Author: Ruby Sinreich

Here’s the Durham Herald-Sun’s fluff peice about my friend Jon, recently returned from Iraq after nearly being killed:
“Marine’s spirit still intact after part of arm lost.” Not particularly impressive reporting, but what do you expect from Paxton Media’s latest victim?

A colleague just called me and was looking for someone to do a pretty major website for a foundation project in North Carolina. Since the program is intended to empower women, people of color, and young people, they are hoping to find someone who falls into at least one of those categories to do the web site. The sad thing is, I couldn’t think of anyone meeting those criteria who I would refer a friend to!

I hope I am just forgetting about some great resource. Does anyone have a suggestion? If you would liek to make a reccomendation, leave a comment with your suggested web developer (person or company) and include a link to their portfolio.

I was listed on Jewish Blogniks except I was in the non-Jew section! But I’m not complaining, the section was called “some outstanding bloggers of the known universe.” I guess on the Internet, no-one can tell you’re a Jew.

I was pretty excited to find in this list of jewish blogs Dear Bubbie and Zadie. I had my own Bubbie (my grandfather’s mother) and Sadie (her cousin, I think). They went from New York to Miami Beach every winter to stay at the Surfcomber (way before South Beach was cool – or expensive). Bubbie lived to be over 100! Anyway, this other Bubbie and Zadie (not mine) answer letters from kids who want to write to someone other than Santa Claus. Right on.

Daniel Halevi Bloom, a freelance editor and reporter, invented these Jewish grandparents (the names are Yiddish for Grandma and Grandpa) in 1983 to bring Hanukkah alive for children, particularly those without living grandparents. Back then the medium was snail mail, but Mr. Bloom reckons that today’s Bubbie and Zadie are e-mail users.

I don’t understand it, but I find 43 Things fascinating and engaging. It’s social software that aggregates and rates people’s personal goals. But why?

I only have 22 things so far.

I was just on national radio again ! (Last time) In my moments of weakness (i.e.: when I turn on NPR) I sometimes listen to this show “On Point” which takes a more thoughtful and in-depth look at current events than the headline-driven news. Today’s topic: is there a credibility gap in the mainstream media? Short answer: well, duh.

It was actually pretty cool that one of the guests asked me to stay on the line and questioned why I would trust some crazy people on the Internet instead of professional information gatherers. I spoke about the authenticity of blogs’ first-person voices and the fact that we are unable to trust the media when even the New York Times parroted the Pentagon’s B.S. about Iraq (OK, not in so many words). I talked about the value of openly-partisan press and the lie of “objectivity.” After that point, I had trouble getting a word in edgewise which was very frustrating. (I noticed that a female guest later on the program had the same problem. Grr.)

The last word I wanted to have was this: Do you trust your friends? Do you listen to them more than you do a stranger? Do you trust them more than a TV news anchor or an actor in a commercial? I know which bloggers are my friends, and I don’t trust institutions that rely on advertising revenue to give me unbiased facts.

So kudos to WBUR for putting the show’s archive online immediately. (Hint, hint, WUNC.) Click here to listen to it in your choice of audio formats. I start at 27 minutes in, and go for about 3 minutes. If you listen to it, let me know what you think.

So I was reading Wonkette talking about the brave actions of a few congressional democrats who challenged the legitimacy of the November presidential election. This was a symbolic move that we all knew would not change the outcome. The few of us who still have any principles feel that it is important to raise your voice on critical issues even when you know you won’t get your way.

If you saw Fahrenheit 9/11, then you will recall that a number of African American congresspeople also tried to challenge the 2000 election results, which were way more questionable than this year’s (the Republicans appear to be getting better at covering their tracks and controlling the media). Although at least a dozen black Represenatives spoke against the results, not a single member of the Senate would stand up and do so, which was required for their challenge to be heard. It was an embarrasment for the entire Democratic party (in retrospect) that they left those brave Representatives flapping and didn’t have the balls to stand up for free and fair elections in this country.

Well I wrote all that to tell you this: when it came time to certify this recent election, a challenge was raised again. This time a Senator stood up to join the challenge! It was Senator Barbara Boxer (she’s not bad for a Democrat) and she specifically cited Fahrenheit 9/11’s documentation of Democratic cowardice in her decision to not be a chicken this time. Wonkette wrote: “Election certified after rare objection voiced by Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Boxer; Boxer, inspired by Michael Moore, regrets not objecting in 2000. ”

Hurrah for activist documentaries! You can have an impact – don’t give up hope.

In addition to the death and dismemberment of my family and friends that I reported yesterday, I just learned that my grandmother is in intensive care since her body apparently decided breathing on it’s own was getting a little too hard. She probably won’t be able to return to independent living when she gets out of the hospital this weekend. This means the Sinreiches are ramping up the search for assisted living facilities ASAP. If you know of any good ones, preferably in or near the Bronx, let me know. We would be especially happy to find one with a good number of of progressive residents so she’ll have someone to talk to. Are there any Old Socialist Homes out there?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my friend whose right arm was blown off in Iraq on Saturday. My initial relief that he is coming home alive is fading and I am starting to get really upset about the idea. I am picturing him without most of the arm, thinking about all the lost opportunities… he’s the same age as me! It’s so awful.
Thank goodness he is an engineer and mostly works with his brain. I know he won’t let this get in the way of personal or professional acheivement.

Even though I disagreed with his reasons for joining the Marines (before 9/11), and with our country’s reasons for going to war, this still should never happen to anyone. And yet it does happen, every day. More Americans – and even more Iraqis – are dying senselessly every damn day. This has to stop. I’m so sick of it.

Anyway… in spite of all this, the weather continues to give me a reason to live. (No seriously, maybe I should be depressed but I’m not. Don’t worry.)

Damn, I have a lot things to blog about right now. I’m going to take a brief interlude from my own personal tragedies and frustrations to think about the five million victims of the biggest natural disaster of our time. I have been wanting to do something to help, but couldn’t find an effort or organization that I really trusted to do the right thing. A fellow Chapel Hill activist (whose family I have known for about 10 years) is from India and she has the on-the-ground scoop. I am going to send money to the National Alliance of People’s Movements, which she mentions here:

I just got this news about a friend of mine who is a Marine officer:

He was injured in an ambush in Iraq on New Years Day, and has lost his right hand and part of the forearm, with potential for loss of the elbow joint. Currently he’s in Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, and we’re hopeful he’ll be headed to Bethesda on Wednesday and subsequently to Duke where a leading specialist in muscle reconstruction and limb salvage has agreed to operate. I asked him if he was feeling bummed and he replied that he was just feeling lucky to be alive, since the guy standing next to him is dead.

His wife is in med school and they have an infant child. Every few days I have been thinking of him and am shocked every time to picture him there in what must be the most dangerous place in the world right now. (Except near the Indian Ocean last month. Talk about the end times…) I have been very afraid that he was going to die, so this dismemberment is actually a relief to me! How fucked up is that?

In other bad news, my uncle passed away 2 days ago after a long battle with cancer, and my stepfather has just been diagnosed. Let’s hope we are just getting 2005’s death and destruction out of the way early. From now on it’ll be smooth sailing… or else maybe we’ll never see 2006 (or wish we hadn’t).

The Google 2004 Zeitgeist (“a cumulative snapshot of interesting queries people are asking”) reveals a lot about human nature. This may answer some questions for people who wonder how the President got elected. For example: