But of course.

( image )

You are the most worshipped goddess in all of Egypt.
You are a great protector, a mother type.
People appeal to you for guidance and
direction. You fight for what you love, and
rarely take no for an answer. You are Isis.


Which Ancient Egyptian Diety are you?
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Here's what I've been looking for.

U.S. allies voice disgust at abuse

(no subject)

I have a friend at work who is trying to stop smoking. He's on the patch and has gone more than a week without smoking. I'm very proud of him and try to give him encouragement every day.

His SO, however, seems to be resentful that he's giving up the habit. (This stems mainly from the fact that he bums cigs off of my friend and has since the beginning of this year.) My friend has told his SO that he doesn't have to give up smoking, just don't smoke around him and don't leave cigarettes in the house, or he'll destroy them.

Apparently they were having an argument yesterday (they argue a lot, actually) and so his SO gets a cigarette and puts it in his mouth, basically taunting my friend, parading around the house. I couldn't believe that when I heard the story. I said, "Did you take it out of his mouth and stomp on it?" He said that he took a pair of scissors and snipped it while it was still in his SO's lips. "Good," I said.

Jesus Christ. I said, "If you were an alcoholic, he wouldn't leave alcohol all around the house!" My friend gave me a look that said Don't be so sure.

Oh, that just burns me up.

Trust us.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg raised the issue of torture.

“Suppose the executive says, `Mild torture, we think, will help get this information,’” Ginsburg said to Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement. “Some systems do that to get information.”

“Well, our executive doesn't,” Clement replied. “And I think the fact that executive discretion in a war situation can be abused is not a good and sufficient reason for judicial micromanagement in overseeing of that authority. You have to recognize that in situations where there is a war, where the government is on a war footing, that you have to trust the executive.”

“Trust the executive” may be a slogan more difficult for the justices to accept in the wake of the Abu Ghraib events.

Will prison flap influence high court cases?

Confession #6

Fly with me, fly by me,
I don't care. Take the tongue
from my mouth, fill me
with aerosol lucidity. My tongue

doesn't matter. A hummingbird
will fill my throat and hover
where my voice once stood, heard
but not heard, drawn yet uncovered.

*

The sun frets. I tear
at my frayed shirt, aroused
by the raggedness there.

I am a stranger to water.
My tongue is boundless, my mouth
is false shelter. I lick the cloud,
the coming storm. I pick
at my flagging skin. What
a human shirt! What monstrosity!
I swallow an oasis of dirt.
I strip to my bones. The hummingbirds
nest in my organs. They seek the drought.

*

I lap at my lips. There is water there,
below my nose, such a strange
reservoir, the channel of curved skin,

the tongue settling there like a raft.
There is a drink of self, a bleed
of sweat, an anguished spot of rain

drenching the cheeks. The sun isn't real.
The sky retreats, and the hummingbirds
with it, revealing a mouth of sand.

let the army wash your brain

Experts: 9/11 Vengeance Fed Iraq Abuse

As U.S. forces surged through the desert to topple Saddam Hussein, slogans and symbols referring to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, made clear that a spirit of anti-terrorism vengeance infused the ranks.

"Let's Roll" was a common battle cry, evoking the defiant passengers aboard one of the planes hijacked in those attacks. Soldiers displayed flags from Ground Zero and images of the World Center's twin towers.

More than a year after Saddam's ouster, no proof of his ties to Al Qaida or Sept. 11 has materialized. Some skeptics suggest that the avenging rhetoric and imagery instead may have fostered an atmosphere conducive to the maltreatment of Iraqis who had no connection whatever to international terrorism.

Curt Goering, deputy executive director of Amnesty International-USA, said the Bush administration bears some responsibility for blurring the lines between Sept. 11 and the Iraq war.

"The tone that was set, all the way to the top, and the climate in which these soldiers operated was an invitation to this kind of abuse," Goering said.