siamo il 4°!!!

Secondo un rapporto da Technorati, l'italiano scala al quarto posto nella statistica sui linguaggi più utilizzati tra i bloggers in tutto il mondo.

Il w00t!

lo stress

I haven't felt the energy to do the work that I wanted to do over this time alone. However, in being disappointed, or regretful that I haven't - for example - blogged as much as I'd hoped I would, I came to the realisatin of how much my work stress is really sapping my energy. A lot of times I come home drained, and in not being available even for myself, I came to realise how I haven't been available to the woman I love.

This is pretty painful, but it's also liberating in a way, because I can see what has been the obstacle - or, at least, an obstacle - to me doing the growth I've so much wanted to do. So I'm starting to look at what I can change to make the situation better and free up more energy. This will not be an easy process... and the paradox of doing work to be able to relax more is nettlesome to say the least. But I prefer having something I can put my hands around, rather than sort of an amorphous angoscia that I can't do anything about.

Denise comes home Friday! I can't wait, and I am really just releasing stuff like ballast so I can be as present as I can when she returns.

Il mio primo meme italiano

Qualche settimana fa, ho accettato l'invito della Sognatrice a rispondere ad alcune domande sul mio rapporto con il vino. Purtroppo ho avevo troppo lavoro negli ultimi giorni, ma ho gia tornata della classe sugli scrittori italiani contemporani, e dunque direi che al fine sono presto...

Sei più vino rosso, bianco o rosé?
Dipende. Non mi piace tanto il vino bianco, ma quando fa caldo un bicchiere di vino freddo mi rinfresca molto. In generale, bevo il vino rosso forte - meglio il più scuro, come i vini siciliani.

Non bevo mai il rosé. *brivido*

La tua prima volta?
Be', forse la mia prima volta era di nascosto, a una festa dei genitori o una cena familiare... ma la prima volta che ho goduto la vina era durante il mio primo viaggio in Italia, quando aveva 16 anni. Ho visitato una bella cantina a Frascati e ho diventato proprio ubriaco - molto piacevole.

La migliore associazione tra un vino e una portata?
Per me, sempre una prima piatta, come una pasta, va tutto bene con un bel vino rosso. Ma mi piace da morire i cioccolattini con un vino dolce, come un porto. Che meraviglia!

La tua migliore degustazione?
Mi piace molto i Montepulciani d'Abruzzo... ma un bel pinot noir di California non va mai male.

Chi sceglie il vino in casa tua e chi amministra la cantina?
La ragazza sa più di me... ma io faccio la spesa più spesso.

Quanti vini hai in cantina?
Al momento, solo il bottiglia che sto bevando!

Come inizieresti un giovane al vino?
A tavola, primo dell'adolescenza. Magari se i giovani non bevano in secreto, imparerebbero di bere in moderazione...

E basta - brindiamo!

The open door

I'm not in the habit of writing about personal, intrinsic matters... not, especially, because of shyness but rather because such things are rarely of much interest to others. Since a weblog is - notionally at least - a space where other people can come and read my stuff, it has never seemed like a place where I'd want to write about my inner life.

I have some time and space now to do some thinking, and for me writing has always been a big aid to thinking. And since there's one person who I really want to read this who happens to be on the other side of the globe right now, on the blog it goes. If it is of interest to others, well good. At the moment, though, that's not my primary concern.

I want to start with the most basic things and kind of work my way up from there. Right now I am in the process of grounding myself for what feels like a new period of explosive growth - it's a challenge I faced before and feel I handled well, and specifically because I had my values really clear. So it seems worthwhile to check in again with my whole world view.

From an early age, I was very interested in what was Really Going On, what lay behind the stories I was told as a kid. I feel like I dispensed with Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and religion fairly early on, and spent a long time trying to figure out what was truly real. I got hooked on Taoism and anarchism when I was still pretty young; I liked the minimalism and straightforwardness of the philosophies. The absence of bullshit is something that appeals to every rebellious kid, and the longer I live and the more I learn, the more valid I find the basic truths I absorbed then. "Be like water" and "from the base to the summit, from the circumference to the center" are watchwords that still inform my understanding of the world.

I practised Zen fairly assiduously over a period of five years, though much less so since I graduated college and left Hawai'i. In deep meditation after the failure of my marriage, I began to have direct experiences that the self - the thing we think of as "who we are," is just an illusion, and a cruel one at that. I had the benefit of a very wise teacher and some good friends that helped and supported my practice. Slowing the mind is incredibly hard work, but incredibly rewarding.

