We had a feast at Jen's mom's house, and a fine feast it was! I am very thankful for it. Even though this holiday is, in some ways, symbolic of the virtual genocide of the people who lived on this continent first, it is a good time to get together and reflect on what we are thankful for. At the same time, it would do us all good to reflect on the less than savory history of this country. It is always good to question things, especially governments. I am thankful that I have the right to question things, but sometimes I worry about how secure this right really is. We, in this country (some, not all), tend to take a lot of things for granted. One need look no further than the low voter turnout to see what I mean. We delude ourselves into thinking that things will stay pretty much the same no matter what we do. Maybe sometimes they do stay the same. But sometimes they don't. I notice in the news that the current administration is, piece by piece, undoing many of the things put in place by the previous administration. The trees that we thought were safe from loggers are going to end up as paper cups and reams of computer paper. Oil drills stand poised. Our privacy is in jeopardy. Emission standards have been relaxed. Damage is being done, and we're too passive to gather together in great enough numbers to do anything about it.

We have met the evil-doers and they is us. All of that "axis of evil" crap was just a ruse.

There was a picture in the paper today of Bush trying to pat the turkey he had just pardoned from the ax. The turkey was leaning away from his hand. I'll bet it was thinking, there's gotta be a catch. This guy never pardons anybody.

cds I listened to while digesting: Jag Panzer "The Fourth Judgement", Peter Frohmader "Homunculus + Ritual", Jaguar "Wake Me", Judas Priest "Sin After Sin", and Diamanda Galas "The Divine Punishment"

now: Loreena McKennitt "The Mask and Mirror"