"Good Neighbor" policy?

More from the BBC's excellent website about the Secure Fence Act of 2006, just signed into law by President Bush yesterday:

Both the outgoing President Vicente Fox and the President-elect Felipe Calderon of Mexico are united in condemning the new law, calling it "shameful", and "a grave mistake".

Mexico has will challenge the fence at the United Nations, and two days ago presented a declaration against the policy to the Organization of American States ("OAS"). It is supported by 27 other Latin American and Caribbean nations, but opposed by the U.S.

Isn't it apparent to all but the most absolute of isolationists and similarly minded ostriches how very wrong this law is?

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

From Robert Frost's 1915 poem, "Mending Wall".

Dr. Gurtov at BAUUC!

Alice and I went to BAUUC, our church, Unitarian Universalits, of Bay Area, to listen to a
great speaker, Dr. Mel Gurtov, PhD. He spoke on Bush's Crusade and American foreign policy.

I had the chance to chat with him about fear-mongering and the Nazi-style proganda that the Bush government espouses. Too bad many Americans don't understand that American foreign policy is too evangelical, and god really does not favor certain nations over others. He, Dr. Gurtov, understood the impact of AIPAC the PNAC and the crux of the problem in the Middle East.

We favor Israel, to our detriment and to the detriment of peace in the Middle East.

I suppose the majority of Americans are isolationists, and as long as fear and ignorance reign in the US, congress will pass laws to build walls just to create more fear and play into the hands of the neocons.

See article from BBC about:

US President George W Bush has signed into law a plan for 700 miles (1,125km) of new fencing along the US-Mexico border, to curb illegal immigration.

What stupidity!!!

Jim completes Chicago Marathon!!

As Alex, the kids and I were here, celebrating Alex's birthday, pics are up on
link, by the way, Jim ran the Chicago Marathon!!

It's his seventh or eighth marathon, and he said it's freezing in Chicago!

Congrats, Jim!!!

Boys, boys, boys~

Sat. night was fun, fun, fun. With lots of boys, 15 year olds.

Alex was celebrating his birthday with Ian, Chase, Dillan, Harris,
Albert, Allan and Russel. First, we ordered pizzas... then we ordered
more pizzas...

and more food, went to Krogers and got Doritos, Cheesy Puffs, candy, Coke
Sprite, Harris wanted Vault(too much caffeine, high energy drink)... NOT.

We were up until 4 am, they had promised to go to bed at 2 am...

and Ian was the first one up... climbs through the window!! instead of opening the
door, and making noise, as there were Mardi Gras bead on the handle. So... instead
of taking the beads off quietly, he climbs through the window!!!

Actuallly, I enjoyed talking to them, and had a fun night!! I was going to go to dinner and leave
them unattended for a couple of hours... again, if anything happened to them, I would have felt too guilty. Plus, I would have been worried the whole time.

UNT at TLA District 8 on Saturday

Mary hosted a great District 8 Fall Meeting, at Pin Oak Middle School, 4601 Glenmont,Bellaire, Texas 77401...

She and the rest of the team, Stephen Ring, Lynn, Mary, Ty and all the others hosted a well attended meeting early on a Saturday morning.

Now, who knew Glenmont was some obscure little road off 610??! Luckily, we were told to look for HCC, and it, Pin Oak, was right across the street. I wandered around Bellaire for a good 10-15 minutes prior to finding ... Glenmont.

UNT was well represented among the presenters and audience. Alex and Athena represented our school, will post pics tomorrow on the Picassa web album... if the boys go to sleep!!!

Susan Chandler, Banglian, Bigwood, Susan B., Kim, Sara Holland... Rosaelana had our UNT lunch table quite full!! David B's Catalogablog was of worthy mention during Steven's Ring's presention: Professional Development with RSS, How can a busy librarian stay up to date? Learn how RSS aggregators like Bloglines can help you monitor professional blogs, web sites, and magazines.

Well, my UNT peeps, we must meetup again...how about Brazil or Black Lab?

and... we got our UNT office at UH!! It's hidden somewhere on the fifth floor!! Isn't that exciting?

I took pictures of most of the presenters and will be downloading to Picassa sooooon.

Alex, my 15 year old, is hosting a birthday party LAN. Luckily, one of his friends, Chase, has a hub and 50 foot ethernet cable, so they eventually got everyone up. Right now, only one is asleep, and they're all supposed to be in bed by: 2 am!!

It's going to be a late night, this new moon night...

Flood in yard!!!

Woke up to the sound of running water... and was 6 am??!

Alex could be up and in the shower? NOT...

Turns out the water pressure was low, Alex ended up taking his shower,
as I ran outside... to see a stream just pouring out the side of our house.

Checked the water main, and couldn't figure out how to shut it off?! Called the
Water Utility, and they were going to send someone over to do it. I just told them
I could figure out what a crescent wrench was, and turn it 45 degrees clockwise and
shut off the main myself.

So, called the plumber, Butch, and he worked on it for 2 hours, as the leak was at the
joint, and water would just pour into the hole he dug. Off to Home Depot to get a pump,
75$, and got the super saturated ground cleared of water and... water was hooked back up!!

Chai yo! (Hurray, in Thai)

Evil Dr. Nagy!

Tried to recover x-rays from my dentist, an Egyptian in Clear Lake, and...he
would not relinquish my x-rays, insisted I take another set!

I don't like excessive exposure to x-rays, so I threatened to call the cops on him,
for refusing to give me my medical records!

Needless to say, I was in and out of there in 10 minutes, but... I had to pay 30 bucks for
the priviledge of getting my own x-rays, which I had taken 2 in one week.

My preferred dentist, Dr. Levin mentioned x-rays can be taken out of the office, as one can
interpret keeping records in one's office for two years less rigidly, and let them out for a couple
of hours to another licensed dentist!

I will not be darkening the doorstep of Dr. Nagy, Nevermore, quoth the Poomster, Nevermore!!

Big Boom!!

On the way home from Galveston, my new Chevy Cobalt was hit by a flying piece
of debris. I heard a loud explosion, and found out my rear passenger window was completely
cracked up to little pieces. The change in air pressure really scared me, so did the loud boom
and heavy rain.

It was raining hard, and I couldn't see the license plate of the cement truck zooming by me!

Giving chase for a license plate number in the heavy rain did not seem to be a good idea. So,
my double nemesis city, Dickinson, site of previous speeding ticket, last month, was bad karma for me once again. I pulled into the police station, of which I am quite familiar, and told the dispatcher I needed to file a report. I figured the insurance company might need some proof. The darn dispatcher proceeded to berate me about leaving the scene of the accident, and I had to resort to detailed interrogation on what exactly she wanted me to do, on a state highway, in the middle of a thunderstorm!! Needless to say, she proceeded to send out the officer, under my harsh line of questioning.

Thank goodness the officer was informative, and gave me an incident report number, and advised me to just pay for the glass myself, as such an accident could be detrimental to my insurance rates!

I returned to Clear Lake, shaken, and drove right to my dealership. My salesman offered to go with me to the service area, and the guy there implied I was out of line for questioning whether Chevy Cobalts have had problems with implosions due to temperture changes. Really, these service people need to get used to severe interrogation!!!

Jim told me the charge would be way too much, and not to leave it at the dealership! He was right, it cost us 150 dollars, and the dealership wanted 300. He took care of the window the next day, as the window specialist, and got the car back in time for....South Lake, Dallas, Alex's tennis tournament!

More on the Dallas/Fort Worth weekend... close to Denton, home of UNT and all things SLIS!

Pictures?

Bluebonnets in Spring, on the way to Champ Tournament in San Antonio, with Alex and Jim.

May 2006

October Birthdays!

Jimbo is off to Huntsville, and Alex and I are busy with... tennis!

Had a birthday, got a Picassa account, and need Dad to post on my blog...

I turned 42, got a great job, and ... miss UH Libraries.

Met Jhim, from Thailand on the phone, and will meet up with her on Loi Kratong, next
Full Moon.

TLA District 8, in Bellaire is on this weekend, will be fun to meet-up with my UNT peeps.

First post in... a long time... 6 months!

Wasdee,

Poom