Along the way, I picked up a grab-bag of practises and rituals that seem, at first glance, to contradict the direct experiencing that is the hallmark of Zen. For example, I use Tarot for inspiration (and, much less often, for divination). I once went on a solitary retreat where I meditated on the beach during the day and made my own Tarot deck at night, using a poker deck and some 3x5 cards for the Major Arcana. I was a practising Pagan in my twenties, and still get a lot of inspiration from Rumi and the Sufi way.

I believe that there are levels of experience. We are all fundamentally timeless, patient and aware Consciousness. Solitary practises like meditation and yoga can awaken us to this true nature. But overlaid on that is our mortal, ever-changing self - and it's this level where we are receptive to what I think of as spiritual play. I think awe is a very important emotion to experience regularly, and so I've tried to put myself in positions where I can feel that sense of wonder. Asking the Tarot for guidance, Sufi dancing, casting a circle: these are all ways of making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I have found that the more I practised meditation, the stronger was my openness to these things.

I don't have a whole superstructure of beliefs that rigidly define where Tarot, say, or drumming at the full Moon, fit in with the uncreated Suchness of Buddhist practise. I simply let these things have space in my heart. Feeling that the Universe is a positive place, that wants me to do well, find my place, and serve my purpose, just makes sense for me, and I don't question it, try to make sense of it, or justify it. And while it certainly seems that I can manifest good things and positive paths in my life by setting my intention and holding it in my mind, I don't "believe" that I have some magical power that I exert on the physical world. I have just noticed that when I have a clear, well-defined intention, a way seems to be made clear for me. And I'm OK just accepting that.

Love has been something I have allowed into my life only recently. I mean, I was always a romantic and a great pursuer of women; my Italian blood and what I think of as an excellent taste for beauty sort of made that a necessity. However, I really feel that I had to go through a series of (ultimately) unsuccessful relationships and affairs to really feel the need for love in my life. One could say I "hit bottom," but in a real sense, I took that path as far as it could take me. I am blessed to have real, deep, strong, chaotic love in my life now, and it is something that I feel calls upon all of my care and attention - as true love should. I had too many years of what Dylan called "careless love," and it left me nothing but tired. I much prefer a mindful kind of love...

Next time I want to talk about practise, and self-improvement, and a healthy diet. As a fundamental key to health is rest, I need to get some sleep.

Cibo non bombi (neppure benzine)

Come sempre, non c'è nessuna idea buona che non diventa male nelle mani di GW Bush. In questo caso, l'idea di etanolo come un carburante per autotrazione, invece della benzina. In Brasile, hanno fatto bene di creare un "biofuel" dalla raffinazione di canna da zucchero. Bush vuole usare il granturco - un cibo umano - per fare un carburante!

Lasciolo io ad un personaggio più eloquente di me per esprimere l'un'emozione abbastanza oltraggiato di questa idea...

“Più di tre miliardi di persone nel mondo condannate ad una morte prematura. Non si tratta di una cifra esagerata ma prudente. Ho meditato molto su questo dopo la riunione tra il presidente Bush e i fabbricanti nordamericani d’automobili. Lunedì 26 marzo la sinistra idea di trasformare gli alimenti in combustibile è stata definitivamente fissata come linea economica della politica estera statunitense.Il Presidente ha sollecitato il Congresso ad avanzare rapidamente nell’introduzione di una legislazione proposta recentemente dal Governo per ordinare l’uso di 132 miliardi di litri di combustibile alternativi per il 2017 e per imporre parametri più esigenti di consumo del combustibile nelle automobili. Bush si è riunito con il presidente del consiglio e direttore generale della General Motors Corp., Rich Wagoner; con il direttore generale di Ford Motor Co., Alan Mulally e con il direttore generale del gruppo Chrysler di Daimler Chrysler AG, Tom LaSorda.
Penso che ridurre e riciclare tutti i motori che consumano elettricità e combustibile sia una necessità elementare e urgente di tutta l’umanità. La tragedia non consiste nel ridurre questi costi energetici, ma nell’idea di trasformare gli alimenti in combustibile.
Oggi si sa con precisione che una tonnellata di mais può produrre in media soltanto 413 litri di etanolo. Il prezzo medio del mais nei porti degli Stati Uniti è di 167 dollari la tonnellata. Sono necessari 320 milioni di tonnellate di mais per produrre 35 miliardi di galloni di etanolo. Il raccolto del mais negli USA nel 2005, secondo i dati della FAO, è arrivato a 280,2 milioni di tonnellate. ... Applicate questa ricetta ai paesi del Terzo Mondo e vedrete quante persone non consumeranno più mais tra le masse affamate del nostro pianeta. O peggio: concedete ai Paesi poveri prestiti per finanziare la produzione di etanolo dal mais o da qualsiasi altro tipo di alimento e non rimarrà in piedi nemmeno un albero per difendere l’umanità dal cambiamento climatico.
Altri paesi della parte ricca del mondo hanno programmato di usare non solo mais, ma anche grano, semi di girasole, di colza ed altri alimenti per la produzione di combustibile. Per gli europei sarebbe redditizio importare tutta la soia del mondo allo scopo di ridurre il consumo di combustibile delle loro automobili ed alimentare i loro animali con i suoi residui, ricchi di tutti i tipi di aminoacidi essenziali. Tutti i Paesi del mondo, ricchi e poveri, senza eccezione alcuna, potrebbero risparmiare miliardi di dollari in investimenti e combustibile semplicemente sostituendo tutte le lampadine incandescenti con lampadine fluorescenti, cosa che Cuba ha fatto in tutti le case. ...
Dall’agenzia ufficiale di notizie sui problemi economici e sociali del mondo: la TELAM. Cito testualmente:
“Circa due miliardi di persone, da qui a 18 anni, abiteranno in Paesi e regioni dove l’acqua sarà un lontano ricordo. Due terzi della popolazione mondiale potrebbero vivere in luoghi dove questa scarsità potrebbe produrre tensioni sociali ed economiche di una tale portata da provocare guerre per il prezioso ‘oro azzurro’”.
Secondo il Consiglio Mondiale dell’Acqua (WWC) nel 2015 il numero di abitanti colpiti da questa grave situazione aumenterà fino a raggiungere i 3 miliardi e 500 milioni di persone.”

