A n a r c h i c _ U n i v e r s e ®

A Request From Al Gore

Just click to enlarge:

http://www.algore.com/

Wassup, ¿Tina la vecina?

•The links are open to comments and there's a lot of good stuff my buddies and I have gathered. We star early and I go into the  night. Our 'hood was so quiet I suspected once more Kobe Bryant had helped the Lakers ...  lose. When I heard the video commentary early thism orning, I just couldn't believe how they lost this game and likely the championship - unless they pull a Red Sox against the Yankees, y'know, wen the curse was broken, but I don't think so.
LATimes.com Basketball commentary, games 4 to 1.

•Here in the land of Santa Monica-Malibu USD, the Santa Monica Daily Press, or SMDP for short, wants to know folks opinion on hazing, or initiation; it's a tradition, you get the drift, right? Hazing is illegal. Governor Schwarzenegger has signed into law that da police conduct investigations in the future to book felonies. But it seems the school district hasn't updated its page. So, yours truly will Google search it for the reporter. Ha! The changes are for college hazing only. Very disappointing.

•Finally, in a scoop of economics, my husband and son figured out the new iPod will end up costing twice as much as the older one. It's an iPod paid on time, guys! The At&T bill takes care of the added profit of this iPod supposed to be cheaper by one hundred bucks than its previous version. And if you count all the li'l  gizmos that people will buy... Let me tell you something: Steve jobs could sell sand in the Sahara, condos on the left side of Vieira Souto Avenue, south of Ocean Avenue here, the man is an artist when it comes to product design and a great salesperson. I love Apple and I <3 my Mac.
But I really don't need an iPod.

• And despite all requests to join in the campaign for Barack Obama, I have kind of a hangover. I will vote for him, but I did wish to see Hillary elected.

• Later, boys and girls! I'll be back, for sure. I'd like to tell you about any link  you want to know more about.

• Here's  a photo of a traditional wedding cake in southern France. Today is Saint Anthony's and I am sure some chick would like to marry. Don't spend thousands of dollars. Save that cash for the kid or kids. Or spend it on a trip. Later. OMG! Tim Russert just went to meet his Maker at age 58.

JPL, NASA and Barack Obama

Please follow the latest on Phoenix and its findings on Mars below this link:

Martian One and Martian Junior
click and watch.  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/main.php

Just a click away into outerspace. Phoenix is also on Twitter, imagine that! It's on my tinovska51, just check it out!

Here in the argh! blogosphere all I know is Barack Obama has severed ties with  his church, where once he was lost and twenty years ago had been found. Why get into religion if one cannot please everybody by belonging to one denomination? You can go here, or here or here, too.
You can call me biased, fair enough, I always flaunted my partisanship towards Billary. However, my son is only a Democratic, and a smart kid at sixteen, even if attending SAMOHI. He just now said he feels scared of Obama because Obama is getting worse than Kerry, meaning a flip-flopper, and my son feels Obama will be annihilated if running for president in November.

All I can say about this and it's not much, I never felt the guy was sincere, even when just today I heard someone on TV say he was the same in front of four people as he'd be in front of forty-thousand. He's good looking, I'll grant his Michele good taste. The sermons being given at his former church are pretty much the same as most sermons given where the older generations of African-Americans worship.
The feelings of not being wanted or ever having been asked to be here are legit. So preachers exaggerate and play with these feelings. Barack started his campaign as one of inclusion, excluding Clinton, natch, and now all of Trinity Church from Chicago.  I am sorry, no can do.

I will vote for the Democratic ticket regardless of the candidate's name. To say I'm less than thrilled with Obama is not true. I was never thrilled with him in the first place.

But then, my Jewish grandma would say, "You don't have to go to bed with him." True, Mamie, and I prefer this big dawg with glasses here.

From Santa Monica: The California Republic

This morning I found out through the newspaper delivered here that we, Californians, are the leading state in official unemployment, beating the Rust Belt easily. We have officially 6.2% Californians jobless. The statistics doesn't take into account people who aren't looking for a job. Or undocumented immigrants.  I hear they have started going back to their lands owned by America Fruit Co. to get paid 7 dollars a day. Chelsea Clinton is a delightful politician, with a voice that resembles her dad's.

