Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

I’ve sat at my desk over the past couple of weeks and watched the season change. The tree outside my window has now lost all of it’s leaves. The one across the street- it held on for the longest time but now, it too is bare.

It’s getting colder. Trips to the dog park (first thing in the am and then around 5) are getting much colder. The fact that Belle doesn’t want to play, a fact that should be upsetting me, is beginning to matter less and less. I don’t have to freeze for over an hour a day? O-K!

Since the weather is still up and down, I am still running in shorts. Since I’m still cold from yesterday’s run (I've been running 9-11 km every other day with breaks for hill training anf long runs, thank you) I’m thinking it’s time to buy new tights. I’m so cheap... I don’t mind spending money on things, goodness knows, but tights, lets face it- they’re two pieces of nylon (uhh- sorry, technical fabric) sewn together. Paying more than $40? seems like a rip off. Especially because they don’t flatter, aren’t that comfortable and are more a necessity than anything. But, I should be thankful- Ottawa’s great to run in this time of year.

So, that's me. Writing a paper on parental responsibility legislation and watching the seasons change.

ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strain
ch-ch- changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Turn and face the stranger
ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
- David Bowie

Believe it or not, this was played to us at the beginning of term and the prof (I know I've told most you this story) was very kindly saying- it's going to get rough, buckle up and enjoy it. and I, in my 5 cent wisdom believed I was invincible or- something- from all of this. Anyway, tough time of year- having the time of my life. see ya

NEXT TIME: first term review! exciting updates! recipes and hot fashion tips! or something...

My Conscience

We all have friends that fill different needs or places in our hearts. My friend Derek is my conscience. I met him a couple of years ago while living in Montreal. I was working a crappy job (I know! which one?) but in the office space next door were some really cool women. Simone was one of them. So, I got to know Simone and she introduced me to her boyfriend Derek, and they quickly became two of my favorite people.
They are political and fun and non stop talkers and keep me on my toes. Because of them I felt more comfortable with activism in Montreal (albeit in a limited way) and- I found my calling as a Radical Cheerleader at the WTO protests. Thanks, guys.
They're now engaged and going to be married soon. Yahoo!

Derek sent me the piece below via email this morning and I wanted as many people to see it as possible. The war in Iraq is a human tragedy that's getting worse by the day. It's about people's lives and the destruction of several nations (the US being one of them). The lies must end. I get so angry at those who pretend this isn't our problem: WILFULL IGORANCE WILL NOT SAVE YOU. So- pass this along, cry, get angry, challenge me, challenge those who allow this to happen (the Liberal government of Canada being one - I'm looking at you Paul Martin), challenge our economic system that covets oil, the politcal system that allows the continuation of the war machine, read and research the facts, don't allow yourself to be passive. Above all, do something. That's all.

A caveat: I chose not to see the videos, reading the articles were enough. This is a cut and paste from a mass email-

Subject: U.S. Used Chemical Weapons in Iraq

Ironic that the first pretext for this unjust war was based on the
illegality of supposed weapons of mass destruction held by Iraq; the very
sorts of weapons the United States have now used in Fallujah. I don't know
what kind of media coverage this will get, so pass it on far and wide.

Two news articles follow, and three photos of civilian victims of
indiscriminate white phosphorus attacks are attached as well as are two
links to a 27-minute documentary on the subject. It is worth watching
despite its horrendousness (as are the images). If the brutality of some of
the imagery is appalling, it seems to me to be the least we can do to
witness it and to pass it on in hopes of preventing its recurrence. Our
outrage is nothing compared to that of Iraqi citizens and victims of this
barbarity. Public outrage can and must demand accountability for this
indiscriminate atrocity and violation of both international law and human
decency.

Both links here are for the same documentary. The first is for a real
player viewing within your web browser, the second is for a windows media
player version. I have also, as mentioned, attached three images of
victims. Viewer discretion is advised for both, although I encourage you to
witness and oppose the reality of that which most of us would watch in
movies without a second thought. If you choose to, don't be upset with me
for the imagery, if you don't, at least read the stories. Get angry, it's
necessary!

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm (Real Player)

http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/video/fallujah_ING.wmv (Windows
Media Video - .wmv file)

These videos and the attached images are for mature audiences only.

U.S. Used Chemical Weapons In Iraq
Veteran admits: Bodies melted away before us.

Shocking revelation RAI News 24.
White phosphorous used on the civilian populace: This is how the
US "took" Fallujah. New napalm formula also used.

