I can't decide if I should go to the funeral. I had kind of decided I couldn't do it, but then I woke up early this morning from one of those horrible nightmares where you are racing to get somewhere you never arrive. And I was trying to get some friend of my parents who was kind of like Eddie Izzard to get me to the DC airport so I could catch a flight to make it to the funeral, only I'm not even in DC right now and my parents would be very unlikely to be friends with anyone who was anything like Eddie Izzard.
I really don't like mortality.
There is something wrong about funerals. Like the person you are going to see won't really be there.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Morbid
I used to look forward to autumn every year. The last four years in a row, however, I've had a death in the family around this time of year. Every damn year. If I never pick up for my mother calling before noon again, will my family live longer?
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Thanks!
I have a leather jacket and preserves from someone with extraordinary taste in spreadables. Thanks, baby! :-) Next time, I promise to go barefoot in your garden. Topiary pets rule.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Kellie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thursday, September 15, 2005
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Profiteering Creeps, Good Charities, Pain & Optimism
It really bugs the hell out of me when there are people who try to profit off of something like the Katrina disaster. I'm talking about the sort of people who ask you to buy their products and they will donate a portion of profits. Note that most of this profiteers offer a % of profits and not actual gross proceeds. Then they just make enough expenses that there are no profits. Most of them do not have real businesses either i.e. they are thinking of throwing a club night or making arts and crafts or something and, despite lack of experience in that arena, asking other people to support their fledgling business because, although they are not a registered charity, they are planning to give later. Yeah, right.
If a genuine going concern of a business decides to donate part of a regular ongoing profit stream, I think that is decent if they are doing it that way just to make sure they are giving what they can afford. If they are doing it to make people buy their products, I think that is vile.
A Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance spokesperson pointed out that, even if the middleman asking you to give through them is legit, the middleman is taking a skim. If you want to give, you should give directly to the charity.
I'd like to add that of course giving directly to someone you know needs help makes sense too. For example, a lot of people in the Houston gothic scene are providing temporary housing to people from the New Orleans scene. There is a town in I believe Tennessee where the local churches and suchlike basically paired local families with their counterparts from a stricken town so that people were assisting each other on a personal and direct level.
You should research what charities you want to support. Besides the BBB folks, Charity Navigator the guide for intelligent giving has a specific guide for the Katrina disaster at this link. None of these is a be-all-end-all instruction manual, but I think they have good tips.
The following is the list of charities I have been supporting:
I think that housing is going to be a really important issue for recovery. I believe the people who run this charity truly intend to do good and have a track record of success.
This is a service created by MoveOn.org for the purpose of matching up people able to put up victims of the storm with people who need a place to stay for a while. I think this is a wonderful and immediate concept to help with the immediate problem. Those donating housing can state preferences for who they would be most able to give shelter and support to i.e. gender, children, families, orphans, pets, smokers, nonsmokers, etc. Those seeking housing get an intuitive interface for searching by location and so forth.
I know some people oppose their Christian message, but I think the Salvation Army actually embodies a lot of the good love-thy-neighbor stuff which the political Christians have robbed the religion of in the public eye. I saw the Salvation Army spokesperson on CNN and was impressed with his compassion. Can't say the same for everyone I saw speak during my compulsive news-watching this past week.
Again, I was impressed by the spokesperson for America's Second Harvest on CNN. Obviously figuring out how to get food shipped to people is an immediate need and these people have a track record for doing this successfully.
I'm incredibly impressed with everything Magic Johnson has been doing as well, although the Magic Johnson Foundation is not specifically a Katrina charity. For example, he has been feeding the displaced at his Burger Kings and giving them new shoes to replace the disease-ridden cardboard some people have been walking around in. A bunch of other stuff too. I feel good that it seems like the majority of people really do want to see the right things done and so many are helping in the ways available to them.
What charities do you all like and why?
If a genuine going concern of a business decides to donate part of a regular ongoing profit stream, I think that is decent if they are doing it that way just to make sure they are giving what they can afford. If they are doing it to make people buy their products, I think that is vile.
A Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance spokesperson pointed out that, even if the middleman asking you to give through them is legit, the middleman is taking a skim. If you want to give, you should give directly to the charity.