The two little old ladies who were conning homeless men, making them disappear, and then pocketing their life insurances bought by these shrews, will receive heavy sentences, so it seems. A funny piece was about a mayor whose cat had been lost. It's a huge 20 lbs. cat. It was found inside a wall, just like "The Black Cat" -- Edgar Allan Poe's short story classic.

Today is gardening day.  I love my gardens, but everyone who sees them infers we have Dead Presidents galore. Well, we don't. Ours is the same pitiful fate as that of other Californians, crushed by gasoline prices, inflated prices of food, thank goodness, no unemployment, but bills, nevertheless. Ah, for the better days California had under President Bill Clinton.

I have decided to ditch UCLA altogether and start anew on my normal pressure hydrocephalus bit. They don't return calls and I must get on with a normal life, ha-ha, as if "normal people" existed, especially in Greater Los Angeles.  Right now I feel very irritable and know I am not my real self.  I got a new neurologist, a Japanese one, and will get myself a neurosurgeon when I see him.

It's a faintly sunny day.  Gardening is out of the way, lunch is on its way. Kitty had a bath and it's Lucky's turn now.  I saw some awesome photos by swanksalot on Flickr.  Won't you check them out?

More whatever nevermind from yours truly, Tina Oiticica Harris, sometime later. Enjoy your weekend as I will enjoy ours in just right  Southern California. Check out Jello Biafra's interview on "California über Alles."

Enjoy a clip in Brazil of Jello BIafra and others singing "I Fought The Law".

Teens on the Wheel

It was sad news in the California section of the Los Angeles Times today. High school teens in a Subaru Impreza WRX got into serious trouble when the teen driving missed the turn, drove up the cliff on the PCH north in Malibu; the car turned upside down.

The cops at the scene claim the smell of alcohol could be felt in the air near the bodies. One was killed; the others injured. They were 17 and 16.

The feeling of invincibility of teens sometimes defies common sense and teachings. These teens were involved in a play about  drunk driving. Jagermeister is potent. They missed a show in Hollywood and went to the Santa Monica Pier to drink.

I feel sorry all this happened and  soon will be forgotten.

Click here to hear one of Clapton's most moving songs. Below, a photo by GHR of a pair of infamously noisy blue jays, according to politically incorrect Mark Twain, click above for some comedy relief.

Buy a Home or Go to College?

Everyday my son gets mail offers from colleges. I opened one yesterday to find out he has a gmail account. The college is a small one, near Boston, with handpicked kids who excel in math or chemistry. The class size is a dream: ratio of 14 kids to a professor. The labs are all state-of-the-art.

Sticker shock for my husband, who hasn't kept in touch with the inflated costs of colleges these days: about 40 K a year. Wow! That is a lot of money for the education of an undergrad. I have just gotten a visitor who went to USC only a few years before I got there. USC's info page has quite important info on the top of its page: our great SoCal weather.  It's 64F this afternoon. Drool, you guys in the chilly weather...

I recall my years in grad school there with fondness. Our campus is beautiful and small enough for one to walk from one side to the other. The student body was a little bit of a pain, undergrads, I mean. In 1985 Valleyspeak was everywhere. It was a fer shur in your ears all day long. I felt out of place. USC housing placed me in one of the two towers for undergrads. It was convenient, close to my office, facing the pool, near Touton Hall, an all-male residence hall falling apart, party town, where John Wayne lived.

My husband, whom I met at USC, says I should live in the present. Life seems to have been easier back then. No home payments, low rent, cinema nights at Bovard, with film makers present, no kid or mother to take care of.

There are some great links for tomorrow, it's still a tad windy. All my best to my anarchic_universe del.icio.us network fellow partners in crime:

Seth Anderson, André Marmota, Gabriela Zago, Tom Watson, Pedro Marques, and I, yours truly, Tina Oiticica Harris are the team.

I had shunned Twitter, but I am beginning to enjoy it. Won't you join me?
They're beautiful. And now, a word from our sponsors. Boy, that income revelation was baaaaaad!

 

How Do You Know, Tina? That's Easy...

Unlike Craig Ferguson, who has his imaginary psychic to keep him informed, I don't really need an imaginary psychic to let me know what's up around the world. There are people who e-mail me, there is Blogsville in Portuguese, in English, in French; there are Google Alerts; there are phone calls and, finally, my son,who keeps me posted on the latest news of SAMOHI, where Sean Penn went to school. Is that good or is it bad reference?

