So long books!

Atlast! I thought the day would never come when I decide to toss out books I didn’t want/need/use anymore.  I was able to clear out three big bags of books, roughly the equalivelent of four of of the shelves shown above. I gave one bag to a friend and the rest I put outside for the community take whatever they want. I tossed out a good number of cook books, time sensitive books (i.e. java, windows, explorer manuals), and a few health/diet/alternative medicine ones. After I did the books, I went ahead and completely rearranged the furniture and tossed out the old tv set, computer desk (the computer is now in the bookhelf that was cleared out!), and some old toys.

Who has started their spring cleaning?

International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day, Ladies & Gentlemen!

Queen Rania calls on women to use their voices.

The Audacity of Help

The Audacity of Help: Raising Children the First World Way

The women in the village where I lived had an amazingly disproportionate amount of work in comparison with the men. Women often worked outside of the home, farming as a way to supplement the family income, combined with numerous household responsibilities and no modern technology to make their jobs easier. Despite all of these challenges, the women didn’t rush through life as mothers in the US do, and they quite comfortably lived by an internal motto that said, “I can only do what I can do in one day and the rest is for tomorrow.” There was no sense of urgency to supersaturate their lives or the lives of their children. What surprised me the most was that they accepted willingly and openly the fact that they couldn’t do it all by themselves and were comfortable exposing that vulnerability to others.

If ever there was a motto for me, it would be, “I can only do what I can do in one day and the rest is for tomorrow.” Certainly the stress of the modern woman’s life is inevitable, but if we can slow down for just a minute, savour each moment, and really taste life, we’ll be more at peace.

Midwifery Under Attack

An issue has arisen in Olympia that threatens to end licensed midwifery in Washington State almost immediately. We need your urgent help to make sure this does not happen.

Midwives and Birth Centers in Washington State can obtain Professional Liability Insurance from only one place: the JUA. The JUA was set up by state law in 1994, and is funded primarily through midwife premiums. Senate Bill 5588 has a list of State Boards and Commissions that will be shut down as part of cost-cutting efforts, and for hard-to-fathom reasons, they’ve included the JUA in that list despite the fact that the JUA receives no state funding of any kind.

Without the JUA, midwives will not be able to get liability coverage, and therefore their services will not be covered by your health insurance. This will put midwives and birth centers immediately out of business.

We need you to call and email your representatives and senators in Olympia TODAY to tell them that this move will cost far more money than it saves, whilst also eliminating a much needed resource for women and their families. A recent Department of Health study found that midwives save the state $250,000 per year, and (if you include private insurance too) that number climbs to $1.3million per year. So clearly it makes no sense to eliminate midwifery in the pursuit of saving money.

Click here to find who your legislators are: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx

Please forward this email widely. It is going to take a lot of voices to get this bill altered.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Modern Women as Imperialists

From the chapter entitled “Modern Women as Imperalists: Geopolitics, Culture Clash, and Gender after 9/11″ in Sherene Razack’s Casting Out: The Evistion of Muslims from Western Law and Politics, here are a few quotes:

The imperialist feminist desire to emancipate the Muslim woman is part of a ssystem based on the disciplining and normalizing gaze of modern colonial disciplinary power. – Meyda Yegenoglu

The modern woman is first and foremost an imperialist. – Rosemary M. George

Culture clashes were essential to the success of racial myths, for through-out history the foreiger outside the tribe has never been truly welcome. – George L. Mosse.

awww.. he feels bad.

Excuse me if I fail to have one ounce of sympathy.

CSIS mole,  spy, entrapment artist, (among otherthings!!) says he “feels bad. “

URGENT: TAKE ACTION TODAY!

URGENT: Please phone MPs to stop the deportation of war resisters

URGENT: TAKE ACTION TODAY!
January 22 is National Phone-in Day

The Canadian government has ordered two US Iraq War resisters, Chris Teske and Cliff Cornell, to leave Canada against their will the week of January 23. Three other resisters and their families ­ Kimberly Rivera, Patrick Hart and Dean Walcott ­ are expected to be ordered to leave the following week.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney have refused to listen to Canada’s Parliament, to the Courts and to a majority of Canadians who have said these deportations must stop.

Good news for the Toronto 18?

The Star reports:

Part of a law governing national security has been declared unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court judge in the high-profile terror case of the Toronto 18, amid concerns that the case risks becoming “unmanageable” and could result in a mistrial.

I’ll definately be watching for more news.