http://www.fair.org/blog/2010/07/16/bur ... ment-28592
I've commented a couple of times so far.
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( 2.4 / 7 )I just filled out my ballot! (This was my first time getting a mail ballot.) I voted:
Jerry Brown for Governor
Gavin Newsom for Lieutenant Governor
Debra Bowen for Secretary of State (and the others running unopposed)
Alberto Torrico for Attorney General
Hector de la Torre for Insurance Commissioner
Barbara Boxer for Senate
Tracy Emblem for Congress (50th District)
Lori Saldana, Daniel Smiechowski, Bill Irvine, Gloria Johnson, Matthew Corrales, and Eleanor Mang for Central Committee
Lantz Lewis, Richard Monroy, Robert Longstreth, De Ann Salcido, and Joel Wohlfeil for Superior Court Judges
Tom Torlakson for State Superintendent
Stephen Whitburn for Board of Supervisors
David Butler for Assessor-Recorder
Jim Duffy for Sheriff
Dan McAllister for Treasurer-Tax Collector
Howard Wayne for City Council
Yes on 13
Yes on 14
Yes on 15
No on 16
No on 17
No on A
Yes on B
Yes on C
No on D
Don't forget to vote in Tuesday's primary!
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( 2.5 / 23 )We have three adorable foster kittens from the Tweenie program, our first of 2010.
The photos are here .
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( 2.6 / 13 )Here is our plant list from yesterday's hike at Lake Ramona, plus a few from San Elijo Lagoon on Saturday:
Coast live oak Quercus agrifolia
Laurel sumac Malosma laurina
Pine (sp?)
Poison oak Toxicodendron diversilobum
Coastal sagebrush Artemisia californica Read More...
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( 2.4 / 7 )Today Navid and I hiked the Lake Ramona trail at the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve and saw the following birds:
lesser goldfinch
acorn woodpecker
Nuttal's woodpecker
lazuli bunting Read More...
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( 3 / 5 )As much as I enjoyed our trip to Iran, I must say there was one big reason I couldn't wait to get home - to dress comfortably again! I can understand why a big city like Tehran would have air pollution and traffic, but I can't see any good reason for mandatory hijab. (Hijab, which is only applied to women, basically means covering everything except the face and hands in public.)
If the clerics were to step outside Iran they would be amazed to see that women are walking around in public with their hair uncovered, and society is somehow still managing to function! And as for wearing a coat, believe it or not, we have this strange habit of putting on a coat when we get cold, and taking it off when we get hot! In fact, women even wear shorts and a tee-shirt when it's hot, and the moral fabric of society is still completely intact.
What could be more basic to our lives than the right to choose our own clothing? We use it every single day, as soon as we wake up in the morning. But in Iran, every time a woman leaves the house, the government tells her what to wear. (Of course Iran is not the only country that does this - Saudi Arabia comes to mind, and Afghanistan under the Taliban.)
Now that I've actually worn hijab myself, I can tell you it's just as uncomfortable as you think, if not more so. For one thing, the head scarf was constantly sliding back, and despite my best efforts to keep tugging it forward, it fell off my head multiple times during our trip, which left me perpetually nervous trying to monitor its slippage. (Women in Iran must develop extra-sensitive nerves at the base of their hair to sense where their scarf is.) When I pulled the scarf far forward, it cut off my peripheral vision. I quickly learned that turning my head would hasten the scarf's descent, and started avoiding it, either by not turning or by turning my whole body when I wanted to look to the side. Sitting in a car with a seat belt on adds another layer of complication since the shoulder belt catches the scarf. And of course it's impossible (or takes more skill than I have) to keep your hair looking nice when it's flattened and rubbed by the scarf, so it still affects you when you get home and take the scarf off.