SMMUSD needs to cut $$$. That is happening all over California. Actually, the advantage of a central state over united states is the fact that a central state, such as France, concentrates in its Ministery of Education all the data from all the schools in the country. It's easier to analyze what's going on in this way, I would believe.

Here we have the infamous No Child's Behind Left, which will be whooped out of the picture by whomever becomes president. It's a total failure. Isn't everything else?

So SMMUSD is firing teachers, naturally.  One would think they could give pink slips to administrators, but such doesn't seem to be the case. Even after the reported scandal in Special Ed. in which a hundred parents cried the blues over how Tim Walker strong-armed them to cut deals with the school district.  Well,  Tim Walker, the big guy in Special Ed. for SMMUSD is gone. The effects of his unethical bias on kids and parents are  permanent. We move on in the District of Excellence in Baloney for All. In the meantime, let's shake booty since we can't shake these leeches off the School District ( or the country...)

Have a nice day!

( Click and enjoy!)

Jodiorovsky in South America

The bad news is I have a quite painful sciatica.
That will go away in a few days of bed rest and Ibuprofen 800.

The bad news, I am watching Globo, the powerful Brazilian network, is the situation in South America. A guy was killed in Colombia, Venezuela's Chávez sent 6,000 troops to the border, and Equador sent some too. Argentina and Brazil confer about the situation by phone. It's a bad scenario.

I hope it doesn't develop into war.

The SAMOHI sh*t list scandal has quieted down. Now, the talk is crime in the OceanPark 'hood.

Let's forget about the ills and pain in the worl and watch Craig Ferguson, my favorite American. UK take this!

Dancing in the Street? La France and SAMOHI

My son takes French at SAMOHI, as part of a cultural excellence only SMMUSD can provide.  He has a thirteen-year-old female penpal in Bordeaux, which is in the southwest of France. I know girls get curious about the birds and the bees earlier than boys; if you saw Juno you know exactly what I am talking about. Actually,  right after sucker moms and dads  voted  for more money for the Santa Monica-Malibu USD , administrators again  got a raise.  Teachers got the fuzzy end of the stick  as Marilyn said in Some Like It Hot.  They keep the bathrooms filthy as a sex abstinence practice. It takes a lot of urge to go to the toilet at SAMOHI. Certaily not in Dr. Hugo Pedroza's office.

The penpal asked him if he liked la Tecktonik. Is that a nerd's drink?  Tech with tonic?  Naw, dudes and dudettes. Check it out.  To me it looks like a version of USA hip-hop danced without soul by bisexual teens without rhythm, rhyme or sense. It started in September, according to the first YouTubes posted. It's performed in the streets once a week by boys with boys and girls with girls. The dance also borrows the aggressive mock punches and karate moves of punk rock dance back in the 80s.
It's popular in bigger centers of France: Paris, Lyon, Lille, Nice. It's popular with the 15-25 years of age group. Sarko-Fasho would call them voyous.(bums)

They remind me of a remark made by a shrink who was my student of English in Brazil. "Nordic people don't have sex. They practice calisthenics."

I leave here a couple of samples and ask you if you think this dance will take on here in the USA. Yes, No, Maybe?  Just curious (Yellow) Inside joke for baby boomers. That was an interesting movie.  BTW, some updates on Oscar© in Universo Anárquico®'s top post. Just click on the links and see what gives. I was happy the Oscars were distributed around the runners. Did you see javier Barden and his mamma? I know, I KNOW! (Craig Ferguson intonation there.)

Woman is the N* of the World

I could write about the anniversary of "The Girl from Ipanema" -- the song that made bossa-nova super-famous, a tip I got from a friend while she was in New Mexico, of all places.  I remember the real girl from Ipanema, who posed for photographers years after the song was famous worldwide, song by Tom Jobim, lyrics by diplomat-poet Vinicius de Moraes. Her name is Heloísa; she is really beautiful, tall and tan. They used to sit in a bar-bistro, looking at the pretty girls walking by, a block from the beach.

However, the difficult journey Hillary Clinton has faced suggests to me John Lennon and Yoko Ono were darn-A-right when they wrote "Woman is the N* of the World. I am appalled at the low blows thrown her way.

Therefore, I leave you with a video I found where John Lennon explains how he came up with the song. Enjoy, see you tomorrow.

