As most of you have figured out by now, my dad isn’t the only one who sends me fun stuff via email. NAME, another regular reader has decided make some of us laugh this morning. Don’t worry, there still plenty of stuff to come From My Dad, but occasionally I’ll toss a few from the rest of you into the hopper as well.

Everyone has a personality of a cartoon character. Have you ever asked yourself what cartoon character do you most resemble. A group of investigators got together and analyzed the personalities of well known and modern cartoon characters. The information that was gathered was made into this test

(44-50 points) You are Dexter: You are smart and definitely a thinker… Every situation is fronted with a plan. You have a brilliant mind. You demonstrate very strong family principles. You maintain a stable routine but never ignore a bad situation when it comes. Try to do less over thinking every once in a while to spice things up a bit with spontaneity!

Girls, perhaps not much older than this girl, are being packaged, transported and sold as child brides to the more than 30,000,000 million single men in China who have little or no hope of finding a Chinese bride thanks to the ill-conceived policy of the Chinese government of mandating only one child per family. From The Independent:

No one ever expected it to be the young girls of Burma who would become the unintended victims of the one-child birth control policy in China. But two decades on, children as young as 10 are being trafficked across the border from Burma into China as child brides. They are sold into a future of high uncertainty.

“There are millions of men with no chance of marrying,” says Andrew Kirkwood, the Burma programme director for Save the Children – one of the three charities supported by the Independent Christmas Appeal. “Brothers sell sisters, fathers sell daughters, across the border. It’s hard to determine how much they know about what the fate of the girls will be.”

I don’t think that’s the right question. I don’t doubt that the brothers and fathers know about the girls’ fates.

The more important question is how do you shift a society to consider all children equally valuable as individual humans and not as commodities?

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations From Sufi Wisdom by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut.

“To begin what the Sufis call the first journey – the journey to God – you have to take the summons seriously, recognize its sacred demand on you to transform your life and being, and turn your heart wholly towards the Beloved. No can begin to do this powerfully without constant, daily practice – of prayer, of meditation and contemplation, of loving service. For only practice can start to wear down the seventy-thousand veils between the self and the Self, between human and divine consciousness.” p. 4

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: There are five distinguishable categories of anticipated events: events you think you cannot control, and you can”t; events you think you cannot control , but you can; events you think you can control, and you can”t; events you think you can control, but you don”t; and events you think you can control and you do. p. 9-10

On Monday I posted a portion of a post by a writer who asked the question: Is Gandhi relevant to today”s Burma? I think the anwer is an unqualified yes, but Dr. Sein Myint, Director for Policy Development with Justice for Human Rights in Burma, also took note of the question and wrote a response for the Mizzima News:

Certainly, the writer from Shan Herald is not the first person; this question has been on the mind of many people from the Burmese democratic opposition for quite some time now. The question is very relevant to our cause in the struggle for freedom from the military tyranny in Burma.

Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent struggle has always been an inspiration for all freedom fighters including Burma ‘s democracy icon, Daw Aung San Su Kyi, who is an ardent believer and practitioner of this doctrine. Her father, the late Bogyoke Aung San, however, relied on more conventional methods, using all or any available opportunities in his struggle for Burma’s independence from the British and later from the Japanese.

Dr. Myint then examines the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and asks, at the end, Did meeting the ‘force’ with ‘force’ pay off?

Certainly, from the perspective of the Kennedy administration, it did.

Dr. Myint continues:

It is a total reverse from offering the other cheek to your enemy. But to answer the question, first it is essential for us to examine and understand everything about our adversary; i.e. their strengths, weaknesses, culture, belief, attitude, mentality, up-bringing, and all other prevailing circumstances that are likely to change with time.

[Snip]

…the decisions by the Governor-General in British India against the nonviolent Indian Congress could not be the same as the decisions by the Burmese military junta against the nonviolent Buddhist monks and activists.

Hence, the short answer to the question of whether nonviolent methods will work against the hard-line military dictators in Burma is, ‘yes’ it will work in the end, but when is the end? This is an important question, for the end may come next year or in ten years.

What do you think the end ought to be in 10 years?

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Troubleshooting French Press Coffee.

Old Blue: It’s been eight months since the plane touched down at Bagram. That was the most physically uncomfortable plane ride I ever had. The C-17 has palletized seats that roll into the aircraft and lock into the floor. They look like airline seats. They are not. What they are is fiendishly clever torture devices specifically designed to cause pain, numbness, and…

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

MORE FROM THE NATIONAL LABOR COMMITTEE… A follow-up to Jonathan”s post. Keep watching…

DOES THE SEATTLE TIMES GIVE BLOW JOBS…? Cruising about this morning I came across the headline Wal-Mart: an all-American and Washington success story. My first reaction was that satire was involved. But then I started in reading and quickly saw that this was not the case. Keep reading…

A BIT OF IRONY IN SHELBY COUNTY, ALABAMA… I”ve written before how communities deal with abandoned Wal-Marts, but plans for a deserted Walmart south of Birmingham, Alabama, are brilliant. The county wants to bring all the county”s health and human resources services to the one location. Keep reading…

WHY I TARGET WAL-MART, NOT ITS CUSTOMERS… Happy Holidays. Keep watching…

AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring wildbillfarly. Keep reading…

WOULD WAL-MART REALLY REVEAL MARK-UP…? A discussion took place this week in Kearney, Nebraska, that could have far reaching implications for Wal-Mart, and all retailers, if action is taken. The core of the talk was an exchange concerning perceptions of the role of agriculture in food prices. Keep reading…