--Fidel Castro, Primo Ministro e Presidente del Consiglio di Stato e del Consiglio dei Ministri della Repubblica di Cuba.

Not just the most religious, not just the most ignorant, but the most IGNORANT ABOUT RELIGION of any people on Earth!!!

Whooo!!!! We're number 1!!!!


According to a new book, in this most favoured nation of God:

• 98% of Americans profess belief in a monotheistic God, with 81% claiming to be “Christian.”
• The USA is the “only developed nation in the survey where a majority of citizens reported that religion plays a ‘very important’ role in their lives.”
• Other recent surveys show only 58% to 80% of Americans are “certain” there’s a God.
• 75% of adults believe the famed Benjamin Franklin saying “God helps those who help themselves” is one of the Ten Commandments.
• “A 2005 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly two-thirds of Americans endorse the simultaneous teaching of creationism and evolution in public schools,” despite the former’s insistence that the latter isn’t true and never happened.
• 10% believe Joan of Arc was the wife of Noah from the Book of Genesis.
• The decline of religious literacy in America began with the “Second Great Awakening” of the 1800s — a rejection of the Founding Fathers’ Age of Reason and theological knowledge in favor of a “personal relationship with God”
  
• George W. Bush, himself a religious illiterate who claims to be a born-again Christian whose “favorite philosopher” is Jesus, excitedly jabbers about a Third Great Awakening
• 50% of high school seniors believe Sodom and Gomorrah were married.
  
• 17% agree that Ramadan is the “Jewish day of atonement.”
• Most believe Saint Paul led the Israelites from their enslavement in Egypt.
• Only one in three Americans can name the four Gospels, while less than half can even name one of them.
• A majority couldn’t identify the preacher of the “Sermon on the Mount.”
  

Saddest fucking thing I have seen in a very long time...

This picture, from Salon, is of wounded Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel on his wedding day.

One of the most poignant things I got out of the interview is how fewer troops are dying because of improved medical care. People that would have died of such traumatic injuries in previous wars can now be saved - but they need multiple, massive surgeries, over weeks and months. They are sent to facilities like Brooke Army Medical Center that may be far away from their home towns. The government doesn't pay for a family to come out to be with their loved one - maybe for a week, but no more.

The Fisher House Foundation builds "comfort houses" on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful times - during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.

Ty says that he wouldn't have survived his 19 surgeries at Brooke Army if his and his mom hadn't been there to support him. Please, if you can, support this charity by clicking here.

"Aiding the enemies of America"

Apparently, yesterday on CNN's Your World Today, Michael Ware, a correspondent based in CNN's Baghdad bureau, made the statement that "anyone trying to put artificial deadlines upon this conflict is only aiding the enemies, so-called, of America, Al Qaeda and Iran. ... [I]n terms of the broader strategic framework, it serves only America's enemies."