Valentine's

If you didn't notice, you can receive your Anarchic_Universe by e-mail now, courtesy of my home tech support. If you didn't notice, Anarchic_Universe went trademark, despite contrary previsions. A great job by a great lawyer, Janice Bader, from Symbus.
Thanks for my Valentine's gift. More on other subjects later.

Don't Ask Me How -- For Womin Only

When these politicians say they feel what I am feeling, I'd better remind them I also have fibromyalgia. Frankly, I don't feel the pain anymore. We feel very sorry for all the people who have been duped into f*d up mortgages.

There is something going on here. I am just so slow in making progress in posting. Maybe it is a Reaganism, a forgetfulness I cannot help. It is all in the hands of Blue Cross and my assigned neurosurgeon. I hope it is really hydrocephalus and I have a surgery and change the stant without major complications every two years.

My breasts implants are up for a more detailed review: fifth year. Whether due to bilateral mastectomy, as in my case, or for vanity reasons, breast implants half a shelf life, so to speak, of up to twenty years with good luck.

I'm glad I stay indoors so my asthma, acquired at a smoky outdoor concert at the Greek, second-hand smoke for sure, my asthma doesn't flare up. It was a metal concert I really wanted to watch: Dio, Deep Purple ;
a band whose singer is Jesus Superstar has to be good.And the Scorpions. That was my 52nd birthday. Four years ago.

I did go outside and communicated to my husband what needs be done. Our garden has lost its beauty, not completely, but some, due to the lack of supervision. A woman's eye is better trained for details and that is why she should stay home told me a Franciscan friar when I was getting married. I was appalled.

The big buzz is Apple this week. And some flying car. The big scare was Obama bringing up "The Great Communicator" as something great. Okay, who has any memory left in a nation of processed foods and unprocessed facts? Here today, gone in the next segment of CNN.

So, Sistah Hillary, if you really want to break that glass ceiling, get ready for more of the same machoism and blows. (I didn't say jobs) Wasn't it screwy for people to be asking her all over again about Monica Lewinsky ?

Anyway, the choices one has as a menopausal woman who wants to remain sexually active are atrocious. An IUD for one kind of hormone and stinky vaginal supositories for the second hormone. Yikes!  Does that mean a lubricant that is fruity chewing gum flavored to disguise the smell? It's pretty akin to incense to disguise the pungent odor of marijuana.

And that's all, folks! Don't forget to click on the links, please. They are just for you.

Wassup? The sky, that is...

The truce between Hillary and Obama didn't last a day, I guess. Today some news organization scooped out some dirt on Bill never heard of before. Common sense would dictate this "scoop" would have been divulged when Bill Clinton was being chastised like a horny dog for behaving like, well, a horny dawg.

This allegation says Bill had a racist uncle(who wasn't racist in the old South) and this uncle influenced Bill for him to kick out some African_American Democrats from the Party. What is funny, if it weren't so sad, is that Obama actually retired five party members so he could represent his congressional district, all civil rights veterans. In Obama's quote, "They can't write a petition."

Anyway, I listened to CNN while I typed my blogs and other stuff such as our great anarchic_universe links for tomorrow, expect a variety of subjects, from entertainmet news to education news, I couldn't get any new idea of what was going on. The funniest images in my mind remain Bush in "Presidential Speeches" and then Bush again with a light saber next to the Saudi prince with another light saber. Too bad Craig Ferguson's program goes well into the wee hours.

All I know is the economy is center now for every candidate. There'll be links about that too. All have promises, and "I've seen that film before," as my mother was fond of saying in the days she talked too much. Now she can't talk so much, but puts on airs as if she were the Queen of Shebah at her convalescent home. That's my mom, another smartie panties like Hillary and me.

There we go in Air Force Hil One!

I Know What You Did Last Night - Apple, Inc.

After blogging all day, and I have to write slowly so I avoid typos, I fell asleep from seven to nine. When I get up, guess what my husband and teen son had been doing? No wonder the journalist in the Los Angeles Times called Apple users "Followers." That's right. That is a link in today's del.icio.us. links below.