A NUCLEAR WAL-MART…? [Update – 0644, 17 December – K. Subrahmanyam responds.] No. Wal-Mart is not refining plutonium or placing ICBM silos in the back room. As company names enter the common language they morph in ways that the founders never imagined. Words like Xerox, Kleenex and fridge (from Frigidaire) long ago became generic. Keep reading…

NUCLEAR WAL-MART… REDEUX… Yesterday I was curious about why India”s most respected strategic analyst would use the words nuclear and Wal-Mart in the same sentence. This morning I got the reply to my question to K. Subrahmanyam. Keep reading…

GOOD SERVICE THANKS TO WAL-MART EFFECT…? I written extensively here about how I believe that Wal-Mart”s domination of any market is not inevitable; that local businesses can run retail circles around Wal-Mart. So this morning as I read Zac Bissonnette”s post on Blogging Stocks, I was nodding my head. Keep reading…

PICKLES, TOILET PAPER, CHIPS AND LAND…? Wal-Mart has long leased space to optometrists and not to long ago began doing the same for certain health care services, but Octavian Dobos wants to take Wal-Mart to a whole other realm: real estate by opening the first real estate office in a Wal-Mart. Keep reading…

WHAT WE REALLY NEED IS A WALL-MART… Often it”s hard to tell in print whether something is written tongue-in-cheek or with earnest intent. I”ll reserved judgment on this Op-Ed piece in Cincinnati, Ohio”s The Enquirer on one solution to concerns over illegal immigrants crossing over from Mexico. Keep reading…

WOULD YOU BUY A CAR FROM WAL-MART…? Yesterday I wrote about Wal-Mart leasing space in an Arizona store to a local real estate broker. I was skeptical. But compared to getting people to buy a car at Wal-Mart, Octavian Dobos” job is going to be a walk in the park. From MSN: Keep reading…

As most of you have figured out by now, my dad isn’t the only one who sends me fun stuff via email. Another regular reader has decided make some of us laugh this morning. Don’t worry, there still plenty of stuff to come From My Dad, but occasionally I’ll toss a few from the rest of you into the hopper as well.

Do you ever wonder about some teachers?

A teacher told the 5th graders:

An example of a metaphor is: “The pizza was Domino’s.

On their face, resolutions in the House of Representatives are innocuous actions. That the House declares, after an appropriately long number of whereases, that 15 September is Jeffery Alan Hess Day, is no big deal and a matter of a few seconds to take care legislatively. But House Reolution 847 is not acceptable.

Whereas Christmas, a holiday of great significance to Americans and many other cultures and nationalities, is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States and the world;

(6) expresses its deepest respect to American Christians and Christians throughout the world.

Only nine Representatives voted Nay.

Nay CA-6 Woolsey, Lynn [D]
Nay CA-9 Lee, Barbara [D]
Nay CA-13 Stark, Fortney [D]
Nay CO-1 DeGette, Diana [D]
Nay FL-23 Hastings, Alcee [D]
Nay NY-5 Ackerman, Gary [D]
Nay NY-11 Clarke, Yvette [D]
Nay VA-3 Scott, Robert [D]
Nay WA-7 McDermott, James [D]

If it were from any other body in the United States I would probably feel really good about a motion to grant high honors to Democracy advocate and leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But when it comes from the United States Congress, I have to ask: don’t you people have important business to complete?

From The Associated Press:

Supporters of the legislation, which passed 400-0, made clear the [Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest civilian honor,] was meant to send a message to the military leaders in Myanmar, or Burma, who have suppressed political freedoms in that Asian country the past two decades.

By honoring Suu Kyi, said Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., “we will continue to pressure the junta to release her and bring freedom and democracy to the people of Burma.”

Anything that can get the House of Representatives to vote unanimously can’t be all bad. (Although, please note that there are 435 members of the House, so one has to wonder where the other 35 might have been. Fundraising I’m sure.)

I just think that a stronger message — say, for instance, an arms embargo — would have been more in line with what is needed.

How do you think the Congress might better spend its time as regards Myanmar?

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations From Sufi Wisdom by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut.

“Dhu al-Nun, a great Sufi saint, defined the perfect person as one who is as he was before he was as he was.” p. 3

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Insist upon yourself, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay Self Reliance, for nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. What you must do should be your concern and not what other people think. Therefore, hold fast to your convictions whey know in your own heart that you are right. p. 8-9

United Nations’ special envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari visited the White House yesterday to speak with First Lady Laura Bush and President George Bush’s National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. The First Lady, who continues to be the administration’s lead advocate for the people of Myanmar, spent 30 minutes speaking with Gambari.

From The Voice Of America:

The United Nations says they discussed ongoing U.N. efforts to promote democratic change in Burma.

Which is all very to the good. A statement at the end of the story, however, caught my attention.

In a resolution adopted last Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva called on Burma’s ruling military to lift restraints on peaceful political activity.

Burma has rejected Pinheiro’s findings and claims that less than half that number of people were killed.

This, if nothing else, demonstrates the base-level of evil present in the military dictatorship. That somehow murdering less than 15 of its citizens is acceptable defies common decency.

How many of its citizens may a government murder before it becomes unacceptable?

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Top 100 Mystery Novels Of All Time.

RN Clara Hart: “Ms. Clara?” came from the tiny voice at my side. “Yes, Jonathan Matthew?” I responded. “Do you think Santa will find me and Thomas here?” was the earnest question. “Most definitely Santa will find you!” I assured my small friend. That comment was met with silence as the five-year-old boy contemplated the answer. The son of one of my…