Tomorrow night the women of the local congregation are having a progressive dinner. We volunteered to have the main course in our backyard. Because of this, I spent all evening trimming the edges of the grass, weeding the flower beds, raking up all of the debris, and sweeping off the brick patio. My back and neck are sore. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. Note to self: pack extra Tylenol and Ibruprofen for work!
While I was weeding, my four-year-old daughter came out and worked alongside me for a good fifteen minutes or so. I started paying attention to her when she started singing this two line phrase over and over again, like a nursery rhyme. It went something like "Picking the peas, fall on my knees." Where she came up with this is beyond me. What fascinated me was how she worked in accordance with its rhythmic tones and how it kept her going. She sang it over and again like a broken record until she was tired of pulling weeds or tired of the song. In all, there is something about children and their love for rythmn and rhyme; their love of hearing the sounds letters come off their tongue, vibrate on the roof of their mouth, or listen to the long vowels as they hang in the air in front of their mouth.
In regards to news, it has been another noisy day. I've been working a review for the new Harry Potter film, which I loved. I wanted to talk about the infamous torture memo that was written up by lawyers for Bush to use as a legal justification. Eschaton has a picture of one of the lawyers, Mary Walker, and a link to a post by Billmon about her evangical ties and how she uses that in her job for the US government.
I wanted to talk about another noteworthy article printed by Salon, titled Operation Enduring Fog by Dennis Jett. The premise of this article is that the government is trying diversionary tactics to win re-election and the war in Iraq. The cover-up strategy, Jett believes, consists of 1) controlling the message; 2) denial; 3) refusing to provide information; and 4) scare tactics. It's an important read.
Lastly, there were two eye-opening stories today on the grave situation in Sudan. The Washington Post today had a feature editorial on the genocide that has been occurring in and around Darfur. In the past year, over 30,000 have been slaughtered. The administrator of the US Agency for International Development says this figure can grow to 300,000. In a companion story, read this article printed by The Guardian: "They Came at Dawn and Killed the Men."
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