While I was sleeping the boys were watching Steve Jobs annual presentation at the annual Apple convention. You'll ask what I did. I watched it, too, and scolded them to go to bed, both. I had no patience, however, to watch Steve Jobs after Number 3, whatever that was. The thin Air computer is awesome, the renting of films will be the last blow on neighborhood cinemas, coupled with Apple TV 2. I pooh-pooh iPods because I don't need them. The rest, iPhone, all power to Apple, seems to have gone beyond my tech sophistication or needs.

The best news was Apple's alliance with Google. Only Google can make Apple computers more palatable to the rest of the world. I was really happy to hear about their small alliance for now in the iPhone.

I went to read on Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. I highly recommend you read these entries on wikipedia.

You may ask if I am part of the flock of the Apple faithful? Yes, I am, but a little tired of Steve's presentations and repeated "Kewl, really kewl. Innit?" He's really thin, I guess on purpose, and looks older than he should. It must be the pressure, self-imposed and imposed on others. I kinda feel sorry for him. There is no use for millions when you are stressed and unhappy even remarried to a much younger wife.

So that was what we were doing last night. Now it's breakfast and newspaper. I tried to get info from CNN last night on Hill, Bill and Obama to no avail. Oh, well, enjoy our del.icio.us links, whose comments are open. I'll be back shortly after my long breakkfast break. I have been working since six-thirty and now must eat. Oh, the comments on our anarchic_universe links are open. Go ahead and make my day. Good line for a cop movie.
See ya!

Don't Forget Our Delish Links Tomorrow!

I must go have dinner now and call it a day. Taking care of a teenager and keeping up two blogs is harrrd work when your health is not so good.

Keep an eye on my hand-picked del.icio.us links. They have  been picked from my new anarchic_universe group. Tom Watson, da man, Seth A. from B12 Solipsism, my blogger link and friend since my Blogger days, Gabriela Zago, who witnessed my blogs under attack  by 400 vandals, but I won the flame war in the end, and w1zard, who finally joins us. Finally, one of the top stars of the Brazilian blogosphere, André Marmota, my friend for a year now.

There's art, photography tips, politics, Bush, a lot of stuff I picked and they picked. We have a top team with select links for you. You can comment about them here.

Night-night!

The Latest on Sarko-Fasho and Carla Bruni

I just got this scoop by chance from Daddy O'Google.

Read for yourselves. Carla Bruni, the millionaire model-singer who's been around the block and Nicolas Sarkozy just tied the knot in a secret (?) ceremony at the presidential palace, to the extreme distaste of Sarko's mother. Oh, well.

Here is the full link. Carla Bruni's family fled Italy in fear of kidnapping by the Red Brigades, back in the seventies or eighties, when there were Caucasian terrorists. And a video of the model/chanteuse now first lady of France.

You Know Your Primaries Are Around the Corner When

Good day to all. Spring must be around the corner. I just saw two butterflies doing it. They are the first ones to show up at springtime, black with yellow trim wings. They look like one, shake together for a while and that's it.

You know the primaries are aroudn the corner in  California when:
• An evangelical group rings the gate bell.

• The Catholic Church where I go, for minorities, also remembers I exist and two volunteers ring the doorbell.

• You get spammed with John Kerry's mail for Obama.

• You get mail from the DNC (again.)

• The gatebell rings. This time it's an unidentified group supporting the write-in vote for Space Cadets.

• The phone rings. It's the cops from San Jose. A contribution, please.

• Another evangelical group rings the gate bell. They explain they are for the empowerment of the human race before the end of times. (Will that be if a woman breaks the presidential glass ceiling?)

• A West Hollywood single-sex group rings the gate bell. They want you to support their rights. No problema but there's nothing about their rights on the ballot. That's okay, they wanted to make it a point they exist. Okay, best wishes.

• Suddenly a taco stand opens by your gate bell.

• More people keep on ringing the gate bell.

• You make a stand and hang your "Hillary Prez or Bust!" homemade poster on  your window.

• Not a good idea. Busted.

• Call someone to replace broken window pane.

• Surrender to the tacos and buy ten.

• The  gatebell  rings.  It's  the police.  They bust the  taco vendor.  Take notes  on the  window incident. Ask me if  I am  sure  I  want to vote  for  a woman  with a shrill voice whose husband...  I start weeping.  They turn their back to me and  leave.

• The Fire  Dept. comes  to control a flood of tears.  This is  how politically correct my city is. Imagine if this were Malibu.

