One of my favorite things is to read the Sunday New York Times while listening to jazz in the afternoon, which is what I did today; but with the online version of the Times since the real thing is just not available here in Homer. I usually find at least one article that causes me to froth at the mouth and jump up and down. Sometimes I go on long "no news is good news" vacations from being informed about world events so that I can be a more calm and peaceful person. Today's frother is
QUOTATION OF THE DAY: "Has anybody else had to watch their husband die on television over and over? I know that it's public and I know that it's national, but it's so private for me." Evelyn Husband, the widow of Rick Husband, who died on the space shuttle Columbia.
And to Mrs. Husband I would say, I am sad for your loss, and the public nature of that loss, but thousands of people have had to watch their husbands and wives die on television over and over again on September 11 and then again and again each time footage from that day is broadcast. And Rick Husband volunteered for his work on the space shuttle Columbia.
Done frothing for now, except to say that everyone needs to read Salman Rushdie's brilliant editorial about rape in Pakistan and India. A small excerpt:
Pakistan, however, has little to be proud of. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that there were 320 reported rapes in the first nine months of last year, and 350 reported gang rapes in the same period. The number of unreported rapes is believed to be much larger. The victim pressed charges in only one-third of the reported cases, and a mere 39 arrests were made. The use of rape in tribal disputes has become, one might say, normal. And the belief that a raped woman's best recourse is to kill herself remains widespread and deeply ingrained.
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