Lou Dobbs is a wannabe demagogue- nothing more, nothing less. History is littered with examples like him. People like Lou Dobbs single out a vulnerable group of people and incessantly attack them because they know that group can't fight back. Poor old Lou is trying to pander to what Nixon used to call the Silent Majority thinking that if he keeps on with is racist and xenophobic rants, they will rise up against undocumented workers. What is dangerous is that there are people who are stupid enough to believe his drivel and act on it. Lou Dobbs, the Minutemen and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) have formed a dangerous triumvirate that, if left unchecked, can turn into a juggernaut that will create more divisions in the country-something we can really do without. Also, Lou Dobbs and his sorry little foot soldiers like Kitty Pilgrim, who both insist on calling the PRC Communist China in every sentence, are nothing but rabble rousers. Yes, the PRC is communist but they're trying to start another Red Scare because Dobbs suffers from what most of the current administration suffers-Cold War Hangover. They want to go back to a time when everyone was so afraid of communism that they didn't care about how deep the military industrial complex invaded their lives and their privacy.
Lou Dobbs and his foot soldiers remind me of the media tactics used by the Nazis. The Nazis used the same media tactics in newsreels and posters to demean Jews and other people they considered "undesirable." Lou Dobbs needs to stop and be stopped. FOR SHAME!!!!

I've loved the Gipsy Kings since I heard them in India in 1992. Their music is haunting and crosses all borders. I stumbled on this awesome video on youtube.com. It is a video of Gipsy Kings and Ziggy Marley doing "One Love." I say we all sing:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AxCm9TvlVP4&mode=related&search=

Well, it's been a few weeks and I am ready to wax about Rome. After spending hours at that airline purgatory called JFK, off I went hurtling across the Pond and plopping down in Rome. A half an hour later I was at Termini with a startled look and WOWWWWW there it was-Roman ruins!
Checking into the hotel, my room was about 150 sq feet. I got lost, like I normally do in any new city, and wound up on the Via Veneto and walked over to the Spanish Steps. *Enid Blyton alert* After tea and scones at Babbington's I went to the Trevi Fountain and then stood in line for two hours outside the Museii Vaticani and then an additional hour inside just to get to the Sistine Chapel. Words cannot describe the detail and the grandeur of the Sistine Chapel. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I then mailed the obligatory postcards from the Vatican with the Vatican postmark and walked along the mighty Tiber to an enoteca or wine bar. I love Roman enotecas. You walk in have a glass or two of spumanti or chianti and then you're out and about again. :-)
Ed came in on Wednesday the 21 and we went exlporing some more. There are so many Romes to see. There is Ancient Rome, Renaissance Rome and modern Rome with its smart cars and Minis and fashionably dressed people.
The food was great. Pizza, pasta and gelati but also the Indian and Ethiopian food was amazing.
The bars and clubs were phenomenal. There was one right next to the Colisseum so when we stumbled out we stumbled past the Colisseum. Monte Testaccio is a great neighborhood. My favorite clubs were Alibi and Mucca Assassina at Qube.
The best day was Sunday when we walked around Trastevere and relaxed in the Campo de Fiori with its musicians playing American standards while we sipped cold Birra Moretti. :-)
I love Rome but it still comes a close second to Paris. :-) Rome is grand, Paris is seductive. :-)

Allors! La Macacarie est commence! My fabulous boo, Maryland Macaca, has entered the slugfest that comes about when the north/south divide is discussed. I only have one thing to add:
Hindi is not the official language of India. There are (the last time I checked) 18 official languages of which English is one. When people speak to me in Hindi in the U.S. I reply in Hindi, but with a Tom Alter accent (Tom Alter is a white Indian actor who used to get the generic evil British/European guy roles in some Hindi movies in the 80s and 90s) which seems to piss people off to no end and stops them from irritatingly insisting that Hindi is the official language.

My take on the Hindi thing: I don't give a flying fuck. I'm in America now and can manage English on a good day. Nothing good ever came out of regionalism one way or the other. I say we all hold hands and sing the following:

I'd like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves
I'd like to teach the world to singIn perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company
I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills
"Ah, peace throughout the land"
(That's the song I hear)
I'd like to teach the world to sing (that the world sings today)
In perfect harmony(Lead singer and background singers singing simultaneously)
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
Id like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves



PACE!!!

Um, we did WHAT???? Oy vey, indeed! Step in the right direction? Maybe, maybe not.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041000852.html

OMG I want to be this guy. So cool, he flies almost all of United's inaugural flights for kicks. He did a brutal 38 hours doing Dulles-Beijing and then turned around and did Beijing-Dulles. Yowww.

Roma was a dream come true. Check out the pics:

Roma, March 19-26, 2005.