• I scribble a big poster with the words "God bless the USA." And mute my gate bell.

Just a quick note. We found a hummingbird nest, empty already. Spring is on the corner, after the primaries.
A good day to all.  Bob Dylan sings at a tribute concert for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a different rendition of "I Shall Be Released."

So Much to Tell, So Little Time

I hate to do this, but I must leave in a few and will resume when I come back. Yesterday my day was brighter when I received my absentee ballot and voted for Hillary, number 11, I think, and against a proposition to give yet more money to SMMUSD.  That is Santa Monica-Malibu USD, the district of two schools in one and a bloated administration. If an administrator is bad, s/he gets promoted to a desk job. They used to have one pupil-free day office. Now they have two.
I don't kn ow if parents are gullible or have too much money in their hands. Why should a measure to improve the schools, meaning equipment, etc. go to a field trip, excuse me, a month-long conference for Dr.Hugo Pedroza, the CEO principal of SAMOHI? Just check the minutes of the board or go to their meetings.
SMMUSD has been asking for money since I started working there, in 1999-2000. How can a parent argue that a private school receives more funding when a public school gets a free ride from the government in contractors, materials, everything is given by the State. Furthermore, class size is small in private schools that claim excellence. No teacher in these schools can get away with excuses such as "I have too many kids." And flunk kids just at the drop of a hat. I do have to run. I will leave you the transcript of the interaction between me and the PTSA board leader. Only she can post.

On Jan 11, 2008, at 11:53 AM, Tina Oiticica Harris wrote:

Hi, Marianne:

I thought this was a bit more democratic. I posted my comment on prop. R and my mail was returned. My purpose is to stir some debate among SM denizens. Here goes it and thanks.

I voted yesterday against this measure.  Ever since I have been in  Santa Monica, either as a resident or as a teacher I have witnessed how the school district chooses to spend the money it endlessly asks for.  The money goes to the pupil-free day offices, Student Services and Ed. Services, conferences, and all kinds of stuff except the improvement of teaching and comfort of students. This district has a bloated administration and I dare you to find 80% of them at their desks in any given day. The restrictions on use of tech at SAMOHI are idiotic. Everything is upside down except salaries for admin. -- up up and away.
The day the district accounts to us voters and spends the money on kids, supplies and teachers, I'll reconsider my vote.  Since Tucker I hear SMMUSD cry the blues. This district doesn't even have a union; It has an association, for crying out loud.

I urge SM citizens to vote NO on R. There will always be another measure. In the meantime, the district can show us where the money has been going. I  know but believe you should at least be curious.

Sincerely,

Tina Harris-Rouquette, grant writer AB 1510 winner, Title VII grant co-writer and winner, Title I coordinator and teacher, teacher of the year for Edison School 1994, SI rep for the school, Math club coach and winner 4th and 5th grade, district tech rep. Retired for disability in 2000, had to fight for my health insurance with the district's person. Too many stories to tell but my lips are sealed.

Tina,
I disagree with you. Harvard Westlake, Marlborough, Windward are all charging about $40,000 a year tuition. We get $5,200 per pupil (I think) from the State - now cut by 10%.
Even if some of the money is not managed properly, the discrepancy between those who get a private-school education and a public-school education widens every year. How can our children compete without proper books, labs, computers, quality teachers, etc.
Maryanne

I'm not Dead Yeat

Tatiana, the tiger, at the San Francisco Zoo, threw more than a hissy fit getting out of her outdoor enclosure for tigers.

I, Tina Oiticica, am not dead yet. My Kitty Carslyle likes enclosures and actually stays in them without harming anyone.

Who's Afraid in the USA? I am, George, I am

Some say Edward Albee wrote George and Martha, the older couple in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" with our first president and wife in mind. I don't know about that. I love the play. We have memorized many of its lines. Call me crazy -- what else is new -- Nic, our teen son and I went to see the Broadway show this year, here in downtown Los Angeles. I could have never envisioned Kathleen Turner as an older woman. The cast and set were great. The play live fully lived up to our expectations.

Maybe I have been away from politics too long due to personal problemas. Maybe I just can't stand the way our issues are being conducted. Each time I hear a "Christian" my heart sinks. This nation seems to have become the most powerful theocracy in the world. How about the non-Christians, the pagans, the atheists, the hippies, the jews, how about everybody else who finds we have serious problemas other than chest-pounding our religious statements?

