There are some days ....

You know, there are some days when getting out of bed just isn't worth it. Paul received a dawn phone call from his girlfriend Siti in Singapore telling him that her uncle had died. While she was here, he was taken ill and the past 6 weeks have been really hard on her and her family. After her own father passed away, this uncle was intimately involved in the raising of Siti and her sisters, so its like she lost her father all over again. Our love, thoughts and prayers are with her and hers in this time of sorrow. Paula was also raised by her uncle (and also her mother who died last year) and knows what's its like to lose such a strong influence.

After that call, it was hard to go back to bed, so up we got, meeting each other in the hall, where along with the cats, we sort of had a moment of silence and hoped that all would be well with Siti in Singapore.

Then we came down and read all the news and emails and Paula started to make a beeline back to bed! After seeing all the headlines in the NY Times, checking out CNN and then getting a note from TrueMajority Action, she felt as if her entire belief system was under fire. You all know of course that the Patriot Act has a provision that allows the Fehbiies (FBI in Paulaspeak) to get a secret court order to secretly confiscate library and bookstore records and that no one can tell the subject of the search that the search is being conducted without going to jail. Last year, a brave congressman got this heinous piece of legislation overturned and there was much rejoicing. Of course the heinous leadership in the House (Delay and Hasstert) managed to declare that the voting was not over, and armtwisted and hammered their party members so that the already passed law awas overturned. Well, Congressman Sanders ia again trying to get this wicked provision that saps at our very liberty and core of our sense of who we are as a people, overturned again. We are betting that the ex-exterminator from Texas, with the ethics problems, will again try to brandish his hammer and strike at the core of liberty again. Its enough to make you sick. We urge everyone to got to http://action.truemajority.org/campaign/Freedom_to_Read_Act
and sigh a petition to be allowed to read, we'd really appreciate it.

So far, its been a really stressful day. Perhaps tomorrow will be better, meanwhile, it might just be a good idea to go back to bed and start over again!