I am so tired of hearing about "our enemies" in Iraq, as if the carnage there is all - or even mostly - about us. The fact is that it is not our war to lose. Iraq is in the throes of a multipartite civil conflict, with the U.S. military sometimes playing a peacekeeping role, and sometimes - intentionally or unintentionally - helping one side or another. The U.S. cannot impose a military solution, and there are not enough troops to stabilize (as is often stated as our short-term goal) the capital city. The situation will go on much as it has, with more soldiers and Marines dying every month, and the situation continuing to devolve.

The obvious fact, that no one seems to want to talk about, is that we will have to leave eventually. All the sides in this conflict know this. There is no one with even the slightest understanding of the situation who imagines that the status quo can be maintained for more than a few years. So the canard that "setting a timetable helps our enemies" literally makes no sense. What would they do differently if we circled a date on the calendar and said, "all troops out by (say) August 2008?" Stop killing each other for a year and a half? Kill each other at an even faster rate? What evidence is there to support either idea?

We have exactly two options: end it now, this instant - and engage in an extremely long-term commitment to deal with the consequences of our foolish, murderous actions in Iraq; or spend a few more months or years creating more horror in Iraq and in the souls of more soldiers and Marines before taking the first option anyway.

There are no other options.

International Women's Day

The red text reads:

8th of March is the day of the rebellion of the working women against kitchen slavery".

The grey text on the lower right reads:

Say NO to the oppression and Babbittry of household work!"

Where's Riverbend?

It's not unlike the Iraqi blogger who writes Baghdad Burning to go missing for weeks at a time - hers is not a country where the luxury of regular blogging is as common as it is here in the West. However, given that she disappeared after questioning Maliki's denial of the Sabrine al-Janabi rape, it's more than a little disturbing...

And, in another language...

The first entry on my technical writing blog.

I would love to meet anyone who could understand both this and my previous post...

Il "Cav ed il Decider

Ieri mattina ho ascoltato una intervista con Silvio Berlusconi su Radio anch'io di Rai 2. Mi interesse molto il fenomino del cosiddetto "Cavaliere," e mi sembra che la sua popolarità nell'Italia sia paragonabile a quella che gode il "Decider" negli Stati Uniti. Sembravano entrambi come "outsider" all'inizio delle loro campagne elletorale, ma poi diventava chiaro che tutti e due sono sopportati della struttura del potere.

Ascoltando la programma, mi pareva che Berlusconi parlasse molto chiaro, abbastanza lento (per un milanese!!), e con molta sicurezza di sè. Mi sembrava che avesse una padronanza della sua lengua madre migliore di quello di Bush, anche se negli Stati Uniti parlare bene sia considerato quasi un'ostentazione.

Da questo punto, pensava che Romano Prodi (il "Professore") magari sarebbe paragonabile a Al (il "Ozone man") Gore. Questi due uomini sono molto intelligenti, molto seri, ma non troppo drammatici. E purtroppo, secondo me, questo è un problema molto grave per la democrazia. Per la maggior parte degli elettori, la democrazia è una forma di divertimento. È un dilemma molto inquietante per me, che considero l'importanza della democrazia come un punto fondamentale della vita politica.

È il mio parere che sarebbe meglio se il governi dei paesi sia più piccoli - mi pare che i elezioni che convolgono un grandissimo numero di elettori favorano i ricchi e la gente di spettacolo...

سلام العرر

Whoa.



Blog's gettin hits from all over. What up Iraq?

It's back on!

Yes! Italian citizenship is still within my grasp!!!

Thanks to Sognatrice's advice, I did find out that it is possible to apply for Italian citizenship even though my grandfather became a citizen before my father's birth. Unfortunately, I have to live in Italy for three years (oh woe is me!!!!) and go through a whole bureaucratic rigmarole. However, I build a house, married and divorced in the People's Republic of Hawai'i, so bureaucracy doesn't scare me.

From the Italian embassy:

HOW TO APPLY

1. Declaration of desire to become a citizen;

If the foreigner is of Italian descent (up to the 2nd degree) he/she can obtain citizenship in any of the following cases:

- by serving in the Italian armed forces;

- by becoming a subordinate employee of the Italian State, even abroad;

- by residing legally in Italy for at least two years after reaching legal age.

If the foreigner was born in Italian territory he/she can obtain citizenship by residing legally and uninterruptedly in Italy from birth up to legal age.

I will not be stopped!!!!!

the "1948 rule"

I almost gave up my dream of dual citizenship after finding out my grandfather had become a citizen before my father was born. Then, my relatives came through with a bunch of new information about my grandmother, and it suddenly looked like I could get jure sanguinis citizenship through her. More and more, the evidence seemed to point to her having never become a citizen, and so I allowed myself to believe it was really going to happen.