I am against policing others beliefs. George Bush, you know, the guy who has been protecting the value of the American dollar while it all but freefalls, George Bush says Jesus Christ was/is the greatest philosopher ever.  However, I cannot forget the glee with which W. told the story of a woman sentenced to death in his home state. That was so cruel, I cringed in my seat.

It's a pity the whirlwind in this world makes people lose their memory of so many important moments in our history. Especially now, when so many are shopping for Christmas, I fear the worst is yet to  come.

I am not afraid of Virginia Woolf. I am afraid for the future of my country of birth and home in the past twenty-plus years. If not God, i wish, may someone help us all.

Today is AIDS awareness day. I dislike these days devoted to causes. Everyday people should remember those who died for futile reasons: war, crime, diseases that could have been conquered by now.

Isn't it disgusting not to make one joke in a whole post? I am sorry, but I will leave you with one of the most beautiful tear-jerking songs I know, by two entertainers who know what the fight against AIDS/HIV means.

Are Teens Equal to the Baggage They Carry?

A friend and I just got off the phone. We are both USA-Brazil bicultural, living here in the USA.  We both have teens; he has a girl, I have a boy.
I've been in a foul mood. I can't seem to get my nick back, got a glimpse of the old skin of my blog, which curdled the blood in my veins. I guess I must change my name to Marie Antoinette and offer my beautifully damaged neck to the sympathy of strangers, you readers.

My friend was politely disagreeing from me regarding the behavior of teens in Brazil being worse than that of their USA Internet-iPod gizmos-to-the-infinite-power fellows.  I believe we in the USA have a funny way of teaching a minimum politesse, used when necessary. It makes more sense to me for an American kid to spend his money on gizmos than a parent in Brazil to buy a middle-class kid an iPod or any gizmo for five times the price here on a one-fifth salary there.

Maybe our bicultural nature made us pass on to our children a sense of order, work, and respect lacking elsewhere. We come from strict two-parent households; we are liberals; having sowed our wild oats, we prevent mistakes discretely. Our children know how to be charming outside the home (and hurricanes within.) I would like to believe these traits  stem from a combo of educated Americans and Brazilians who want to be parents, not buddies with their children.

The average age in Brazil is young. We are getting old. Both countries are getting chunky older girls from Malibu or Ipanema. In Brazil maids are the way to go. Here, they are a luxury. Our children know how to cook, wash, clean. There is no shame in work. One can pick up a broom and listen to the iPod; that will liberate a lot of serotonin, a strong anti-depressant.  In Brazil I was considered a torturer to have my son peel and help in cooking preparation at age nine. He doesn't have to go to Scouts to learn about survival skills, c'mon.

We acknowledge teens are being assaulted by a world we never experienced. There is too much info out there and too many sick practices I had never heard of before. I had never known of cutting, ANA-MIA, cult of suicide, anomie, heck, we have a whole generation in need of vigorous household chores workouts.  Sandy Banks, in the L.A. Times mentioned this the other day.

In the end, each child carries his own baggage. Some is innate some is learned. Some is learned at school; some at home. I am glad I am who I am, a citizen of the world. I am glad we can pass our cultural baggage to our son, my French husband and I. He is multi-cultural. America gave him strong work ethics. Southern California gives him a multi-ethnic respect  I appreciate as much as the weather, a bit chilly today, thanks for asking. Brazil gave him the charm and discipline I inherited. France gave him table manners and a je-ne-sais-pas- quoi pride only the French can have. The bubble gum is American, fer sure.

Wrong Tags, Wrong Use of Big State, RonPaul

My candidates, the woman and the Hispanic-American chubby guy are as gone from the Technorati tag world as, say, Sears' 'Your satisfaction guaranteed or your money back'.  So let's move on to the Internet sensation, Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is from Texas. Those who bothered to open the links in my piece  yesterday would have seen the platform of the GOP and of the Libertarian parties are one and the same.

What they didn't know and was an ah-ha to me was how Ron Paul would like to use Big Government money. Yep for anti-immigration and anti-abortion Big Government Big Money. That's Texas for you.