I'd like to add that of course giving directly to someone you know needs help makes sense too. For example, a lot of people in the Houston gothic scene are providing temporary housing to people from the New Orleans scene. There is a town in I believe Tennessee where the local churches and suchlike basically paired local families with their counterparts from a stricken town so that people were assisting each other on a personal and direct level.
You should research what charities you want to support. Besides the BBB folks, Charity Navigator the guide for intelligent giving has a specific guide for the Katrina disaster at this link. None of these is a be-all-end-all instruction manual, but I think they have good tips.
The following is the list of charities I have been supporting:
I think that housing is going to be a really important issue for recovery. I believe the people who run this charity truly intend to do good and have a track record of success.
This is a service created by MoveOn.org for the purpose of matching up people able to put up victims of the storm with people who need a place to stay for a while. I think this is a wonderful and immediate concept to help with the immediate problem. Those donating housing can state preferences for who they would be most able to give shelter and support to i.e. gender, children, families, orphans, pets, smokers, nonsmokers, etc. Those seeking housing get an intuitive interface for searching by location and so forth.
I know some people oppose their Christian message, but I think the Salvation Army actually embodies a lot of the good love-thy-neighbor stuff which the political Christians have robbed the religion of in the public eye. I saw the Salvation Army spokesperson on CNN and was impressed with his compassion. Can't say the same for everyone I saw speak during my compulsive news-watching this past week.
Again, I was impressed by the spokesperson for America's Second Harvest on CNN. Obviously figuring out how to get food shipped to people is an immediate need and these people have a track record for doing this successfully.
I'm incredibly impressed with everything Magic Johnson has been doing as well, although the Magic Johnson Foundation is not specifically a Katrina charity. For example, he has been feeding the displaced at his Burger Kings and giving them new shoes to replace the disease-ridden cardboard some people have been walking around in. A bunch of other stuff too. I feel good that it seems like the majority of people really do want to see the right things done and so many are helping in the ways available to them.
What charities do you all like and why?
WTF?
It is starting to sound like FEMA was worse than ineffective; they were actually damaging. They reportedly stopped Wal-Mart shipments of water and turned away fuel and boats and, according to the following video, even sabotaged communication systems. WTF?
At this link and this torrent mirror
This is just so much worse than merely not mobilizing on time or efficiently. How could FEMA or anyone human block other people from mobilizing help? I just can't imagine what goes through someone's head when they stop someone from handing a bottle of water to someone who is dying of dehydration. I'm no bleeding heart, but Broussard sure as hell does not come across as one either. It makes me so sick and angry and I can't even imagine how it must have been and still is for people down there sworn to help.
At this link and this torrent mirror
This is just so much worse than merely not mobilizing on time or efficiently. How could FEMA or anyone human block other people from mobilizing help? I just can't imagine what goes through someone's head when they stop someone from handing a bottle of water to someone who is dying of dehydration. I'm no bleeding heart, but Broussard sure as hell does not come across as one either. It makes me so sick and angry and I can't even imagine how it must have been and still is for people down there sworn to help.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Outrage
I am having trouble getting anything done. I normally avoid the news, except for Jon Stewart (even though I think Anderson Cooper is one sexy boy), but I can't stop watching CNN this week. I am so appalled at how long it has taken to send the proper help. The reports of volunteers being turned away from troublespots make me sick. Everyone from private US citizens to foreign governments to the Salvation Army have been stopped from rendering aid. I don't even understand how there is aid which couldn't get there from our own American government resources. That people were stopped from helping just makes me so angry, makes me feel so impotent. I am so digesting my stomach lining. The handling of the Katrina disaster is such a travesty even the newscasters on FOX and CNN are taking over the job of shouting at the TV for us. I just found out that the last of my personal friends from NOLA showed up more or less okay yesterday. That is some relief, but, as a patriot and a human being, I am still so angry and so sad. I normally make it a policy not to post about anything remotely political online. But most of what I've been doing since this happened in watching news on TV and the web and reading message board and journal posts about it and making posts myself which I normally wouldn't, but this is just too much. How could this happen in America?
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