The weather was relatively cool when we arrived in Tehran, so I didn't mind having a coat and scarf outside, but when you get inside a warm restaurant, you can't take them off and relax for the meal, but have to sit at the table all bundled up for outdoors, trying to keep your long sleeves and scarf-ends out of the food! And obviously it's torture to have to cover up like that when it's hot out. Even in the springtime the weather in Kashan was too warm for me, so I can't imagine what the women suffer in the summer.
Hijab also has a limiting effect on the types of sports women can practice, and where. Can you imagine trying to go running in long pants, long coat and head scarf? I didn't try it. Nava also told me that women are not allowed to play tennis with men, unless she goes with her brother and manages to convince the clerk to let them play together. And a family can never go to the beach or swimming pool together; there are certain hours for women and certain hours for men, to ensure that no one sees the opposite sex in a bathing suit.
It's beyond my comprehension why politicical/religious leaders continue to insist on hijab in the twenty-first century. I can see that the head scarf is a very potent symbol, and some people take pride in the head scarf as a symbol of Islamic identity, but why is it that their chosen symbol of Islam requires women to suffer physical discomfort on a daily basis? Why is it that men are free to raise their heads in Iranian society without shame, but women must be covered up? Men can pass freely between public and private space, but whenever a woman wants to step outdoors she must cover herself. I don't think I could devise a more potent symbol for misogyny if I tried!
I'm happy to report that I didn't talk to anyone in Iran who supports mandatory hijab. I met many women who only wear it when they have to, but I met others who wore the headscarf and even the chador inside the house when in mixed company. There was one couple in particular who surprised me with their opinions. Navid remembered the husband as particularly religious, and the wife wore chador into the house and came from a very religious family. But even that woman, who chooses chador for herself, said that she thinks it's a mistake to make hijab mandatory. Her husband said that he was a great supporter of the Islamic Revolution because under the Shah they had social freedom but no political freedom. But he says they were cheated: now that they have the Islamic Republic, they don't have social freedom OR political freedom. (He also told me not to listen to the government's anti-American slogans, and that the Iranian people love Americans.) I hope that opinions like theirs will eventually prevail, and Iranian women will finally be able to walk outside with their heads high and feel the wind in their hair.
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( 3 / 5 )The rest of the photos from Iran are posted!
Iran Trip part 4
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( 1 / 1 )Check out the photos from our trip:
Iran Trip part 1 covers the trip over and days 1 through 3.
Iran Trip part 2 covers days 4 through 4 through 6.
Iran Trip part 3 covers days 7 and 8.
And I'm still working on part 4. Stay tuned!
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( 3 / 5 )I'm starting to post the photos at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... 7115eebc66
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( 3 / 12 )I got a response from Senator Feinstein today on my earlier email about keeping corporations out of elections in the aftermath of Citizens United. Her response read, in part, "I support efforts to limit the effects of this decision. Specifically, I believe legislation must be passed to impose broad new disclosure requirements on corporate election expenditures, to ban federal contractors from making election expenditures, to require CEOs to appear in corporate-funded ads and announce that they sponsored the ads, to prevent foreign-owned corporations from spending large sums in an attempt to influence U.S. elections, and to require that shareholders receive notice of corporate campaign expenditures. I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact such a law."
Here is my response:
Dear Senator Feinstein,
I wrote to you about the Citizens United case before. Thank you for responding. In your response you mentioned several measures to expose corporations' activities, such as requiring disclosure to shareholders. But why should a corporation be able to spend money on politics at all without shareholder approval? If corporations are to be allowed to spend money on elections, they should be required to get shareholder approval. However, in my opinion this doesn't go far enough. I wish you would come out in support of a constitutional amendment to declare once and for all that corporations are not the people and they do not have first amendment rights. Corporate money should be kept out of politics. They have so much money that they will overwhelm citizens if they are allowed to throw their resources into elections. We must stop them now before it's too late. The future of democracy depends on it, and we will look back on right now as the pivotal point when Congress and the citizens could and should have taken action. Whether we will look back on a victory or a defeat is in all of our hands but especially in yours as an elected official. Stand strong.
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