Geov Parrish writes an excellent article that nails how I feel about continued protests. Part of me admires the protestors, but most of me thinks that, at this point, they are barking up the wrong tree.

Remember: regime change begins at home.

Made some really good soup tonight, and thought I'd share. Besides, this makes it easier for me to find it again.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
4 leaves fresh sage
1 tsp Thai fish sauce
1½ tsp soy sauce
32 oz. chicken broth

7 asparagus spears
2 tbsp sour cream
1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
Square wonton wrappers

In a 2qt saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until brown on the edges. Add sage and cook until it smells really good. Add fish sauce and soy sauce. Add chicken broth a cup at a time, heating to bubbling between each addition. When it's all in there, turn the heat to med. low and simmer until spouse comes home.

Put asparagus in a small microwave-safe container and cover with plastic wrap. Nuke for 3 minutes, then cover with cold water to arrest cooking. Finely chop asparagus. Mix thoroughly with sour cream and cream cheese.

Put a small dollop of the asparagus mixture in the center of a wonton. Moisten edges and fold over one corner. Lift the remaining corners and press them together.

When spouse comes home, strain soup and return to stove. Turn heat back up to medium. Drop wontons in carefully and cook for about four minutes.

Serve. Fight for leftovers.

NOTE: None of my amounts are exact. I cook by smell, not level measurements.

Tonight Bill and I went to see Dreamcatcher, the latest Stephen King book to be made into a film.

I noticed the film had a certain incohesiveness--a lack of consistent mood--that usually means there were too many writers involved in the script. Only William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan are credited with the screenplay, but more often than not, writers go uncredited on screen. So I was left with a mystery. It took some time and digging, but I finally managed to come up with the complete list of screenwriters from a secret source.*

William Goldman, Lawrence Kasdan, Stephen King (natch), Casey Grant, Charles Okun, Heidi Abromowitz, Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland, Joe Dante, Jack Engelhard, Amy Holden Jones, William Broyles Jr., William Shatner, Jose Fuentes, Casey Kasem, Mark Steven Johnson, Masters and Johnson, Keiko O'Brien, Nicholas Negroponte, Kofi Annan, Ferris Bueller, Margaret Meade, Gary Shandling, Nicholas Nickleby, Dana Carvey, Dana Scully, Art Garfunkel, and Pierce Brosnan.

I mean, no wonder it sucked.

*This is a lie.

I've said some unkind things about Chief Kroeker, but now I have to admit I am most impressed with the way he has learned this city.

The police are to be commended for their handling of the protests yesterday. Normally, I am sickened when I see footage of officers using pepper spray, or any force, against a crowd. When I saw the film of the Steel Bridge disturbance, I saw a calm, measured action, carried out with the utmost restraint. The police reacted only to violence. Non-violent protestors were treated very well, and with great patience.

Praise also goes to the vast majority of the protestors: they made their point without violence. Especially high praise to those sitters who stayed, exemplifying the practice of civil disobedience, until they were dragged away (carefully) one by one.

With the exception of a small group of radicals--whom I consider to be bullies and cowards who have no true care for the cause--this City did itself proud.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention KOIN 6 News. While KATU and KGW were screaming fear and hyperbole, KOIN's onsite reporting, especially from Joel Iwanaga, was calm and fair.

A little late (in many ways), but here's a pic from Sunday's vigil at Pioneer Courthouse Square:

I think this was taken a little before 7pm, as the front filled out later. I can't really spot myself and Bill, but we should be over to the left, in the first three or four rows.

The vigil continues. Show your support for peace with a light in your window.

She still loves me. She still comes to me for affection (when there's no alternative), and guards me when I shower, and looks at me with big, adoring eyes.

But she loves him more.

The small cat is officially a "daddy's girl". When Bill and I are sitting side by side, she will gravitate to his lap. Oh, she'll get up once in a while and slink over to me...then turn right around and go back to him. And let's face it, he's a big ole sucker for it.

I take solace in the fact that the large cat hates him.

Ah, finally my husband is back from a two week, involuntary sojourn in Oz. We gots to do what the INS says. Wah.

Just an hour after he came back, it was time to head out again to join the march. Thank goodness he slept on the plane. I don't know how long the route was, but by the end of it I was good and tired. Bill had brought some bubbles that didn't pop so easily as most, and I had a great time blowing them into the crowd and watching them stick to signs and people. My favorite sign: "Make crepes, not war." Bill's fave: "Fuck your freedom fries!"

Tonight we attended a candlelight vigil in Pioneer Square. Okay, a flashlight vigil--candles aren't allowed. About 2-300 people showed up at this event, but there were other vigils all over the city. Check out pics from the vigils around the world.

With apologies to Martha Stewart, I begin a new category here at the 'topia: Living. I just couldn't think of a better name (that Martha is clever!). Here I'll document everyday discoveries, struggles with ethical life, and just stuff this close-to-forty chick has found along the way.

We begin, as all good things do, with chocolate.

Nearly everything we consume is manufactured or obtained by unethical means. After a while, it's easy to shut out the shrill cries of SLAVERY! CHEMICALS! STEROIDS! SWEATSHOP! and just quietly clutch your skull in the corner. Bill and I are beginning, slowly, to bring our consumables in line with our ethics.

Unless you've been skull-clutching in that corner (and I wouldn't blame you), you probably heard recently about the problem with chocolate. One of the most grievous crimes a business can commit--child slavery--is inexcusably a part of most chocolate manufacture.

There are several brands of chocolate certified fair trade. In the end, we decided to go with a non-certified chocolate, made by Newman's Own Organics. The stuff is great, and it's easily available at our local Whole Foods. Bill researched the company, and found they were good folks. Still, he was puzzled as to why they weren't certified Fair Trade. He wrote them and asked why. Here's a snippet from the response:

We are also satisfied with our ethical standards regarding our chocolate and have not felt the need to become officially certified. Organic chocolate is by nature fair trade. We pay much more for organic chocolate and due to the limited number of organic cocoa growers they receive a premium for the cocoa.

We are wondering if other organic foods are, by their nature, fair trade, and it's something we'll be looking in to.

The system will take into consideration such things as a person’s bank account and credit report and match it to the terrorist watch list. Each traveler will then be assigned a green, yellow, or red color code.

I find this deeply disturbing, and hope that if it's enacted, it does not survive the first test in the courts. It is obviously a violation of privacy, but not only that, it violates every American's constitutional right to travel without impedence.

Of course if you don't show ID, they won't know your color.

How many military operations do you remember the US carrying out in your lifetime? I remember Desert Storm, and the recent attacks on Afganistan, and of course, Vietnam. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. But for the most part, I've lived in peacetime. Haven't I?

I was born in 1964. During my lifetime, there have been 182 military operations (including counterdrug operations), many on our own soil. The Federation of American Scientists has a list of operations going all the way back to before the Revolution.

I am grateful that a few of these operations were humanitarian, but that is the minority. Oh, to live in a world where the military was used exclusively to deliver aid. Better yet, a world where a brilliant military force is kept ever-ready--combat trained, highly educated, and wholly superfluous.

So don't kid yourself. If you think you've lived in peacetime, you actually haven't. But wait, the news gets worse: guess who struck first in the majority of these operations?