11/07/05 "La Repubblica" -- -- ROME. In soldier slang they call
it
Willy Pete. The technical name is white phosphorus. In theory its purpose is
to
illumine enemy positions in the dark. In practice, it was used as a chemical
weapon in the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. And it was used not only against
enemy combatants and guerrillas, but again innocent civilians. The Americans
are responsible for a massacre using unconventional weapons, the identical
charge for which Saddam Hussein stands accused. An investigation by RAI News
24, the all-news Italian satellite television channel, has pulled the veil
from
one of the most carefully concealed mysteries from the front in the entire
US
military campaign in Iraq.

A US veteran of the Iraq war told RAI New correspondent Sigfrido
Ranucci this: I received the order use caution because we had used white
phosphorus on Fallujah. In military slag it is called 'Willy Pete'.
Phosphorus
burns the human body on contact--it even melts it right down to the bone.

RAI News 24's investigative story, Fallujah, The Concealed
Massacre,
will be broadcast tomorrow on RAI-3 and will contain not only eye-witness
accounts by US military personnel but those from Fallujah residents. A rain
of
fire descended on the city. People who were exposed to those multicolored
substance began to burn. We found people with bizarre wounds-their bodies
burned but their clothes intact, relates Mohamad Tareq al-Deraji, a
biologist
and Fallujah resident.

I gathered accounts of the use of phosphorus and napalm from a
few
Fallujah refugees whom I met before being kidnapped, says Manifesto reporter
Giuliana Sgrena, who was kidnapped in Fallujah last February, in a recorded
interview. I wanted to get the story out, but my kidnappers would not permit
it.

RAI News 24 will broadcast video and photographs taken in the
Iraqi
city during and after the November 2004 bombardment which prove that the US
military, contrary to statements in a December 9 communiqué from the US
Department of State, did not use phosphorus to illuminate enemy positions
(which would have been legitimate) but instend dropped white phosphorus
indiscriminately and in massive quantities on the city's neighborhoods.

In the investigative story, produced by Maurizio Torrealta,
dramatic
footage is shown revealing the effects of the bombardment on civilians,
women
and children, some of whom were surprised in their sleep.

The investigation will also broadcast documentary proof of the
use
in Iraq of a new napalm formula called MK77. The use of the incendiary
substance on civilians is forbidden by a 1980 UN treaty. The use of chemical
weapons is forbidden by a treaty which the US signed in 1997

Fallujah. La strage nascosta [Fallujah, The Concealed Massacre]
will
be shown on RAI News tomorrow November 8th at 07:35 (via HOT BIRDTM
statellite,
Sky Channel 506 and RAI-3), and rebroadcast by HOT BIRDTM satellite and Sky
Channel 506 at 17:00 [5 pm] and over the next two days.


Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre
Veteran admits: Bodies melted away before us
Shocking revelation RAI News 24
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm
WARNING
This video contains images that depict the reality and horror of
war.
It should only be viewed by a mature audience




--


The Independent-Online edition

US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah
By Peter Popham

Published: 08 November 2005


Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped
massive
quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the
attack
on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the
appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists,
rumours have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.

On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote: "US troops are
reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale
offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of
Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988."

The website quoted insurgent sources as saying: "The US occupation troops
are
gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally banned
chemical weapons."

In December the US government formally denied the reports, describing them
as
"widespread myths". "Some news accounts have claimed that US forces have
used
'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfo website said.
"Phosphorus
shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in
Fallujah,
for illumination purposes.

"They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at
enemy fighters."

But now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and
videos
and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack,
which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in
the
city as a weapon.

In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this
morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the
order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on
Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete.

"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the
bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes
and
forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."

Photographs on the website of RaiTG24, the broadcaster's 24-hours news
channel,
www.rainews24.it, show exactly what the former soldier means. Provided by
the
Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, dozens of high-quality, colour
close-ups show bodies of Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whose
clothes remain largely intact but whose skin has been dissolved or
caramelised
or turned the consistency of leather by the shells.

A biologist in Fallujah, Mohamad Tareq, interviewed for the film, says: "A
rain
of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance
started to burn, we found people dead with strange wounds, the bodies burned
but the clothes intact."

The documentary, entitled Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, also provides what
it
claims is clinching evidence that incendiary bombs known as Mark 77, a new,
improved form of napalm, was used in the attack on Fallujah, in breach of
the
UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980, which only allows its
use against military targets.

Meanwhile, five US soldiers from the elite 75th Ranger Regiment have been
charged with kicking and punching detainees in Iraq.

The news came as a suicide car bomber killed four American soldiers at a
checkpoint south of Baghdad yesterday.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article325560.ece