Then, reality came crashing in.

a grandmother born before 01/01/1948 can claim Italian citizenship only from her father and can transfer it only to children born after 01/01/1948

FUCK!!

Ah well, Sognatrice gave me some hints about applying for citizenship in Italy, even when the line has been broken... who knows.

Northern Italy on foot

I keep trying and trying to write something on this for my Italian class, but I'm still recovering from the flu, and my head feels like it is filled with cotton. Maybe I'll write something in Italian in a bit...

I can't find any news in English on this, so if you don't read Italian you may be surprised to know that tomorrow (25 feb), no cars will be allowed in all (or mostly all) of the cities in Italy's industrialised north. Air quality in all of Italy's cities is notoriously bad, and PM₁₀ concentrations are higher than EU regulations in many Northern cities. Italian cities were built for foot and horse traffic, and so are perfectly suited for pedestrians and bicyclists. There has been a growing trend to have "car-free Sundays" in the cities, with free or reduced rate entry to museums and historic sites.

Of course, we could never do this in our car-dependent U.S... aside from the cultural antipathy to walking, there simply isn't the infrastructure. Even the layout of our cities militates against self-propulsion, and public transportation is, in most places, minimal to non-existent.

That's about all I have brain power for right now... more - in one language or another - soon.

The rape of Sabrine

This could be the beginning of the end.

Sabrine al-Janabi was abducted from her home and raped by Iraqi security forces. This is, of course, horrifyingly common in the "new Iraq."

What is not common is for the woman to come forward and publicly talk about it, in her own name, on television. Sabrine spoke on al-Jazeera to a horrified Iraq... and it didn't take al-Maliki long to try to discredit her story.

"It has been shown after medical examinations that the woman had not been subjected to any sexual attack whatsoever and that there are three outstanding arrest warrants against her issued by security agencies," the government statement said. It added: "The prime minister has ordered that the officers accused be rewarded."

I kind of thought I didn't have any outrage left. I guess I was wrong...

Argentine team to play without fans

Something about this story just kills me - and it's not just the part about "Angry Moron Fans," though that helps...

Argentine team to play without fans
Slam Sports
3 January 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Second-division club Deportivo Moron will have to play a full season of home matches without fans, the result of a riot at their stadium in December.

In the most severe sanction ever imposed on a soccer club, sports authorities also banned the use of Moron's stadium for five weeks, forcing to team to play elsewhere. According to the penalties announced by the Buenos Aires Sports Discipline Commission, no fans will be allowed into the stadium.

Moron appeared headed for promotion to the first division, but a 1-0 loss on Dec. 9 to Social Espanol condemned it to remain in the second division.

Angry Moron fans invaded the pitch and beat several of their own team's players and caused massive damage to the stadium.

The commission said the penalties are intended to discourage the violence that has plagued Argentine soccer in recent years.

Stoned to death for adultery... in 2006

This story is nowhere to be found in the US press... which kind of stuns me, with the Islamophobia in this country.

Una vedova saudita, sei anni dopo la morte del marito, partorisce un figlio. Non essendo sposata, la donna ha "portato avanti una gravidanza illegittima": per la Shariyah islamica si tratta di adulterio.

In short, for you English-only folks: a Saudi widow had a baby, and since she was not married, she must be an adulteress. QED. By Sharia law, the punishment for adultery is death by stoning.
If this shit was happening in Iran, damn sure it would be on the cover of the New York Times. But the Saudis are George Bush's BFF, so it gets the silent treatment?

"By the light of a burning bridge"

I share some of the feelings of this writer, who permanently emigrated to Venezuela from the US. I am not as convinced as he is that the "Rubicon" has yet been crossed... but I do acknowledge that it could happen quickly.

In their silence and acquiescence Americans have voted –- even if by abstention –- to stand on the shoulders of all drowning peoples in the vain hope that they will somehow be saved from a paradigm which they support and empower by obeying it; by endorsing it with their silence or knowingly impotent protests; by refusing to throw themselves against the gears of the machine. In this world, a protest which is allowed and encouraged, corralled into free-speech areas, and then policed by the ruling government only to be ignored by the media is, by definition, meaningless.

The US is a nation where the “non-negotiable” and unsustainable “American” way of life is propped up by global conflict, out-of-control military spending, massive and unsustainable debt, and an increasingly-aggressive fascist police state. It is a nation where all US citizens who do not resist and disconnect from this paradigm enjoy their ever-diminishing privileges with the guilty knowledge that somewhere else, hopefully in some “other” country, others are paying the price for it.

The world is now my country.

Ugh. I wish I could hurry my FOIA request along somehow.