I have a great link coming up tomorrow explaining this point of view further. I was awed  and began to understand who Ron Paul's voters are. Scary.
Today I had the opportunity to rescue one more password.  Not bad in this inglorious defeat for a Jurassic blogger. Making a long story super-short I can't log in a whole bunch of places and am engineer-writing phobic.
I also found out Brazil is but a dream for us in California.  Too expensive. Now I understand why Brasileiros bitch so much. Prices are steep. The crisis is as international as "Desperate Housewives." Smirk.
So next year is a no-visit year, in which I hope I don't become a more pallid ghost in the lost reveries of my friends of my formative days in Rio de Janeiro.

So you who seek change make sure you are not voting for more of the same.

Good luck and good night.

Ron Paul, George and Ringo - Chose Me!

Won't you let me play with your money?

Aw, you all know me, Tina Oiticica at the Anarchic_Universe, a die-hard Democrat, as the header of the blog indicates. Can I confess to you I voted for Jerry Brown? Aw, You all know my Internet persona, my photos on Flickr, my family life, some of my shady past.

Won't you let me play with your money?

I can tell you I'm a Johns Hopkins CTY 1999 scholar, with more degrees than needed at this point. You know me, c'mon! You know Internet Tina, her family, her photos, even her enemies, the fakes in Google's orkut.com.  I worked hard all my life. I work moderately now at this blog as I am more plagued with ailments than a streetcorner mangy dog is plagued with mites.
I'm glad CNN woke me up to the reality of this campaign at late lunchtime. A little upset I lost my post when just ready. Who are you, people in the dark, lit by computer screens, pouring money into Ron Paul's pockets? What's your beef? Who are you anyway? This guy?
Are you this one?
You know all about me from the Internet. C'mon, folks.

Won't you let me play with your money?

It's true I support Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson.The USA needs more love than that for jeans and coca-cola right now. It's true I support Big Government. I don't have money to throw at Internet promises, I can't afford a doctor in Switzerland, or banking accounts right next to an exotic beach.  Do you know what the GOP stands for? Or the Libertarians?  Where have you all been?

Come to the streets and fight like a Street Fighting Man would. I've been casting my ballot for the lesser of two evils. Right, you are going to change the world. Before you do,

Gimme a chance. Won't you let me play with your money?

Maka Maka, Hillary and Bills

It's a bummer when lawyers are the only ones reading you. In addition, it's weird I use Firefox and all my readers are comig through Internet Explorer.
I guess I should surrender and buy a Vista (with no view) or just insist, as my nature tells me to.
Google lost nothing after losing an infinitesimal share of biz on Facebook, a kewl relationship site to Microsoft. Google just went ahead to announce Maka Maka, which reminds me of Tiki Tiki a drink at Trader Vic's a five star restaurant of the 50s. Really old for our standards here in Los Angeles.
Maka Maka makes a lot of sense. After all, Macca, the Beatle, is the only in the newspapers, tabloids, cutting deals here and there. Who wants to read about HoneyPuss in long boots Patty Boyd ?  Or Eric Clapton's pathetic confessions of plagiarism?  My source on the latter is B12 Solipsism, beware, spreading confusion on the Net since www 1.0.
I wish I had been a blogger in the 1990s instead of an educator. Then a blogger instead of a translator.  Here we are.

Maka Maka is a way of virtual life. It's a sweet surrender to Mountain View.  More than  MySpace, Orkut or FaceBook, more than the Google Bar, Maka Maka will take care of every single aspect of your life.  All we need now is love between Google and Apple.  Every time I read left click I cringe.

Hillary, my presidential candidate, also cringes at the idea of a left click. Left nada. This time she won't be the mousey brown-haired GOPer who watched Nixon's fall. She won't be the blondie feminist who adamantly declared 'I'm not the stand by your man type' while Mme. HW Bush gave away her favorite cookie recipes.

Hillary will be tough as nails, setting aside those who are in her way, kinda of like Mountain View will with Maka Maka.  One of Hill's Bills is deeply involved in his former POTUS job, his library.  Another is a bill, immigration, in which she used the best of clintonism's -- It depends on what the definition of if is.  Her bills, money amassed during the campaign, are the target of all candidates, except her key bill.  Bill Aberdeen, the one imposed by the Brits on slave ships is history. If Barack Obama couldn't stand tall against BP why would he now?

Bill Richardson, ahhh! That's my man. Rotund, Native-American, Spanish fluent, he looks just like me.  A former cabinet member for Bill