

< CC > INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE.

The CNN IRC channels are burning up.

There's over 250 in 2 channels, and over 700 in another.

I recommend going to chat.cnn.com, and the #CNN_Newsfeed channel. It's a feed of the closed captioning of the CNN broadcast.

CNN appears to be overloaded. They've been reduced to a white page with black text and blue links.

I'm listening to CBC radio, watching C-Span.

I'd be watching 8 different channels if I could, but I don't have anything but snow on my TV.

I tried to call my friend in New York, and all the circuits are busy.

I feel very unwell.

I'm watching live coverage online, on C-Span.

I think I'm going to puke.

The World Trade Centre and the Pentagon have been hit by terrorist attacks. A passenger plane was hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Centre. That's just the beginning. It's chaos.

I'm worried sick. I have friends all over the US.

<